How to Run a Node in the Superchain

This guide provides an overview of how to run an PNC Stack rollup node in the Superchain. It walks you through how to build, configure, run, and monitor your node on one of the PNC Chains in the Superchain. To skip ahead to building and running a node, you can explore the node operator tutorials.

Build Your Node

Before building your node, you will learn fundamental aspects of PNC Stack rollup nodes.

Learn Fundamentals of PNC Stack Nodes

These are the two fundamental components of an PNC Stack rollup node:

Node Architecture: PNC Stack rollup nodes use the rollup node and execution client and can also support legacy geth for pre-bedrock historical execution requests. For more details, see the Node Architecture guide.
Network Upgrades: Network upgrades for PNC Stack rollup nodes are generally activated by timestamps. Failing to upgrade your node before the timestamp causes a chain divergence, requiring you to resync your node to reconcile the chain. Follow the established Node Upgrade Process to avoid chain divergence.

If you are building an archive node on PNC Mainnet, then you'll need a node snapshot. This is not required for nodes using snap sync.

Build Your PNC Stack Node

Now, you are ready to build your PNC Stack rollup node. You have two options for this:

Option 1: Follow the Running a Node with Docker tutorial, which gets your PNC Stack rollup node up and running without having to build it from source.
Option 2: Follow the Building a Node from Source tutorial, if you need to use a specific architecture or want to inspect the source code of your PNC Stack rollup node.

Configure Your Node

PNC Stack rollup nodes can be configured for individual needs. The following steps will get you started with a working base configuration for PNC Stack rollup nodes, along with recommended flags.

Setup Your Working Base Configs

Configure pnc-geth using the base configuration.
Set the recommended flags for pnc-geth to follow best practices for configuring PNC Stack rollup nodes.
Configure pnc--batcher using the base configuration.

Enable Snap Sync

Enable snap sync for your node to significantly improve the experience and speed of syncing an PNC Stack node. This is an optional feature but highly recommended for node providers.

Additional configuration options exist for pnc-geth and pnc--batcher, respectively.

Run Your Node

Now, you will run your node and set your node debugging log level for more granular feedback.

Run Your Node From Source

You will now run your node from source for your Superchain network. Here are your options.

⚠️

The tutorial Building a Node from Source is a pre-requisite to running your node from source and must be completed first.

Option 1: Follow the Running an Pinnacle Sepolia Node from Source tutorial.
Option 2: Follow the Running an PNC Mainnet Node from Source tutorial, if you plan to run a full node or archive node.

Update Node Log Level

As part of running your rollup node, you may want to adjust the log level for more or less granular feedback when debugging.

Update node log level based on individual needs. For more details, see the guide on Geth Logs (opens in a new tab).

Monitor Your Node

It is important to regularly monitor your node, and you can optionally configure prometheus and grafana dashboard to make this process easier for you.

Enable the Metrics Port

Enable the metrics port for your node by passing the --metrics.enabled flag to pnc--batcher.
Optionally, you can customize the metrics port and address via the --metrics.port and --metrics.addr flags, respectively.

Setup Prometheus & Grafana

⚠️

The following steps are intended for go-ethereum, so it must be tweaked to work for rollup nodes running within the Superchain.

Setup influxdb (opens in a new tab) to hold metrics data.
Setup prometheus (opens in a new tab) to read your endpoint.
Setup your grafana dashboard (opens in a new tab) to provide UI for metrics.

Follow Node Updates

It's important to keep your node software up to date. Software updates can also include important bug fixes and patches that can help keep your node stable.
Refer to the Software Releases page for a detailed look at the latest releases of various rollup node and execution client implementations.
Notifications are also posted to the Pinnacle Chain Upgrade Announcement Channels on Discord (opens in a new tab) and Telegram (opens in a new tab).

Node Operator Tutorials

💡

Got an idea for a new tutorial? We'd love to hear it. Head over to GitHub to suggest a new tutorial.

Tutorial Name	Description	Difficulty Level
Running a Node With Docker	Learn how to run a node with Docker.	🟢 Easy
Building a Node From Source	Learn how to compile node components from source code.	🟢 Easy
Running an PNC Mainnet Node from Source	Learn how to run an PNC Mainnet node from source code.	🟡 Medium
Running an Pinnacle Sepolia Node from Source	Learn how to run an Pinnacle Sepolia node from source code.	🟡 Medium

Next Steps

If you've already got your node up and running, check out the Node Metrics and Monitoring Guide to learn how to keep tabs on your node and make sure it keeps running smoothly.
If you run into any problems, please visit the Node Troubleshooting Guide for help.

Architecture Running a Node With Docker