Running an Ink Node

Welcome to the Ink Node setup tutorial. Follow these steps to deploy and sync your own node efficiently.

Tutorial Goals

By the end of this guide, you will:

Successfully deploy an Ink Node.
Ensure your node is in sync with the network.

Before You Begin

⚠️

Running a node is resource-intensive and time-consuming. Make sure you have a clear purpose for setting up your node.

For those starting out and needing an RPC URL, our free endpoints are available:

Mainnet: not available yet
Testnet (Sepolia): https://rpc-gel-sepolia.inkonchain.com/

Note: These RPCs are rate-limited and unsuitable for production applications.

System Requirements

To run a node, your system should meet these minimum specifications:

8-Core CPU
8 GB RAM or more
SSD drive (NVME recommended) with at least 100GB storage

Running an archive node will demand additional disk space over time. More CPU and RAM will enhance performance with higher RPC traffic.

Software Prerequisites

Ensure Docker is installed and running on your machine. Familiarity with Docker is assumed.

Optional: Custom L1 RPC URL

By default, the Ink Node repository leverages public L1 RPC & Beacon APIs. For more stability, we encourage you to use your own L1 RPC and Beacon APIs.

Step-by-Step Guide

Clone the Repository: Ink Node repository.
Configuration: To run the Ink node, it's required to bring your own L1 Sepolia Node. We suggest using QuickNode for this purpose. Create a .env file in the root of the repository with the following environment variables, replacing ... with your node's details:
```
L1_RPC_URL=...
L1_BEACON_URL=...
```
Run Setup Script:
```
./setup.sh
```

Start the Node:

docker compose up # --build to force rebuild the images

⚠️

Syncing your node may take several days. Monitor usage and plan accordingly.

Verifying Sync Status

Using op-node API

Check the sync status using the optimism_syncStatus method:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data \
    '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"optimism_syncStatus","params":[],"id":1}' \
    http://localhost:9545 | jq

Using op-geth API

To verify if your node is fully synced, use the eth_blockNumber method:

curl http://localhost:8545 -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params": [],"id":1}' | jq -r .result | sed 's/^0x//' | awk '{printf "%d\n", "0x" $0}';

A synced node will display the latest block number as seen on the block explorer.

Comparing with Ink Public RPC

Compare your local node's finalized block with the public RPC block:

local_block=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8545 -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBlockByNumber","params":["finalized", false],"id":1}' \
  | jq -r .result.number | sed 's/^0x//' | awk '{printf "%d\n", "0x" $0}'); \
public_rpc_block=$(curl -s -X POST https://rpc-gel-sepolia.inkonchain.com/ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
 --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBlockByNumber","params":["finalized", false],"id":1}' \
 | jq -r .result.number | sed 's/^0x//' | awk '{printf "%d\n", "0x" $0}'); \
echo -e "Local finalized block: $local_block\nRemote finalized block: $public_rpc_block"

A synced node will have equal local and remote finalized blocks:

Local finalized block: 4449608
Remote finalized block: 4449608

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