Node Installation

Node Installation

This page explains how to install a Monad full node and prepare it for validator use on testnet.

Recommended disk layout

Disk 1 → OS + MonadBFT Disk 2 → TrieDB / Execution

RAID is not recommended for TrieDB workloads because it may increase latency and reduce IOPS. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

---

1. Install the operating system

This example assumes a Hetzner Dedicated Server.

Enable Rescue System in the Hetzner Robot panel, reboot the server, and connect via SSH:

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Run the installer:

installimage

Use only one disk for the OS.

Example layout:

DRIVE1 /dev/nvme0n1
#DRIVE2 /dev/nvme1n1

SWRAID 0

BOOTLOADER grub

PART /boot ext3 1G
PART swap swap 16G
PART / ext4 500G
PART /home ext4 all

After installation, reboot the server.

Important: the second NVMe disk may still contain an old partition table from a previous installation. installimage only installs the OS on the disk you specify and does not automatically wipe other disks.

This is normal.

You will verify the disk layout in the next step. If the second disk is not empty, wipe it before configuring TrieDB.

If the second disk is not empty, wipe it before configuring TrieDB.

wipefs -a /dev/nvme1n1
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/nvme1n1
partprobe /dev/nvme1n1

---

2. Verify disks

lsblk

Expected result:

nvme0n1 -> OS disk
nvme1n1 -> empty disk

---

3. Check kernel version

uname -r

Expected:

6.8.0-90-generic

Any kernel version >= 6.8.0.60 is recommended.

---

4. Disable HyperThreading / SMT

Check SMT status:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/active

• 1 = enabled

• 0 = disabled

You can also check:

lscpu | grep Thread

If it shows:

Thread(s) per core: 2

SMT is enabled.

If it shows:

Thread(s) per core: 1

SMT is disabled.

Disable via GRUB

nano /etc/default/grub

Find:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

Change to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nosmt"

Apply changes:

update-grub
reboot

Hetzner-specific case

Some Hetzner servers override GRUB settings through:

nano /etc/default/grub.d/hetzner.cfg

Find:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="consoleblank=0"

Change to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="consoleblank=0 nosmt"

Apply:

update-grub
reboot

Verify again:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/active
lscpu | grep Thread

---

5. Update the system

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If the kernel was upgraded, reboot the server.

Install dependencies:

apt install -y curl nvme-cli aria2 jq

---

6. Install Monad

Add the APT repository:

cat <<EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/category-labs.sources
Types: deb
URIs: https://pkg.category.xyz/
Suites: noble
Components: main
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/category-labs.gpg
EOF

curl -fsSL https://pkg.category.xyz/keys/public-key.asc \
  | gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/category-labs.gpg

Install Monad:

apt update
apt install -y monad=0.13.0
apt-mark hold monad

Monad docs currently show testnet install instructions with the monad package pinned and held through APT. Before publishing, verify the latest testnet package version in the official docs or release notes.

After installation, we can check the node version.

monad-rpc --version

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7. Create the monad user

useradd -m -s /bin/bash monad

Create the directory structure:

mkdir -p /home/monad/monad-bft/config \
         /home/monad/monad-bft/ledger \
         /home/monad/monad-bft/config/forkpoint \
         /home/monad/monad-bft/config/validators

---

8. Configure TrieDB

Be careful. Do not format the system disk.

Check all NVMe disks:

nvme list
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,MODEL

Pick the empty disk with no mounted filesystem.

