A step by step guide on How to Run Sequencer Node on Aztec Network Testnet & Earn Apprentice Role.

• What types of nodes can participate in the testnet?
  • Sequencer: proposes blocks, validates blocks from others, and votes on upgrades.
  • Prover: generates ZK proofs that attest to roll-up integrity.

Sequecner Nodes will receive a certain role for their contribution on Discord.

After running and syncing your Sequencer node, You can go through Get Role step.

• Prover Node: Requiring ~40x machines with 16 cores and 128GB RAM
• I don't run Prover since it's for data-center computing systems, not me.

Windows Users: must install Ubuntu on Windows using this guide, then continue further steps.

VPS Users: can get started via a VPS with 4 cores CPU, 8GB RAM! Purchase here

• Update packages:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

• Install Packages:

sudo apt install curl iptables build-essential git wget lz4 jq make gcc nano automake autoconf tmux htop nvme-cli libgbm1 pkg-config libssl-dev libleveldb-dev tar clang bsdmainutils ncdu unzip libleveldb-dev  -y

• Install Docker:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Test Docker
sudo docker run hello-world

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

bash -i <(curl -s https://install.aztec.network)

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.aztec/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

• Restart your Terminal now to apply changes.
• Check if you installed successfully:

aztec

aztec-up 1.2.0

• Find a 3rd party that supports Sepolia RPC URL & Sepolia BEACON URL APIs.
• Most of your usage is RPC URL. I recommend to use Alchemy for RPC URL & Use drpc for Beacon URL.

More details on RPC solutions:

• You can run your own local RPC nodes by following this guide: geth-prysm-node. You may need 600-1000 GB SSD

• RPC URL: Create a Sepolia Ethereum HTTP API in Alchemy
• BEACON RPC: Create an account on drpc and search for Sepolia Ethereum Beacon Chain Endpoints.

For example: Ankr is supporting RPC URL & Beacon URL. You can Register, Fund it with a little USDT via your wallet, Create a project, get your normal sepolia rpc and beacon sepolia rpc.

You can run your own Geth & Prysm nodes to get your own RPC URL & BEACON RPC or find any other 3rd party solutions

Get an EVM Wallet with Private Key and Public Address saved.

Fund your Ethereum Wallet with ETH Sepolia

curl ipv4.icanhazip.com

• Save it

# Firewall
ufw allow 22
ufw allow ssh
ufw enable

# Sequencer
ufw allow 40400
ufw allow 8080

You can run Sequencer Node through one of these two methods: Docker or CLI

• Delete CLI Node

# Stop docker containers
docker stop $(docker ps -q --filter "ancestor=aztecprotocol/aztec") && docker rm $(docker ps -a -q --filter "ancestor=aztecprotocol/aztec")

# Stop screens
screen -ls | grep -i aztec | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I {} screen -X -S {} quit

• Create aztec directory:

mkdir aztec

• Get into aztec directory:

cd aztec

• Create .env

nano .env

• Replace the following code in .env

ETHEREUM_RPC_URL=RPC_URL
CONSENSUS_BEACON_URL=BEACON_URL
VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY=0xYourPrivateKey
COINBASE=0xYourAddress
P2P_IP=P2P_IP

• Replace the following variables before you Run Node:

  • RPC_URL & BEACON_URL: Step 4
  • 0xYourPrivateKey: Your EVM wallet private key starting with 0x...
  • 0xYourAddress: Your EVM wallet public address starting with 0x...
  • P2P_IP: Your server IP (Step 7)

• Create docker-compose.yml:

nano docker-compose.yml

• Replace the following code in docker-compose.yml

services:
  aztec-node:
    container_name: aztec-sequencer
    network_mode: host 
    image: aztecprotocol/aztec:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      ETHEREUM_HOSTS: ${ETHEREUM_RPC_URL}
      L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS: ${CONSENSUS_BEACON_URL}
      DATA_DIRECTORY: /data
      VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY: ${VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY}
      COINBASE: ${COINBASE}
      P2P_IP: ${P2P_IP}
      LOG_LEVEL: debug
    entrypoint: >
      sh -c 'node --no-warnings /usr/src/yarn-project/aztec/dest/bin/index.js start --network alpha-testnet --node --archiver --sequencer'
    ports:
      - 40400:40400/tcp
      - 40400:40400/udp
      - 8080:8080
    volumes:
      - /root/.aztec/alpha-testnet/data/:/data

Note: My node data directory configued in docker-compose.yml is /root/.aztec/alpha-testnet/data/, yours can be anything.

• Run Node Docker:

docker compose up -d

• Node Logs:

docker compose logs -fn 1000

• Optional: Stop and Kill Node

docker compose down -v

• Done, you can now head to Step 10.

