Run an RPC Node (with nearup)
We encourage you to set up your node with Neard instead of Nearup as Nearup is not used on Mainnet. Please head to Run a Node for instructions on how to setup a RPC node with Neard.
Heads upThe README for
nearup
(linked above) may be all you need to get a node up and running intestnet
andlocalnet
.nearup
is exclusively used to launch NEARtestnet
andlocalnet
nodes.nearup
is not used to launchmainnet
nodes.
Prerequisites
- Git
- Nearup: Make sure
nearup
is installed. You can installnearup
by following the instructions at https://github.com/near-guildnet/nearup.
Steps to Run an RPC Node using nearup
Running a RPC node is very similar to running a validator node as both types of node use the same nearcore
release. The main difference for running a validator node is requiring validator_key.json
to be used by the validator node to support its work of validating blocks and chunks on the network.
First, clone the nearcore
repo:
git clone https://github.com/near/nearcore.git
cd nearcore
Checkout the version you wish to build:
git checkout <version>
You can then run:
make neard
This will compile the neard
binary for the version you have checked out, it will be available under target/release/neard
.
Note that compilation will need over 1 GB of memory per virtual core
the machine has. If the build fails with processes being killed, you
might want to try reducing number of parallel jobs, for example:
CARGO_BUILD_JOBS=8 make neard
.
NB. Please ensure you build releases through make
rather than cargo
build --release
. The latter skips some optimizations (most notably
link-time optimisation) and thus produces a less efficient executable.
nearup run testnet --binary-path path/to/nearcore/target/release
You will then be prompted for an Account ID below. You should leave this empty as you are running an RPC node, not a validator node.
Enter your account ID (leave empty if not going to be a validator):
Wait until initialization finishes, use the following command to follow logs:
$ nearup logs --follow
Then run:
$ nearup stop
Retrieve a copy of the latest RPC snapshot:
⚠️ FREE SNAPSHOT SERVICE BY FASTNEAR WILL BE DEPRECATGED STARTING JUNE 1ST, 2025. We strongly recommend all node operators to use Epoch Sync when possible.
The latest daily snapshots are made available to the public by FastNear, and can be used to set up a validator node or RPC. For detailed instructions, please refer to HERE.