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Full Node Setup

Run a full SolanaVault node to participate in consensus, store compressed blockchain data, and earn rewards.

Overview

A full node:

  • Stores compressed blockchain data on the network
  • Participates in BFT consensus for data integrity
  • Earns consensus rewards for honest participation
  • Serves data requests to other network participants

Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Requirement Minimum Recommended
CPU 8 cores 16+ cores
RAM 32 GB 64 GB
Storage 1 TB NVMe 4 TB NVMe
Network 1 Gbps 10 Gbps
Uptime 99% 99.9%

Network Requirements

  • Static public IP address
  • Ports 4040 (P2P) and 4041 (consensus) open
  • Low-latency connections to other nodes

Quick Start

Step 1: Build the Node

git clone https://github.com/solanavault/solanavault
cd solanavault
cargo build --release --bin vault-node

Step 2: Initialize Storage

# Create data directory
sudo mkdir -p /data/solanavault
sudo chown $USER:$USER /data/solanavault

# Initialize node
./target/release/vault-node init --data-path /data/solanavault

Step 3: Configure the Node

Create ~/.solanavault/node.toml:

[node]
name = "my-fullnode"
data_path = "/data/solanavault"
storage_capacity_gb = 1000

[network]
p2p_port = 4040
consensus_port = 4041
public_address = "tcp://your-ip:4040"
bootstrap_nodes = [
    "tcp://bootstrap1.solanavault.com:4040",
    "tcp://bootstrap2.solanavault.com:4040"
]

[consensus]
participation = true
stake_amount = 10000

[storage]
compression_level = "high"
replication_factor = 3

Step 4: Start the Node

./target/release/vault-node \
  --config ~/.solanavault/node.toml \
  --storage-capacity 1000GB

Step 5: Verify Operation

# Check node status
curl http://localhost:4042/status

# View sync progress
curl http://localhost:4042/sync

Configuration Reference

Node Settings

[node]
# Node identifier (auto-generated if not specified)
name = "my-fullnode"

# Data storage path
data_path = "/data/solanavault"

# Maximum storage capacity in GB
storage_capacity_gb = 1000

# Enable block verification
verify_blocks = true

# Log level: trace, debug, info, warn, error
log_level = "info"

Network Settings

[network]
# P2P communication port
p2p_port = 4040

# Consensus protocol port
consensus_port = 4041

# Admin API port
admin_port = 4042

# Your public address for other nodes to connect
public_address = "tcp://your-ip:4040"

# Bootstrap nodes for initial discovery
bootstrap_nodes = [
    "tcp://bootstrap1.solanavault.com:4040",
    "tcp://bootstrap2.solanavault.com:4040"
]

# Maximum peer connections
max_peers = 100

# Connection timeout (ms)
connection_timeout_ms = 10000

Consensus Settings

[consensus]
# Enable consensus participation
participation = true

# Stake amount (affects voting weight)
stake_amount = 10000

# Minimum stake required
min_stake = 1000

# Slashing protection
enable_slashing_protection = true

# Vote timeout (ms)
vote_timeout_ms = 5000

# Maximum rounds per consensus
max_rounds = 10

Storage Settings

[storage]
# Compression level: "low", "medium", "high", "maximum"
compression_level = "high"

# Number of copies across network
replication_factor = 3

# Local cache size (MB)
cache_size_mb = 8192

# Enable data verification
verify_on_read = true

# Garbage collection interval (hours)
gc_interval_hours = 24

Consensus Participation

How Consensus Works

SolanaVault uses Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus:

  1. Data Proposal: A node proposes new compressed data
  2. Verification: Other nodes verify the compression
  3. Voting: Nodes vote on data validity (2/3 majority required)
  4. Commitment: Verified data is committed to the network

Staking

Stake tokens to participate in consensus:

# Deposit stake
vault-node stake deposit 10000

# Check stake status
vault-node stake status

# Withdraw stake (after unbonding period)
vault-node stake withdraw

Reputation System

Your node builds reputation through:

  • Uptime: Consistent availability
  • Correct Votes: Voting with the majority
  • Data Serving: Successfully serving requests
  • Fast Responses: Low-latency participation

