In this guide, we'll set up an Akash node and connect it to a network.
You'll also need to know information about the network you're connecting your node to. See Choosing a Network for how to obtain any network-related information.
Make sure to have Akash client installed on your workstation, check install guide for instructions.
These instructions are for setting up a brand new full node from scratch.
First, choose a "moniker" - a readable name for your validator. In this guide, we'll use moniker-from-the-guide, but you should replace that with your own for the following instructions.
{% hint style="warning" %} Monikers can contain only ASCII characters. Using Unicode characters will render your node unreachable. {% endhint %}
AKASH_MONIKER="moniker-from-the-guide"Then initialize the node and create the necessary config files:
akash init --chain-id "$AKASH_CHAIN_ID" "$AKASH_MONIKER"You can edit this moniker later, in the ~/.akash/config/config.toml file:
# A custom human readable name for this node
moniker = "moniker-from-the-guide"
From here on, your node can be configured in a number of different places.
~/.akash/config/app.toml- cosmos-specific configuration~/.akash/config/config.toml- tendermint-specific configuration- environment variables and command-line options can override settings in the above configuration files.
Some common settings are described below.
Your full-node keeps unconfirmed transactions in its mempool. In order to protect it from spam, it is better to set a minimum-gas-prices that the transaction must meet in order to be accepted in your node's mempool. This parameter can be set in ~/.akash/config/app.toml.
The initial recommended min-gas-prices is 0.025uakt, but you might want to change it later.
# This is a TOML config file.
# For more information, see https://github.com/toml-lang/toml
##### main base config options #####
# The minimum gas prices a validator is willing to accept for processing a
# transaction. A transaction's fees must meet the minimum of any denomination
# specified in this config (e.g. 10uatom).
minimum-gas-prices = "0.025uakt"
Next we need to configure the p2p network and ensure that you have the right genesis.json file to join the testnet.
Fetch the testnet's genesis.json file into akash's config directory.
curl -s "$AKASH_NET/genesis.json" > $HOME/.akash/config/genesis.jsonNote we use the $AKASH_NET variable - see the net repo for how to set this variable for the network you're connecting to.
To verify the correctness of the configuration run:
{% hint style="warning" %}
The following command is currently not working on edgenet. This error can be ignored on edgenet.
We are looking into the problem, but it won't affect running a node. {% endhint %}
akash validate-genesisYour node needs to know how to find peers. You'll need to add healthy seed nodes or persistent peers to $HOME/.akash/config/config.toml. As with installing genesis.json, consult the net repo for how to obtain seeds to connect to.
For more information on the how and why of seeds and peers, you can read this great documentation from the Tendermint maintainers.
Transactions on the Akash Network need to include a transaction fee in order to be processed. This fee pays for the gas required to run the transaction. The formula is the following:
fees = ceil(gas * gasPrices)
The gas is dependent on the transaction. Different transaction require different amount of gas. The gas amount for a transaction is calculated as it is being processed, but there is a way to estimate it beforehand by using the auto value for the gas flag. Of course, this only gives an estimate. You can adjust this estimate with the flag --gas-adjustment (default 1.0) if you want to be sure you provide enough gas for the transaction.
The gasPrice is the price of each unit of gas. Each validator sets a min-gas-price value, and will only include transactions that have a gasPrice greater than their min-gas-price.
The transaction fees are the product of gas and gasPrice. As a user, you have to input 2 out of 3. The higher the gasPrice/fees, the higher the chance that your transaction will get included in a block.
::: tip For Akash testnets, the recommended gas-prices is 0.025uakt. :::
There are three strategies for pruning state, please be aware that this is only for state and not for block storage:
default: the last 100 states are kept in addition to every 500th state; pruning at 10 block intervalsnothing: all historic states will be saved, nothing will be deleted (i.e. archiving node)everything: all saved states will be deleted, storing only the current state; pruning at 10 block intervalscustom: allow pruning options to be manually specified throughpruning-keep-recent,pruning-keep-every, andpruning-interval
You can configure your node's pruning strategy at start time with the --pruning or by configuring your app.toml file.
Note: When you are pruning state you will not be able to query the heights that are not in your store. The sentry nodes the Akash team is running will be
--pruning nothingand all data from the testnet will be queriable there.
"Fast Sync" allows nodes that are far behind the current height to catchup quickly by downloading blocks in parallel and verifying their commits. This feature is configured in ~/.akash/config/config.toml.
Enable "Fast Sync" with
fast_sync = true
Different versions of Akash use diferent versions of the "Fast Sync" backend:
| Akash Version | Fast Sync Version |
|---|---|
< 0.9.x |
v0 |
>= 0.9.x |
v2 |
Find the [fastsync] section of ~/.akash/config/config.toml and set the correct backend version like so:
version = "v2"
Start the full node with this command:
akash startIf you would like to run your node via systemd please see this guide.
You can use akash to check that everything is running smoothly:
akash status