Pre-flight

Time: ~2 minutes. Confirm you have everything before starting. Every item is required.

Hardware

Software

You need this on every server in your topology.

• OS: Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, or macOS. Windows WSL2 also works but is not recommended for production.
• Docker + Docker Compose: installed and running. Verify with:

docker --version && docker compose version

• jq: JSON processor used in verification commands. sudo apt install -y jq on Ubuntu/Debian or brew install jq on macOS. Verify with jq --version.

Need to install Docker?

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \
  -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) \
  signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli \
  containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

macOS: install Docker Desktop.

Verify: docker run hello-world.

Network access

• L1 Ethereum endpoints: an execution-client RPC and a consensus-client RPC. Self-hosted (Geth + Prysm or Lighthouse) or third-party (Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode). They must support high throughput.
• Port 40400 open for both TCP and UDP (P2P).
• Port 8080 available locally (Aztec HTTP API). Do not expose it publicly.

Tokens

What just happened?

You confirmed your servers meet Aztec's minimum requirements. The node runs as a Docker container that connects to Ethereum L1 (for anchoring proofs and reading rollup state) and the Aztec P2P network (for receiving transactions and participating in consensus).

The 200K AZTEC stake (self-stake mode) or the delegated stake (provider mode) is required by the Rollup contract to prevent Sybil attacks.

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Stuck? Ask in Discord.