Example:

TRIEDB_DRIVE=/dev/nvme1n1

Create the partition table:

parted $TRIEDB_DRIVE mklabel gpt
parted $TRIEDB_DRIVE mkpart triedb 0% 100%

Create a udev rule:

PARTUUID=$(lsblk -o PARTUUID $TRIEDB_DRIVE | tail -n 1)
echo "Disk PartUUID: ${PARTUUID}"

echo "ENV{ID_PART_ENTRY_UUID}==\"$PARTUUID\", MODE=\"0666\", SYMLINK+=\"triedb\"" \
  | tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-triedb.rules

Reload rules:

udevadm trigger
udevadm control --reload
udevadm settle
ls -l /dev/triedb

Check LBA format

nvme id-ns -H $TRIEDB_DRIVE | grep 'LBA Format' | grep 'in use'

Expected:

Data Size: 512 bytes (in use)

If not:

nvme format --lbaf=0 $TRIEDB_DRIVE

Initialize TrieDB:

systemctl start monad-mpt && journalctl -u monad-mpt -n 14 -o cat

If there are no errors, TrieDB is ready.

---

9. Configure firewall

ufw allow ssh
ufw allow 8000
ufw allow 8001
ufw enable
ufw status

Optional spam protection:

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p udp --dport 8000 -m length --length 0:1400 -j DROP

---

10. Install OTEL collector

OTEL_VERSION="0.139.0"
OTEL_PACKAGE="https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases/download/v${OTEL_VERSION}/otelcol_${OTEL_VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"

curl -fsSL "$OTEL_PACKAGE" -o /tmp/otelcol_linux_amd64.deb
dpkg -i /tmp/otelcol_linux_amd64.deb

cp /opt/monad/scripts/otel-config.yaml /etc/otelcol/config.yaml
systemctl restart otelcol

Metrics endpoint:

http://IP:8889/metrics

What to check next:

systemctl status otelcol --no-pager

If everything is okay, you should see something like:

• active (running)

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11. Download config files

Full node

MF_BUCKET=https://bucket.monadinfra.com
curl -o /home/monad/.env $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/.env.example
curl -o /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/full-node-node.toml

Validator

MF_BUCKET=https://bucket.monadinfra.com
curl -o /home/monad/.env $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/.env.example
curl -o /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/node.toml

These are the same config paths described in the official node-ops docs.

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12. Set keystore password

sed -i "s|^KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=$|KEYSTORE_PASSWORD='$(openssl rand -base64 32)'|" /home/monad/.env
source /home/monad/.env

Create backup directory:

mkdir -p /opt/monad/backup
echo "Keystore password: ${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" > /opt/monad/backup/keystore-password-backup

---

13. Generate BLS and SECP keys

bash <<'EOF'
set -e

source /home/monad/.env

if [[ -z "$KEYSTORE_PASSWORD" || \
      -f /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp || \
      -f /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-bls ]]; then
  echo "Skipping: missing KEYSTORE_PASSWORD or keys already exist."
  exit 1
fi

monad-keystore create \
  --key-type secp \
  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp \
  --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" > /opt/monad/backup/secp-backup

monad-keystore create \
  --key-type bls \
  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-bls \
  --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" > /opt/monad/backup/bls-backup

grep "public key" /opt/monad/backup/secp-backup /opt/monad/backup/bls-backup \
  | tee /home/monad/pubkey-secp-bls

echo "Success: New keystores generated"
EOF

Mandatory external backup:

• /opt/monad/backup/secp-backup

• /opt/monad/backup/bls-backup

• /opt/monad/backup/keystore-password-backup

If you lose the server and do not have these backups, your node identity cannot be recovered.

---

14. Configure node.toml

Open:

nano /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml

Beneficiary

For a full node:

beneficiary = "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"

For a validator:

beneficiary = "0xYOUR_ADDRESS"

Node name

node_name = "full_blockpro_1"

Public full node settings

Make sure these are enabled:

[fullnode_raptorcast]
enable_client = true

[statesync]
expand_to_group = true

For a public full node, [blocksync_override] should remain empty.