• Open screen

screen -S aztec

• Run Node

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL  \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls BEACON_URL \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKey 0xYourPrivateKey \
  --sequencer.coinbase 0xYourAddress \
  --p2p.p2pIp IP

Replace the following variables before you Run Node:

• RPC_URL & BEACON_URL: Step 4
• 0xYourPrivateKey: Your EVM wallet private key starting with 0x...
• 0xYourAddress: Your EVM wallet public address starting with 0x...
• IP: Your server IP (Step 7)

Screen Commands:

• Minimze screen: Ctrl + A + D
• Return to screen: screen -r aztec
• Kill screen (when inside): Ctrl+`C+
• Kill screen (when outside): screen -XS aztec quit

After entering the command, your node starts running, It takes a few minutes for your node to get synced.

• Check the latest synced block number of your sequencer:

curl -s -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"node_getL2Tips","params":[],"id":67}' \
http://localhost:8080 | jq -r ".result.proven.number"

• Check the latest block number of Aztec network: https://aztecscan.xyz/

Make sure your Sequencer node is fully synced, before you proceed with Validator registration.

Official Validator Registration: ZKPassport

• Visit: https://testnet.aztec.network/add-validator
• Complete ZKPassport humanity verification
• Follow the steps to connect your validator wallet and register your validator on the network
• After competion, you will get into the queue of validator registration and will earn Explorer discord role

• Visit the Dashboard
• Check your validators health
• Connect your X & Discord

1- Stop node

docker stop $(docker ps -q --filter "ancestor=aztecprotocol/aztec") && docker rm $(docker ps -a -q --filter "ancestor=aztecprotocol/aztec")

# Or

cd aztec
docker compose down -v

2- Update CLI commands

source ~/.bashrc
aztec-up 1.2.0

3- Delete old data

rm -rf ~/.aztec/alpha-testnet/data/

4- Rerun your node

docker compose up -d

• Make sure you are in aztec directory where docker-compose.yml file exists.
• You can read the full details of running the node via docker compose

1- Stop node

screen -ls | grep -i aztec | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I {} screen -X -S {} quit

• Or manually stop the screen session you are running your node in it

2- Update CLI commands

source ~/.bashrc
aztec-up 1.2.0

3- Delete old data

rm -rf ~/.aztec/alpha-testnet/data/

4- Rerun using this CLI command

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL  \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls BEACON_URL \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKey 0xYourPrivateKey \
  --sequencer.coinbase 0xYourAddress \
  --p2p.p2pIp IP

Replace the following variables before you Run the node:

• RPC_URL & BEACON_URL: Step 4
• 0xYourPrivateKey: Your EVM wallet private key starting with 0x...
• 0xYourAddress: Your EVM wallet public address starting with 0x...
• IP: Your server IP (Step 7)

This step seems limited to only teams and individuals in active set. Team is encouraging teams to run 10 validators. Ask the team if you are going to run more validators

1- Open docker-compose.yml

cd aztec
nano docker-compose.yml

2- Update private key:

• Update VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY: ${VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY} under environment with the following:

VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEYS: ${VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEYS}

• We added s

3- Add publisher key variable:

• Adding a publisher wallet will make you handle all the transactions of your validators with on wallet
• Add SEQ_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY: ${SEQ_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY} somewhere under environment in docker-compose.yml

4- Open .env

nano .env

5- Update private key:

• Update VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEY to VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEYS
• Values of VALIDATOR_PRIVATE_KEYS must be a comma (,) separated list. ("0x123...,0x234...,0x345...")

6- Optional: Add publisher key variable: SEQ_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY: The value of this is the privatekey of the wallet positng the transactions. This means you only need to fund sepETH to this wallet if you run multiple validators.

7- Register each validator on the network

• Do it manually or reach the team.

• 1- Update your CLI start command to use --sequencer.validatorPrivateKeys (see added s) instead of --sequencer.validatorPrivateKey if you want to run multiple validators.

  • The value of this should be a comma (,) separated list.

• 2- Optional: Use --sequencer.publisherPrivateKey which will be the address the transactions are posted from. This means you only need to fund sepETH to this address if you run multiple validators.

Example:

aztec start --node --archiver --sequencer \
  --network alpha-testnet \
  --l1-rpc-urls RPC_URL  \
  --l1-consensus-host-urls BEACON_URL \
  --sequencer.validatorPrivateKeys "0xPrivatekey1,0xPrivatekey2,0xPrivatekey3" \
  --sequencer.publisherPrivateKey 0xPrivatekeyX
  --sequencer.coinbase 0xYourAddress \
  --p2p.p2pIp IP

• 3- Register each validator on the network
  • Do it manually or reach the team.

If you encountered: ERROR: world-state:block_stream Error processing block stream: Error: Obtained L1 to L2 messages failed to be hashed to the block inHash

• You have to stop your node, delete data and restart it.
• Follow Update Node steps

Claim the Guardian role as you are running a Sequencer Node and keep an uptime.

• To claim:

  • Go to the upgrade-role channel
  • Type /checkip
  • Enter your IP & Node Address

• If you are not eligible to claim the Guardian role, wait until the next snapshot.