Skip to main content

Running a Base Node

This guide will walk you through setting up your own Base Node.

Objectives​

By the end of this guide you should be able to:

  • Deploy and sync a Base node

Prerequisites​

caution

Running a node is time consuming, resource expensive, and potentially costly. If you don't already know why you want to run your own node, you probably don't need to.

If you're just getting started and need an RPC URL, you can use our free endpoint at https://mainnet.base.org (or if you're setting up a node on testnet, https://goerli.base.org). Note: Our RPCs are rate-limited, they are not suitable for production apps.

If you're looking to harden your app and avoid rate-limiting for your users, please check out one of our partners.

Hardware requirements​

We recommend you have this configuration to run a node:

  • at least 16 GB RAM
  • an SSD drive with at least 1 TB free
info

If utilizing Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), ensure timing buffered disk reads are fast enough in order to avoid latency issues alongside the rate of new blocks added to Base during the initial synchronization process.

Docker​

This guide assumes you are familiar with Docker and have it running on your machine.

L1 RPC URL​

You'll need your own L1 RPC URL. This can be one that you run yourself, or via a third-party provider, such as our partners.

Running a Node​

  1. Clone the repo.
  2. Ensure you have an Ethereum L1 full node RPC available (not Base), and set OP_NODE_L1_ETH_RPC (in the .env.* file if using docker-compose). If running your own L1 node, it needs to be synced before Base will be able to fully sync.
  3. Uncomment the line relevant to your network (.env.goerli, .env.sepolia, or .env.mainnet) under the 2 env_file keys in docker-compose.yml.
  4. Run docker compose up. Confirm you get a response from:
curl -d '{"id":0,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_getBlockByNumber","params":["latest",false]}' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:8545
caution

Syncing your node may take days and will consume a vast amount of your requests quota. Be sure to monitor usage and up your plan if needed.

Snapshots​

If you're a prospective or current Base Node operator and would like to restore from a snapshot to save time on the initial sync, it's possible to always get the latest available snapshot of the Base chain on mainnet and/or testnet by using the following CLI commands. The snapshots are updated every hour.

Mainnet

wget https://base-mainnet-archive-snapshots.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/$(curl https://base-mainnet-archive-snapshots.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest)

Testnet

wget https://base-goerli-archive-snapshots.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/$(curl https://base-goerli-archive-snapshots.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/latest)

Syncing​

You can monitor the progress of your sync with:

echo Latest synced block behind by: $((($(date +%s)-$( \
  curl -d '{"id":0,"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"optimism_syncStatus"}' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://localhost:7545 | \
  jq -r .result.unsafe_l2.timestamp))/60)) minutes

You'll also know that the sync hasn't completed if you get Error: nonce has already been used if you try to deploy using your node.