Full node setup

Setup

Step 1: Set Up Directory Structure

Create the directory structure for node data:

mkdir -p aztec-node/data
cd aztec-node
touch .env

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Add the following to your .env file:

DATA_DIRECTORY=./data
LOG_LEVEL=info
ETHEREUM_HOSTS=[your L1 execution endpoint]
L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS=[your L1 consensus endpoint]
ETHEREUM_DEBUG_HOSTS=[your trace capable L1 execution endpoint]
P2P_IP=[your external IP address]
P2P_PORT=40400
AZTEC_PORT=8080
AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT=8880

tip

Find your public IP address with: curl ipv4.icanhazip.com

warning

In order to retrieve blocks posted to L1 via non-standard contract interactions, it is necessary to have access to an L1 rpc endpoint with 'trace' capability (either trace_transaction or debug_traceTransaction). The variable ETHEREUM_DEBUG_HOSTS is used to provide these url/s to the node. If not provided, the value of this will default to that set in ETHEREUM_HOSTS. The node will validate whether it is able to execute a trace call on the provided url/s, if not, it looks to the value set in ETHEREUM_ALLOW_NO_DEBUG_HOSTS to determine whether this should prevent the node from starting. By default ETHEREUM_ALLOW_NO_DEBUG_HOSTS is true, allowing the node to start. Any url provided in ETHEREUM_DEBUG_HOSTS will only be used in the case of having to execute a trace, it won't be used in regular L1 interactions.

Note - if the node does not have access to an rpc url that is capable of trace calls and it encounters a block posted via a transaction using non-standard contract interactions, it may become stuck and unable to progress the chain.

Step 3: Create Docker Compose File

Create a docker-compose.yml file in your aztec-node directory:

services:
  aztec-node:
    image: "aztecprotocol/aztec:4.2.0"
    container_name: "aztec-node"
    ports:
      - ${AZTEC_PORT}:${AZTEC_PORT}
      - ${P2P_PORT}:${P2P_PORT}
      - ${P2P_PORT}:${P2P_PORT}/udp
    volumes:
      - ${DATA_DIRECTORY}:/var/lib/data
    environment:
      DATA_DIRECTORY: /var/lib/data
      LOG_LEVEL: ${LOG_LEVEL}
      ETHEREUM_HOSTS: ${ETHEREUM_HOSTS}
      L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS: ${L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS}
      ETHEREUM_DEBUG_HOSTS: ${ETHEREUM_DEBUG_HOSTS}
      P2P_IP: ${P2P_IP}
      P2P_PORT: ${P2P_PORT}
      AZTEC_PORT: ${AZTEC_PORT}
      AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT: ${AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT}
    entrypoint: >-
      node
      --no-warnings
      /usr/src/yarn-project/aztec/dest/bin/index.js
      start
      --node
      --archiver
      --network mainnet
    networks:
      - aztec
    restart: always

networks:
  aztec:
    name: aztec

Security: Admin Port Not Exposed

The admin port (8880) is intentionally not exposed to the host machine for security reasons. The admin API provides sensitive operations like configuration changes and database rollbacks that should never be accessible from outside the container.

If you need to access admin endpoints, use docker exec:

docker exec -it aztec-node curl -X POST http://localhost:8880 \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"nodeAdmin_getConfig","params":[],"id":1}'

Step 4: Start the Node

Start the node:

docker compose up -d