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Deploy a PFN using Docker

This section describes how to configure and run your PFN using Docker.

Supported only on x86-64 CPUs

Running aptos-core via Docker is currently only supported on x86-64 CPUs. If you have an Apple M1/M2 (ARM64) Mac, use the aptos-core source code approach (above). If M1/M2 support is important to you, comment on this issue: https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core/issues/1412

  1. First, install Docker.
  2. Next, run the following script to prepare your local configuration and data directory for mainnet. This will download the fullnode.yaml configuration file, the genesis.blob and waypoint.txt files for your PFN, and create a data directory to store the blockchain database:
mkdir mainnet && cd mainnet
mkdir data && \
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core/mainnet/docker/compose/aptos-node/fullnode.yaml && \
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aptos-labs/aptos-networks/main/mainnet/waypoint.txt && \
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aptos-labs/aptos-networks/main/mainnet/genesis.blob
Don't want to connect to mainnet?

To connect to other networks (e.g., devnet and testnet), you can find the genesis and waypoint here ➜ https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-networks. Be sure to download the genesis.blob and waypoint.txt for those networks, instead of using the genesis and waypoint pointed to by the curl commands above.

  1. Next, make sure that the fullnode.yaml configuration file that you downloaded above contains only the following content. This will ensure that this configuration is for a PFN and not for another node type (e.g., validator or VFN):
base:
  role: "full_node"
  data_dir: "/opt/aptos/data"
  waypoint:
    from_file: "/opt/aptos/etc/waypoint.txt"

execution:
  genesis_file_location: "/opt/aptos/etc/genesis.blob"

full_node_networks:
  - network_id: "public"
    discovery_method: "onchain"
    listen_address: "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/6182"

api:
  enabled: true
  address: "0.0.0.0:8080"
Don't want to allow inbound connections?

Override the following if you do not want other PFNs connecting to yours: listen_address: "/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/6182".

  1. Next, run the following docker command:
docker run --pull=always \
    --rm -p 8080:8080 \
    -p 9101:9101 -p 6180:6180 \
    -v $(pwd):/opt/aptos/etc -v $(pwd)/data:/opt/aptos/data \
    --workdir /opt/aptos/etc \
    --name=aptos-fullnode aptoslabs/validator:mainnet aptos-node \
    -f /opt/aptos/etc/fullnode.yaml
Sudo access

Note: you may need to prefix the docker command with sudo depending on your configuration.

Docker tags

The mainnet tag always refers to the latest official Docker image tag. You can find the latest hash for comparison at: https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-networks/tree/main/mainnet

You have now successfully configured and started running a PFN in the Aptos mainnet.

Verify your PFN

If you want to verify that your PFN is running correctly, you can follow the instructions in the Verify a PFN guide.