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Run an Avalanche Node Using the Install Script

We have a shell (bash) script that installs AvalancheGo on your computer. This script sets up full, running node in a matter of minutes with minimal user input required. Script can also be used for unattended, automated installs.

System Requirements​

Avalanche is an incredibly lightweight protocol, so nodes can run on commodity hardware with the following minimum specifications.

  • CPU: Equivalent of 8 AWS vCPU
  • RAM: 16 GiB
  • Storage: 1 TiB
  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04 or MacOS >= 12
  • Network: sustained 5Mbps up/down bandwidth
caution

Using an HDD may result in poor and random read/write latencies, therefore reducing performance and reliability.

note

Hardware requirements shall scale with the amount of AVAX staked on the node and/or network activity. Nodes with big stakes (100k+ AVAX) will need more powerful machines than listed, and will use more bandwidth as well.

This install script assumes:

  • AvalancheGo is not running and not already installed as a service
  • User running the script has superuser privileges (can run sudo)

Environment Considerations​

If you run a different flavor of Linux, the script might not work as intended. It assumes systemd is used to run system services. Other Linux flavors might use something else, or might have files in different places than is assumed by the script. It will probably work on any distribution that uses systemd but it has been developed for and tested on Ubuntu.

If you have a node already running on the computer, stop it before running the script. Script won't touch the node working directory so you won't need to bootstrap the node again.

Node Running from Terminal​

If your node is running in a terminal stop it by pressing ctrl+C.

Node Running as a Service​

If your node is already running as a service, then you probably don't need this script. You're good to go.

Node Running in the Background​

If your node is running in the background (by running with nohup, for example) then find the process running the node by running ps aux | grep avalanche. This will produce output like:

ubuntu  6834  0.0  0.0   2828   676 pts/1    S+   19:54   0:00 grep avalanche
ubuntu  2630 26.1  9.4 2459236 753316 ?      Sl   Dec02 1220:52 /home/ubuntu/build/avalanchego

Look for line that doesn't have grep on it. In this example, that is the second line. It shows information about your node. Note the process id, in this case, 2630. Stop the node by running kill -2 2630.

Node Working Files​

If you previously ran an AvalancheGo node on this computer, you will have local node files stored in $HOME/.avalanchego directory. Those files will not be disturbed, and node set up by the script will continue operation with the same identity and state it had before. That being said, for your node's security, back up staker.crt and staker.key files, found in $HOME/.avalanchego/staking and store them somewhere secure. You can use those files to recreate your node on a different computer if you ever need to. Check out this tutorial for backup and restore procedure.

Networking Considerations​

To run successfully, AvalancheGo needs to accept connections from the Internet on the network port 9651. Before you proceed with the installation, you need to determine the networking environment your node will run in.

Running on a Cloud Provider​

If your node is running on a cloud provider computer instance, it will have a static IP. Find out what that static IP is, or set it up if you didn't already. The script will try to find out the IP by itself, but that might not work in all environments, so you will need to check the IP or enter it yourself.

Running on a Home Connection​

If you're running a node on a computer that is on a residential internet connection, you have a dynamic IP; that is, your IP will change periodically. The install script will configure the node appropriately for that situation. But, for a home connection, you will need to set up inbound port forwarding of port 9651 from the internet to the computer the node is installed on.

As there are too many models and router configurations, we cannot provide instructions on what exactly to do, but there are online guides to be found (like this, or this ), and your service provider support might help too.

warning

Please note that a fully connected Avalanche node maintains and communicates over a couple of thousand of live TCP connections. For some low-powered and older home routers that might be too much to handle. If that is the case you may experience lagging on other computers connected to the same router, node getting benched, failing to sync and similar issues.

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