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Running a Solana RPC Node

1. Install the Solana CLI​

In order to run a Solana node, you must first install Solana CLI. This software is necessary to run a Solana RPC node. The first step is to ensure that you've gotten the proper archive:

# For Testnet 
wget https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/archive/refs/tags/v1.16.5.tar.gz
tar -xvf v1.16.5.tar.gz
cd solana-1.16.5

# For Mainnet
https://github.com/solana-labs/solana/archive/refs/tags/v1.14.20.tar.gz
tar -xvf v1.14.20.tar.gz
cd solana-1.14.20

Once you've switched to the unarchived directory, you'll need to run the cargo-install-all script and solana-install command as shown below:

./scripts/cargo-install-all.sh .
export PATH=$PWD/bin:$PATH
solana-install init

This should be sufficient to start your instance of SolanaCLI, but you will not be serving RPC until completing the additional steps listed below.

2. Start the RPC Node​

Create a Validator Keypair​

Input the following command to generate validator keypair for use in the next step:

solana-keygen new -o validator-keypair.json

Run the solana-validator command​

Take a moment to review the template below and make any changes as needed for your custom configuration.

solana-validator \
    --identity /home/sol/validator-keypair.json \
    --known-validator 5D1fNXzvv5NjV1ysLjirC4WY92RNsVH18vjmcszZd8on \
    --known-validator dDzy5SR3AXdYWVqbDEkVFdvSPCtS9ihF5kJkHCtXoFs \
    --known-validator eoKpUABi59aT4rR9HGS3LcMecfut9x7zJyodWWP43YQ \
    --known-validator 7XSY3MrYnK8vq693Rju17bbPkCN3Z7KvvfvJx4kdrsSY \
    --known-validator Ft5fbkqNa76vnsjYNwjDZUXoTWpP7VYm3mtsaQckQADN \
    --known-validator 9QxCLckBiJc783jnMvXZubK4wH86Eqqvashtrwvcsgkv \
    --only-known-rpc \
    --full-rpc-api \
    --no-voting \
    --ledger /mnt/ledger \
    --accounts /mnt/accounts \
    --log /home/sol/solana-rpc.log \
    --rpc-port 8899 \
    --rpc-bind-address 0.0.0.0 \
    --private-rpc \
    --dynamic-port-range 8000-8020 \
    --entrypoint entrypoint.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
    --entrypoint entrypoint2.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
    --entrypoint entrypoint3.testnet.solana.com:8001 \
    --expected-genesis-hash 4uhcVJyU9pJkvQyS88uRDiswHXSCkY3zQawwpjk2NsNY \
    --wal-recovery-mode skip_any_corrupted_record \
    --limit-ledger-size

Once the command returns successful, you're now ready to serve RPC!

3. Apply to our Provider Incubation Program 📋​

In our current state of Testnet, there is an additional stage to pass through before you can become a provider on the Lava Network. Please fill out the application form for our Provider Incubation Program. Feel free to drop a line in our Discord once you’ve completed this step!

4. Setup your Provider on Lava Network 🌋​

Once you’ve been accepted - to set up your provider on the Lava Network, you can refer to the provider setup documentation available elsewhere in our docs. This should provide you with the necessary information to configure and operate your provider node.