--- title: Set Up a Node description: Learn how to install, configure, and run Polkadot nodes, including setting up different node types and connecting to the network. categories: - Infrastructure url: https://docs.polkadot.com/node-infrastructure/run-a-node/relay-chain/full-node/ word_count: 2467 token_estimate: 4158 version_hash: sha256:8b15010aa1269a29b4d01d02cb28155bab5fff60215886614a90d3d7ac243d7e last_updated: '2026-01-14T11:42:16+00:00' --- # Set Up a Node ## Introduction Running a node on Polkadot provides direct interaction with the network, enhanced privacy, and full control over RPC requests, transactions, and data queries. As the backbone of the network, nodes ensure decentralized data propagation, transaction validation, and seamless communication across the ecosystem. Polkadot supports multiple node types, including pruned, archive, and light nodes, each suited to specific use cases. During setup, you can use configuration flags to choose the node type you wish to run. This guide walks you through configuring, securing, and maintaining a node on Polkadot or any Polkadot SDK-based chain. It covers instructions for the different node types and how to safely expose your node's RPC server for external access. Whether you're building a local development environment, powering dApps, or supporting network decentralization, this guide provides all the essentials. ## Set Up a Node Now that you're familiar with the different types of nodes, this section will walk you through configuring, securing, and maintaining a node on Polkadot or any Polkadot SDK-based chain. ### Prerequisites Before getting started, ensure the following prerequisites are met: - Ensure [Rust](https://rust-lang.org/tools/install/) is installed on your operating system. - [Install the necessary dependencies for the Polkadot SDK](/parachains/install-polkadot-sdk/). !!! warning This setup is not recommended for validators. If you plan to run a validator, refer to the [Running a Validator](/node-infrastructure/run-a-validator/onboarding-and-offboarding/set-up-validator/) guide for proper instructions. ### Install and Build the Polkadot Binary This section will walk you through installing and building the Polkadot binary for different operating systems and methods. ??? interface "macOS" To get started, update and configure the Rust toolchain by running the following commands: ```bash source ~/.cargo/env rustup default stable rustup update rustup update nightly rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly rustup component add rust-src --toolchain stable-aarch64-apple-darwin ``` You can verify your installation by running: ```bash rustup show rustup +nightly show ``` You should see output similar to the following:
rustup show rustup +nightly show active toolchain ---------------- stable-aarch64-apple-darwin (default) rustc 1.82.0 (f6e511eec 2024-10-15) active toolchain ---------------- nightly-aarch64-apple-darwin (overridden by +toolchain on the command line) rustc 1.84.0-nightly (03ee48451 2024-11-18)
Then, run the following commands to clone and build the Polkadot binary: ```bash git clone https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk polkadot-sdk cd polkadot-sdk cargo build --release ``` Depending upon the specs of your machine, compiling the binary may take an hour or more. After building the Polkadot node from source, the executable binary will be located in the `./target/release/polkadot` directory. ??? interface "Windows" To get started, make sure that you have [WSL and Ubuntu](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install) installed on your Windows machine. Once installed, you have a couple options for installing the Polkadot binary: - If Rust is installed, then `cargo` can be used similar to the macOS instructions. - Or, the instructions in the Linux section can be used. ??? interface "Linux (pre-built binary)" To grab the [latest release of the Polkadot binary](https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/releases), you can use `wget`: ```bash wget https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/releases/download/polkadot-INSERT_VERSION/polkadot ``` Ensure you note the executable binary's location, as you'll need to use it when running the start-up command. If you prefer, you can specify the output location of the executable binary with the `-O` flag, for example: ```bash wget https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/releases/download/polkadot-INSERT_VERSION/polkadot \ - O /var/lib/polkadot-data/polkadot ``` !!!tip The nature of pre-built binaries means that they may not work on your particular architecture or Linux distribution. If you see an error like `cannot execute binary file: Exec format error` it likely means the binary is incompatible with your system. You will either need to compile the binary or use [Docker](#use-docker). Ensure that you properly