Check your reputation:

vault-node reputation

Slashing Conditions

Stakes can be slashed for:

Violation Penalty
Double voting 10% of stake
Data corruption 20% of stake
Extended downtime 1% per day
Invalid proposals 5% of stake

Rewards

Reward Types

Reward Type Description
Consensus Rewards Earned for participating in voting
Storage Rewards Earned for storing and serving data
Availability Bonus Bonus for high uptime
Early Adopter Bonus for early network participants

Reward Calculation

Daily Reward = (Stake × Uptime × Reputation × Network_Factor)

Example:

Stake: 10,000 tokens
Uptime: 99.5%
Reputation: 0.95
Network Factor: 0.001

Daily Reward = 10,000 × 0.995 × 0.95 × 0.001 = 9.45 tokens

Claiming Rewards

# View pending rewards
vault-node rewards pending

# Claim rewards
vault-node rewards claim

Data Synchronization

Initial Sync

When first starting, your node syncs with the network:

# Check sync status
vault-node sync status

Output:

Sync Status: In Progress
  Current Height: 245,123,456
  Network Height: 250,000,000
  Progress: 98.05%
  ETA: 2 hours 15 minutes
  Speed: 1,234 blocks/second

Sync Modes

Mode Description Speed
Full Download all data Slowest
Fast Download headers + recent data Medium
Warp Trust checkpoints, download recent Fastest

Configure sync mode:

[sync]
mode = "fast"  # "full", "fast", or "warp"
checkpoint_verification = true
parallel_downloads = 8

Monitoring

SolanaVault provides multiple monitoring options:

  • TUI Dashboard: Terminal-based interface with --tui flag
  • Web Dashboard: Browser-based interface with --dashboard-port PORT
  • REST API: Programmatic access to node metrics

See the Node Dashboard Guide for complete dashboard documentation.

Status Endpoint

curl http://localhost:4042/status

Response:

{
  "node_id": "abc123...",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "uptime_seconds": 86400,
  "sync_status": "synced",
  "current_height": 250000000,
  "peer_count": 45,
  "consensus_participation": true,
  "stake": 10000,
  "reputation": 0.95,
  "storage_used_gb": 456.7,
  "storage_capacity_gb": 1000
}

Metrics

curl http://localhost:4042/metrics

Logs

# View logs
journalctl -u solanavault-node -f

# Debug logging
RUST_LOG=debug ./target/release/vault-node ...

High Availability

Redundant Setup

Run multiple nodes for redundancy:

# Node 1
./target/release/vault-node --config node1.toml

# Node 2 (different machine)
./target/release/vault-node --config node2.toml

Backup and Recovery

# Backup node data
vault-node backup create /backup/solanavault-backup.tar.gz

# Restore from backup
vault-node backup restore /backup/solanavault-backup.tar.gz

Production Deployment

Systemd Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/solanavault-node.service:

[Unit]
Description=SolanaVault Full Node
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=solanavault
ExecStart=/opt/solanavault/vault-node --config /etc/solanavault/node.toml
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
LimitNOFILE=65535
LimitNPROC=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Performance Tuning

[performance]
# Thread pool size
worker_threads = 16

# I/O buffer size (KB)
io_buffer_kb = 256

# Connection pool size
connection_pool = 100

# Enable memory mapping
mmap_enabled = true

System Tuning

# Increase file descriptor limit
echo "solanavault soft nofile 65535" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "solanavault hard nofile 65535" >> /etc/security/limits.conf

# Optimize network settings
echo "net.core.rmem_max = 134217728" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "net.core.wmem_max = 134217728" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p

Troubleshooting

Node Won't Start

# Check for port conflicts
netstat -tlnp | grep -E "4040|4041|4042"

# Verify permissions
ls -la /data/solanavault

# Check logs
RUST_LOG=debug vault-node --config ~/.solanavault/node.toml

Sync Stalled

# Check peer connections
vault-node peers list

# Force resync from checkpoint
vault-node sync reset --from-checkpoint

Low Reputation

  1. Improve uptime (aim for 99.9%+)
  2. Ensure correct consensus voting
  3. Verify data integrity
  4. Reduce response latency

Next Steps