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Manual Node setup

info

This is guide is for advanced users, if you are unsure why you'd want to setup manually — we recommend choosing automated setup with SSV Node stack.

Pre-requisites​

Enable SSH​

You will need to be able to connect to your server:

SSH Access Options​

SSH into a local machine
SSH into a Cloud server (e.g. AWS)

If you have generated an SSH key for your server or downloaded one from your Cloud hosting provider (e.g. AWS)

MacOS

cd ./{path to the folder to which the key pair file was downloaded}

chmod 400 {key pair file name}

ssh -i {key pair file name} ubuntu@{instance public IP you took from AWS}

Windows

cd /{path to the folder to which the key pair file was downloaded}

ssh -i {key pair file name} ubuntu@{instance public IP you took from AWS}
Docker (Optional)

If you choose to use Docker to launch the SSV Node, another fundamental pre-requisite is to have Docker installed on the machine hosting the SSV Node. In order to do so, please refer to the official Docker documentation, and find the option that better fits your server configuration.

NOTE:

In order to run the SSV Node, in a server, only Docker engine is necessary, you can still go ahead and install Docker Desktop, but it will not be necessary unless you plan to use the Graphical Interface.

Golang (optional)

If you choose to build the project from source, you will need to have Go programming language binaries installed.

For more information, you can refer to the official Go installation instruction.

Once you're connected and have the command line opened, the next steps describe how to configure and run the SSV Node to create keys and start your SSV Node. If you run into some issues while running the node, try and take a look at the troubleshooting page.

Generate Operator Keys (Encrypted)​

The most secure way to run your Operator node, is to generate an Encrypted key pair. This way, your Public Key (PK) and Secret Key (SK) will be encrypted with a password of your choosing.

Password file​

You will need to create a file (named password in this example) containing the password you chose for your Secret Key:

echo "<MY_OPERATOR_PASSWORD>" >> password

Key pair generation and encryption​

The node Docker image will generate keys for you, then encrypt them with a password you provide, using the following command:

docker run --name ssv-node-key-generation -v <PATH_TO_PASSWORD>:/password -it "ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest" /go/bin/ssvnode generate-operator-keys --password-file=password && docker cp ssv-node-key-generation:/encrypted_private_key.json ./encrypted_private_key.json && docker rm ssv-node-key-generation

<PATH_TO_PASSWORD> should be changed to a path to file, e.g. /path/to/password

Create Configuration File​

Copy the following config.yaml file, just be sure to replace all the placeholders (ETH2_NODE, ETH1_WEBSOCKET_ADDRESS, OPERATOR_SECRET_KEY, etc.) with actual values.

In particular, substitute ENCRYPTED_PRIVATE_KEY_JSON with the operator encrypted private key file generated above(e.g. encrypted_private_key.json) and PASSWORD_FILE with the file containing the password used to generate the encrypted key itself.

info

Both BeaconNodeAddr and ETH1Addr support multiple endpoints. Separate them with ;.

Example: BeaconNodeAddr: http://1.2.3.4:5052;http://1.2.3.4:5053

global:
  # Console output log level 
  LogLevel: info
  
  # Debug logs file path
  LogFilePath: ./data/debug.log
  
  # Number of log files preserved, 500MB each (time duration depends on number of validators and other factors).
  # Roughly equates to half a day.
  # Increase if you want to preserve log files for longer. This would require more disk space
  LogFileBackups: 10

db:
  # Path to a persistent directory to store the node's database.
  Path: ./data/db

ssv:
  # The SSV network to join to
  # Mainnet = Network: mainnet (default)
  # Testnet = Network: holesky
  Network: mainnet
  
  ValidatorOptions:
    # default value is true
    # Requires the connected Beacon node to be MEV-enabled.
    # Please see https://docs.ssv.network/operator-user-guides/operator-node/installation/configuring-mev
    BuilderProposals: false

eth2:
  # HTTP URL of the Beacon node to connect to.
  BeaconNodeAddr: <ETH2_NODE> # e.g. http://example.url:5052
  # If you want to use multiple endpoints you can divide them with ;
  # e.g. http://example.url:5052;http://example.url:5053

eth1:
  # WebSocket URL of the Eth1 node to connect to.
  ETH1Addr: <ETH1_WEBSOCKET_ADDRESS> # e.g. ws://example.url:8546/ws
  # If you want to use multiple endpoints you can divide them with ;
  # e.g. ws://example.url:8546/ws;ws://example.url:8547/ws

p2p:
  # Optionally provide the external IP address of the node, if it cannot be automatically determined.
  # HostAddress: 192.168.1.1

  # Optionally override the default TCP & UDP ports of the node.
  # TcpPort: 13001
  # UdpPort: 12001

KeyStore:
  PrivateKeyFile: <ENCRYPTED_PRIVATE_KEY_JSON> # e.g. ./encrypted_private_key.json
  PasswordFile: <PASSWORD_FILE> # e.g. ./password

# This enables monitoring at the specified port, see https://docs.ssv.network/run-a-node/operator-node/monitoring
MetricsAPIPort: 15000
# This enables node health endpoint for troubleshooting, see https://docs.ssv.network/operator-user-guides/operator-node/maintenance/troubleshooting
SSVAPIPort: 16000
warning

Make sure your ETH1Addr endpoint is communicating over WebSocket and not over HTTP in order to support subscriptions and notifications.

Start the Node​

danger

Do not run multiple instances of SSV Node with the same set Operator keys.

This does not increase validator resiliency and could lead to validator slashing.

To start your node, run the following Docker command in the same folder you created the config.yaml file in the previous step:

docker run --restart unless-stopped --name ssv_node -e \
CONFIG_PATH=/config.yaml \
 -p 13001:13001 -p 12001:12001/udp -p 15000:15000 -p 16000:16000 \
-v "$(pwd)/config.yaml":/config.yaml \
-v "$(pwd)":/data \
-v "$(pwd)/password":/password \
-v "$(pwd)/encrypted_private_key.json":/encrypted_private_key.json \
-it "ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest" make BUILD_PATH="/go/bin/ssvnode" start-node
  • This command will keep the terminal busy, showing the container's logs. It is useful to make sure that the node start up sequence runs correctly.
  • You can detach the terminal at any time by hitting Ctrl-c key combination, or closing the terminal itself. The node will be stopped, but it will restart automatically, thanks to the --restart unless-stopped startup parameter.
  • If you are sure that the node works, and don't care about the logs, you can add the -d parameter right after docker run.

Peer-to-peer ports configuration and firewall​

When you set up your firewall on your SSV node machine, make sure to expose the ports that you set in the container creation command. The defaults are 12001 UDP and 13001 TCP additional ones are 15000 TCP for Metrics and 16000 TCP for Health endpoint.

If you don't want to use the default ports, they can be changed in your config.yaml file. Be aware, the must be changed on the container creation command as well (simply changing the host port mappings on the Docker command isn't enough!).

You can also add your HostAddress to the config, which is the public static IP address of the machine.

p2p:
  HostAddress: 206.22.63.189
  UdpPort: 12001
  TcpPort: 13001