---

15. Sign the node name record

source /home/monad/.env
monad-sign-name-record \
  --address $(curl -s4 ifconfig.me):8000 \
  --authenticated-udp-port 8001 \
  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp \
  --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" \
  --self-record-seq-num 1

Then insert the values into the peer_discovery section in node.toml:

Now open the node.toml file and find the peer_discovery section.

nano /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml

It should look approximately like this:

[peer_discovery]
self_address = "YOUR_IP:8000"
self_record_seq_num = 1
self_name_record_sig = "YOUR_SIGNATURE"

---

16. Optional remote config fetching

Add these values to /home/monad/.env:

REMOTE_VALIDATORS_URL='https://bucket.monadinfra.com/validators/testnet/validators.toml'
REMOTE_FORKPOINT_URL='https://bucket.monadinfra.com/forkpoint/testnet/forkpoint.toml'

Monad nodes can fetch validators.toml and forkpoint.toml automatically on startup when these variables are defined.

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17. Optional trace calls

For archive or RPC-oriented nodes, you can enable call traces:

systemctl edit monad-execution

Example override:

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/monad \
    ... \
    --trace_calls \
    ...

This is useful for workloads like debug_traceTransaction.

---

18. Start the node

Set permissions:

chown -R monad:monad /home/monad/

Enable services:

systemctl enable monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Hard reset and restore snapshot:

bash /opt/monad/scripts/reset-workspace.sh
curl -sSL https://bucket.monadinfra.com/scripts/testnet/restore-from-snapshot.sh | bash

Start services:

systemctl start monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Statesync usually completes quickly on testnet, after which RPC becomes active and blocksync catches up the remainder. The official docs also describe hard reset plus snapshot restore as the normal fast recovery path.

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19. Validator registration

Once the node is fully synced, you can register a validator.

Monad validator registration uses the staking precompile and the add-validator flow. Before proceeding, make sure your full node is fully synced and that you have your SECP key, BLS key, auth address, and self-stake amount ready.

Install staking CLI

First, install the required packages:

apt update
apt install -y python3 python3-venv python3-pip git

It is recommended to install and use the staking CLI under the monad user instead of root.

sudo -u monad bash -lc '
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/monad-developers/staking-sdk-cli.git
cd staking-sdk-cli
python3 -m venv cli-venv
source cli-venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install .
'

Create the staking CLI config

The CLI expects a config file. Copy the example config to the monad user home directory:

sudo -u monad cp /home/monad/staking-sdk-cli/staking-cli/config.toml.example /home/monad/config.toml

Then edit it if needed:

sudo -u monad nano /home/monad/config.toml

Launch the staking CLI TUI

sudo -u monad bash -lc '
cd ~/staking-sdk-cli
source cli-venv/bin/activate
python3 staking-cli/main.py tui --config-path ~/config.toml
'

Recover private keys

Load your environment variables first:

source /home/monad/.env

Recover the SECP private key:

monad-keystore recover \
  --password "$KEYSTORE_PASSWORD" \
  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp \
  --key-type secp

Recover the BLS private key:

monad-keystore recover \
  --password "$KEYSTORE_PASSWORD" \
  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-bls \
  --key-type bls

Register the validator

After recovering your keys, export them as environment variables:

export SECP_PRIVATE_KEY="your_secp_private_key"
export BLS_PRIVATE_KEY="your_bls_private_key"
export AUTH_ADDRESS="your_auth_address"

Then run the validator registration command:

sudo -u monad bash -lc '
cd ~/staking-sdk-cli
source cli-venv/bin/activate
python3 staking-cli/main.py add-validator \
  --secp-privkey "'"${SECP_PRIVATE_KEY}"'" \
  --bls-privkey "'"${BLS_PRIVATE_KEY}"'" \
  --auth-address "'"${AUTH_ADDRESS}"'" \
  --amount 100_000
'

Verify pubkeys

cat /home/monad/pubkey-secp-bls

Expected success output

Tx status: 1
Validator Created! ID: 19

According to Monad docs, validator registration requires valid keys and signatures, and a minimum self-stake of 100,000 MON. Activation into the active set depends on stake ranking and active-set rules.