Setting up a Celestia full storage Node ​

This tutorial will guide you through setting up a Celestia full storage node, which is a celestia-node that doesn't connect to celestia-app (hence not a consensus node), but stores all the data.

Overview of full storage nodes ​

Full storage nodes are Celestia nodes that store all the data. Full storage nodes send block shares, headers, and fraud proofs to light nodes. The light nodes gossip headers, fraud proofs, and sometimes block shares, between one another.

Hardware requirements ​

The following hardware minimum requirements are recommended for running the full storage node:

• Memory: 16 GB RAM (minimum)
• CPU: 6 cores
• Disk: 2 TB NVME Storage
• Bandwidth: 1 Gbps for Download/1 Gbps for Upload

Setting up your full storage node ​

The following tutorial is done on an Ubuntu Linux 20.04 (LTS) x64 instance machine.

Setup the dependencies ​

You can follow the tutorial for setting up your dependencies

Install celestia-node ​

You can follow the tutorial for installing celestia-node

Run the full storage node ​

Initialize the full storage node ​

Run the following command:

celestia full init

celestia full init

celestia full init --p2p.network mocha

celestia full init --p2p.network mocha

celestia full init --p2p.network arabica

celestia full init --p2p.network arabica

Start the full storage node ​

Start the full storage node with a connection to a validator node's gRPC endpoint (which is usually exposed on port 9090):

In order for access to the ability to get/submit state-related information, such as the ability to submit PayForBlob transactions, or query for the node's account balance, a gRPC endpoint of a validator (core) node must be passed as directed below.

Refer to the ports section of the celestia-node troubleshooting page for information on which ports are required to be open on your machine.

celestia full start --core.ip <URI>

celestia full start --core.ip <URI>

Using an RPC of your own, or one from Mainnet Beta, Mocha testnet or Arabica devnet, start your node.

Connecting to a core endpoint with --core.ip string provides the light node with access to state queries (reading balances, submitting transactions, and other state-related queries).

You can create your key for your node by following the cel-key instructions

Once you start the full storage node, a wallet key will be generated for you. You will need to fund that address with testnet tokens to pay for PayForBlob transactions. You can find the address by running the following command:

./cel-key list --node.type full --keyring-backend test --p2p.network <network>

./cel-key list --node.type full --keyring-backend test --p2p.network <network>

You can get testnet tokens from:

• Mocha
• Arabica

Optional: run the full storage node with a custom key ​

In order to run a full storage node using a custom key:

1. The custom key must exist inside the celestia full storage node directory at the correct path (default: ~/.celestia-full/keys/keyring-test)
2. The name of the custom key must be passed upon start, like so:

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \
  --p2p.network mocha

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \
  --p2p.network mocha

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \
  --p2p.network arabica

celestia full start --core.ip <URI> \
  --keyring.keyname <name-of-custom-key> \
  --p2p.network arabica

Optional: Migrate node id to another server ​

To migrate a full storage node ID:

1. You need to back up two files located in the celestia-full node directory at the correct path (default: ~/.celestia-full/keys).
2. Upload the files to the new server and start the node.

Optional: start the full storage node with SystemD ​

If you would like to run the full storage node as a background process, follow the SystemD tutorial.

With that, you are now running a Celestia full storage node.

Stop the full storage node ​

In order to gracefully stop the full storage node, use Control + C in the terminal window where the node is running. Be sure to only do this once as the shutdown will not be instantaneous.