Installation
So you want to install an SSV node? You've come to the right place!
Once you have your node running you'll be able to participate in multiple validator clusters and earn rewards 🥳
SSV node setup is also available using eth-docker and Stereum Launcher, so you can use those if you prefer.
The SSV node that you are installing with these instructions is only the SSV node, not an Ethereum Execution Client or Beacon Client (e.g. not Get/Lighthouse or Besu/Teku, etc.). You will need those clients to already be running and synced, either on a different machine or the same machine.
The minimum system requirements shown below are for a machine that is only running an SSV node. If you plan to run the SSV node on the same machine as your Execution Client and/or Beacon Client, these minimum requirements will be needed in addition to your existing requirements.
💻 Machine running Ubuntu
🎛️ 4 cores (3 minimum)
⚡️ 4GB RAM
📀 20GB storage (5GB minimum)
🧮 IOPS > 10K
The Ethereum clients used by your SSV node can be running on the same machine or a different machine. Ideally, to improve client diversity (Erigon client is still not supported), you will be running minority clients 👀 .
This can be any Ethereum Execution client (e.g. Geth, Besu, etc.). You will see this node referenced as ETH1 in the SSV configuration.
You MUST enable WebSocket on your Execution Client as the SSV node requires that connection to work.
The specific configuration will be different for each Execution Client. For example, for Geth, add the command line flag
--ws
to the Geth start command to enable the WebSocket RPC server.This can be any Ethereum Beacon Node client (e.g. Prysm, Lighthouse, Tekou, Nimbus, or any client utilizing standard REST HTTP). You will see this node referenced as ETH2 in the SSV configuration.
You will need to be able to connect to your server:
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}
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.
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.
Once you're connected and on the command line, the next steps are to configure and run the SSV Node docker image to create keys and start your SSV Node. If you are not familiar with Docker, and run into some issues while running the node, try and take a look at the FAQ at the bottom of this page.
Your Operator Public Key (PK) and Secret Key (SK) are generated with this command:
docker run -it --rm bloxstaking/ssv-node:latest /go/bin/ssvnode generate-operator-keys
Your PK is required when registering your operator to the network.
The command output will look like this:
PK Example
SK Example
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
Be careful when you select and copy the entire Secret Key (SK) and make sure to include any "=" characters at the very end 👀
Make sure to store and back up your operator's Secret Key (SK) in a safe place.
Do not share this key with anyone.
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
OPERATOR_SECRET_KEY
with the operator secret key generated above (e.g. LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBSU0EgUFJJVkF...
)global:
# Console output log level
LogLevel: info
# Debug logs file path
LogFilePath: ./data/debug.log
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: jato-v2
Network: mainnet
ValidatorOptions:
# Whether to enable MEV block production. Requires the connected Beacon node to be MEV-enabled.
BuilderProposals: false
eth2:
# HTTP URL of the Beacon node to connect to.
BeaconNodeAddr: <ETH2_NODE> # e.g. http://example.url:5052
eth1:
# WebSocket URL of the Eth1 node to connect to.
ETH1Addr: <ETH1_WEBSOCKET_ADDRESS> # e.g. ws://example.url:8546/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
# Note: Operator private key can be generated with the `generate-operator-keys` command.
OperatorPrivateKey: <OPERATOR_SECRET_KEY>
# This enables monitoring at the specified port, see https://docs.ssv.network/run-a-node/operator-node/maintenance/monitoring
MetricsAPIPort: 15000
Make sure your
ETH1Addr
endpoint is communicating over WebSocket and not over HTTP in order to support subscriptions and notifications.Now, for the part you've been waiting for... actually starting your SSV node!
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 -d --restart unless-stopped --name ssv_node -e \
CONFIG_PATH=/config.yaml -p 13001:13001 -p 12001:12001/udp -p 15000:15000 \
-v "$(pwd)/config.yaml":/config.yaml -v "$(pwd)":/data -it \
"bloxstaking/ssv-node:latest" make BUILD_PATH="/go/bin/ssvnode" start-node && \
docker logs ssv_node --follow
If you don't want to use those default ports, it's best to change them in your
config.yaml
file as well as changing the ports on the container creation command (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
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.
If for some reason your node has stopped (maybe you manually stopped it 🤔) you don't need to run the full creation command again, as that will actually throw an error saying that the Docker container already exists.
In the command above, you named your node:
--name=ssv_node
This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.
To start a container, run the command:
docker start ssv_node
In the command above, you named your node:
--name=ssv_node
This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.
To update your SSV node, you will need to stop your current node:
docker stop ssv_node
Then remove it (this only removes the old Docker image, not all of your data!):
docker rm -f ssv_node
Then pull the latest image from SSV:
docker pull bloxstaking/ssv-node:latest
And finally... run the creation command again from the top of this section to create a new Docker container with the latest SSV image.
Last modified 11d ago