Archive Nodes on Core
Archive nodes in the Core network play a crucial role in maintaining the complete historical state of the network. These nodes are specialized versions of full nodes with enhanced capabilities tailored to storing and providing access to the entire history of all transactions and states since the inception of the Core.
System Requirements
There are several system requirements, both software and hardware, for setting up a Archive node on the Core network.
Software
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Operating System: Currently, a Core Archive Node is compatible only with macOS or Linux operating systems (Ubuntu 20.04 or later).
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Network Connectivity: Stable internet connection with low latency and high availability
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Firewall Configuration: Open necessary ports to allow communication with the network and other nodes
Hardware
An Archive Node on Core stores the entire blockchain history, ensuring data availability and integrity for network participants. It supports querying past transactions, verifying historical data, and enhancing blockchain analytics. While not required for consensus, archive nodes play a crucial role in maintaining transparency and supporting decentralized applications. Following are the hardware requirements for running Archieve Node on Core.
- Testnet2
- Testnet
- Mainnet
For Archive Nodes on Core Blockchain Testnet2, following minimum hardware specifications are recommended:
| Requirements | Details |
|---|---|
| Storage | Solid State Drive (SSD) with a minimum capacity of 1TB. SSDs are recommended because of their faster read and write speeds, which are critical for managing large blockchain data and providing quick access to historical transactions. |
| CPU | 8 Core CPU |
| RAM | 32 Gigabytes |
| Internet Speed | A broadband Internet connection with upload/download speeds of 5Mbps |
For Archive Nodes on Core Blockchain Testnet, following minimum hardware specifications are recommended:
| Requirements | Details |
|---|---|
| Storage | Solid State Drive (SSD) with a minimum capacity of 2TB. SSDs are recommended because of their faster read and write speeds, which are critical for managing large blockchain data and providing quick access to historical transactions. |
| CPU | 8 Core CPU |
| RAM | 32 Gigabytes |
| Internet Speed | A broadband Internet connection with upload/download speeds of 5Mbps |
For Archive Nodes on Core Blockchain Mainnet, following minimum hardware specifications are recommended:
| Requirements | Details |
|---|---|
| Storage | Solid State Drive (SSD) with a minimum capacity of 4TB. SSDs are recommended because of their faster read and write speeds, which are critical for managing large blockchain data and providing quick access to historical transactions. |
| CPU | 8 Core CPU |
| RAM | 32 Gigabytes |
| Internet Speed | A broadband Internet connection with upload/download speeds of 5Mbps |
Running Core Archive Node
1. We recommend using the core-chain GitHub repository to directly build and run your full node, running your full node directly from our blockchain codebase. Instructions for building the source code can be found in the repository's README.
2. Download the latest node binary for from Core's Releases Repository and the latest snapshot for archive node from Core's Snapshot Repository. The node binary includes the relevant mainnet and testnet configuration files.
3. Write the genesis state locally by executing the following command from your project directory:
geth --datadir node init genesis.json
4. Our full/archive node is ready, let's start running it! You can just run the following geth command directly:
## start an archive node
geth --config ./config.toml --datadir ./node --cache 8000 --gcmode=archive --syncmode=full
5. As our archive node runs, we can monitor its logs to make sure that everything is operating correctly. The log file is located at ./node/logs/core.log by default, but can be changed to another location if desired.