configure the permissions to make the Polkadot release binary executable: ```bash sudo chmod +x polkadot ``` ??? interface "Linux (compile binary)" The most reliable (although perhaps not the fastest) way of launching a full node is to compile the binary yourself. Depending on your machine's specs, this may take an hour or more. To get started, run the following commands to configure the Rust toolchain: ```bash rustup default stable rustup update rustup update nightly rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain nightly rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu rustup component add rust-src --toolchain stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu ``` You can verify your installation by running: ```bash rustup show ``` You should see output similar to the following:
rustup show active toolchain ---------------- stable-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (default) rustc 1.82.0 (f6e511eec 2024-10-15)
Once Rust is configured, run the following commands to clone and build Polkadot: ```bash git clone https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk polkadot-sdk cd polkadot-sdk cargo build --release ``` Compiling the binary may take an hour or more, depending on your machine's specs. After building the Polkadot node from the source, the executable binary will be located in the `./target/release/polkadot` directory. ??? interface "Linux (snap package)" Polkadot can be installed as a [snap package](https://snapcraft.io/polkadot). If you don't already have Snap installed, take the following steps to install it: ```bash sudo apt update sudo apt install snapd ``` Install the Polkadot snap package: ```bash sudo snap install polkadot ``` Before continuing on with the following instructions, check out the [Configure and Run Your Node](#configure-and-run-your-node) section to learn more about the configuration options. To configure your Polkadot node with your desired options, you'll run a command similar to the following: ```bash sudo snap set polkadot service-args="--name=MyName --chain=polkadot" ``` Then to start the node service, run: ```bash sudo snap start polkadot ``` You can review the logs to check on the status of the node: ```bash snap logs polkadot -f ``` And at any time, you can stop the node service: ```bash sudo snap stop polkadot ``` You can optionally prevent the service from stopping when snap is updated with the following command: ```bash sudo snap set polkadot endure=true ``` ### Use Docker As an additional option, you can use Docker to run your node in a container. Doing this is more advanced, so it's best left up to those already familiar with Docker or who have completed the other set-up instructions in this guide. You can review the latest versions on [DockerHub](https://hub.docker.com/r/parity/polkadot/tags). Be aware that when you run Polkadot in Docker, the process only listens on `localhost` by default. If you would like to connect to your node's services (RPC and Prometheus) you need to ensure that you run the node with the `--rpc-external`, and `--prometheus-external` commands. ```bash docker run -p 9944:9944 -p 9615:9615 parity/polkadot:v1.16.2 --name "my-polkadot-node-calling-home" --rpc-external --prometheus-external ``` If you're running Docker on an Apple Silicon machine (e.g. M4), you'll need to adapt the command slightly: ```bash docker run --platform linux/amd64 -p 9944:9944 -p 9615:9615 parity/polkadot:v1.16.2 --name "kearsarge-calling-home" --rpc-external --prometheus-external ``` ## Configure and Run Your Node Now that you've installed and built the Polkadot binary, the next step is to configure the start-up command depending on the type of node that you want to run. You'll need to modify the start-up command accordingly based on the location of the binary. In some cases, it may be located within the `./target/release/` folder, so you'll need to replace polkadot with `./target/release/polkadot` in the following commands. Also, note that you can use the same binary for Polkadot as you would for Kusama or any other relay chain. You'll need to use the `--chain` flag to differentiate between chains. The base commands for running a Polkadot node are as follows: === "Default pruned node" This uses the default pruning value of the last 256 blocks: ```bash polkadot --chain polkadot \ --name "INSERT_NODE_NAME" ``` === "Custom pruned node" You can customize the pruning value, for example, to the last 1000 finalized blocks: ```bash polkadot --chain polkadot \ --name INSERT_YOUR_NODE_NAME \ --state-pruning 1000 \ --blocks-pruning archive \ --rpc-cors all \ --rpc-methods safe ``` === "Archive node" To support the full state, use the `archive` option: ```bash polkadot --chain polkadot \ --name INSERT_YOUR_NODE_NAME \ --state-pruning archive \ --blocks-pruning archive \ ``` If you want to run an RPC node, please refer to the following [RPC Configurations](#rpc-configurations) section. To review a complete list of the available commands, flags, and options, you can use the `--help` flag: ```bash polkadot --help ``` Once you've fully configured your start-up command, you can execute it in your terminal and your node will start [syncing](#sync-your-node). ### RPC Configurations The node startup settings allow you to choose what to expose, how many connections to expose, and which systems should be granted access through the RPC server. - You can limit the methods to use with `--rpc-methods`; an easy way to set this to a safe mode is `--rpc-methods safe`. - You can set your maximum connections through `--rpc-max-connections`, for example, `--rpc-max-connections 200`. - By default, localhost and Polkadot.js can access the RPC server. You can change this by setting `--rpc-cors`. To allow access from everywhere, you can use `--rpc-cors all`. For a list of important flags when running RPC nodes, refer to the Parity DevOps documentation: [Important Flags for Running an RPC Node](https://paritytech.github.io/devops-guide/guides/rpc_index.html?#important-flags-for-running-an-rpc-node). ## Sync Your Node The syncing process will take a while, depending on your capacity, processing power, disk speed, and RAM. The process may be completed on a $10 DigitalOcean droplet in about ~36 hours. While syncing, your node name should be visible in gray on Polkadot Telemetry, and once it is fully synced, your node name will appear in white on [Polkadot Telemetry](https://telemetry.polkadot.io/#list/Polkadot). A healthy node syncing blocks will output logs like the following:
2024-11-19 23:49:57 Parity Polkadot 2024-11-19 23:49:57 ✌️ version 1.14.1-7c4cd60da6d 2024-11-19 23:49:57 ❤️ by Parity Technologies <admin@parity.io>, 2017-2024 2024-11-19 23:49:57 📋 Chain specification: Polkadot 2024-11-19 23:49:57 🏷 Node name: myPolkadotNode 2024-11-19 23:49:57 👤 Role: FULL 2024-11-19 23:49:57 💾 Database: RocksDb at /home/ubuntu/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot/db/full 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🏷 Local node identity is: 12D3KooWDmhHEgPRJUJnUpJ4TFWn28EENqvKWH4dZGCN9TS51y9h 2024-11-19 23:50:00 Running libp2p network backend 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Operating system: linux 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 CPU architecture: x86_64 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Target environment: gnu 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1245 V2 @ 3.40GHz 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 CPU cores: 4 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Memory: 32001MB 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Kernel: 5.15.0-113-generic 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Linux distribution: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS 2024-11-19 23:50:00 💻 Virtual machine: no 2024-11-19 23:50:00 📦 Highest known block at #9319 2024-11-19 23:50:00 〽️ Prometheus exporter started at 127.0.0.1:9615 2024-11-19 23:50:00 Running JSON-RPC server: addr=127.0.0.1:9944, allowed origins=["http://localhost:*", "http://127.0.0.1:*", "https://localhost:*", "https://127.0.0.1:*", "https://polkadot.js.org"] 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🏁 CPU score: 671.67 MiBs 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🏁 Memory score: 7.96 GiBs 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🏁 Disk score (seq. writes): 377.87 MiBs 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🏁 Disk score (rand. writes): 147.92 MiBs 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🥩 BEEFY gadget waiting for BEEFY pallet to become available... 2024-11-19 23:50:00 🔍 Discovered new external address for our node: /ip4/37.187.93.17/tcp/30333/ws/p2p/12D3KooWDmhHEgPRJUJnUpJ4TFWn28EENqvKWH4dZGCN9TS51y9h 2024-11-19 23:50:01 🔍 Discovered new external address for our node: /ip6/2001:41d0:a:3511::1/tcp/30333/ws/p2p/12D3KooWDmhHEgPRJUJnUpJ4TFWn28EENqvKWH4dZGCN9TS51y9h 2024-11-19 23:50:05 ⚙️ Syncing, target=#23486325 (5 peers), best: #12262 (0x8fb5…f310), finalized #11776 (0x9de1…32fb), ⬇ 430.5kiB/s ⬆ 17.8kiB/s 2024-11-19 23:50:10 ⚙️ Syncing 628.8 bps, target=#23486326 (6 peers), best: #15406 (0x9ce1…2d76), finalized #15360 (0x0e41…a064), ⬇ 255.0kiB/s ⬆ 1.8kiB/s
Congratulations, you're now syncing a Polkadot full node! Remember that the process is identical when using any other Polkadot SDK-based chain, although individual chains may have chain-specific flag requirements. ### Connect to Your Node Open [Polkadot.js Apps](https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=ws%3A%2F%2F127.0.0.1%3A9944#/explorer) and click the logo in the top left to switch the node. Activate the **Development** toggle and input your node's domain or IP address. The default WSS endpoint for a local node is: ```bash ws://127.0.0.1:9944 ```