Optimize Your Full Node

Running a full node allows your system to participate in a dYdX Chain network.

Code snippets on this page use example values. Replace them with your own. See the Network Configuration section of the documentation for network constants and other resources you need to configure a full node.

Prerequisites

You need a running, non-validating full node that is connected to a network.

If you created a system service for your node by following the instructions on the previous page, Set Up a Full Node, start your node with the following command:
```
stystemctl start dydxprotocold
```
To start your node with Cosmovisor, include the flag --non-validating-full-node=true. Cosmovisor may prompt you to configure additional variables in your environment or include them in your command.
```
cosmovisor run start --non-validating-full-node=true 
```
The flag --non-validating-full-node is required. It disables the functionality intended for validator nodes and enables additional logic for reading data.
To start your node directly with the dydxprotocold binary, include the flag --non-validating-full-node=true. dydxprotocold may prompt you to configure additional variables in your environment or include them in your command.
```
dydxprotocold run start --non-validating-full-node=true 
```
The flag --non-validating-full-node is required. It disables the functionality intended for validator nodes and enables additional logic for reading data.

Optimize Node Settings

The following recommended settings and best practices help ensure that your node stays healthy and up to date with the network.

Save a List of Persistent Peers

Connect to healthy peers with the latest state of the network. Request a list of healthy peers for your deployment from a Live Peer Node provider.

From the list of healthy peers that you retrieve from peer node provider, choose any 5 for your node to query for the latest state. Add a comma-separated list of those peer addresses to the persistent_peers field in your config.toml, like in the following example:

# config.toml
# Example values from Polkachu for dydx-mainnet-1
persistent_peers=83c299de2052db247f08422b6592e1383dd7a104@136.243.36.60:23856,1c64b35055d34ff3dd199bb4a5a3ae46b9c10c89@3.114.126.71:26656,3651c82a89f8f4d6fc30fb27b91159f0de092031@202.8.9.134:26656,580ec248de1f41d4e50abe132b7838348db55b80@176.9.144.40:23856,febe75fb6e70a60ce6344b82ff14903bcb53a209@38.122.229.90:26656

Save an Address Book File

Download an up-to-date addrbook.json file for your deployment from an Address Book provider.

Save the addrbook.json file in your /.dydxprotocol/config directory.

Configure a Pruning Strategy

In general, dYdX recommends the following pruning setting, configured in your app.toml file:

# app.toml
pruning = "everything" # 2 latest states will be kept; pruning at 10 block intervals

However, if you want to use your node to query historical data, configure a custom pruning strategy to retain more states. Retaining more states increases storage requirements.

Prepare to Restore Your Node

Prepare to restore your node quickly in case it falls out of sync.

Your full node can fall out of sync with the rest of the network for a variety of reasons, including a bad software upgrade, unexpected node crashes, or human operational error. To re-sync with the network, your full node must replay the history of the network.

You can speed up the re-syncing process significantly by providing your node with a snapshot. A snapshot contains a compressed copy of the application state at the time the snapshot was taken. If your node falls out of sync, a snapshot allows it to recover to that saved state before replaying the rest of the history of the network, saving time.

Save a Snapshot on Your System

You can use a snapshot saved on the system that your node runs on to restore your node.

To use a snapshot to back up your full node, install a snapshot for your deployment from a Snapshot Service.

If you followed the procedure on the previous page, Set Up a Full Node, you already have a snapshot installed.

Configure Your Node's State Sync

You can use state sync, a configuration setting that allows your node to retrieve a snapshot from the network, to restore your node.

To use state sync to back up your full node, follow the instructions for your deployment from a State Sync service.

Set Up a Full Node Running a Validator