Configure Node Settings

Choose your network, node type, and configure settings. The configuration preview updates in real-time.

Set up Instance

Provision a server with the following specifications.

Use local NVMe, not cloud block storage (EBS, Persistent Disk). Details →

# Install Docker using convenience scriptcurl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.shsudo sh get-docker.shsudo usermod -aG docker $USERnewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-world

# Install Dockersudo yum update -ysudo yum install -y dockersudo systemctl start dockersudo systemctl enable dockersudo usermod -aG docker $USERnewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-world

# Install Docker using convenience scriptcurl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.shsudo sh get-docker.shsudo usermod -aG docker $USERnewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-world

# Install Docker Desktop for Mac# Download from: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/echo "Please download and install Docker Desktop for Mac from the official Docker website."# After installation, you can test it by running:docker run -it --rm hello-world

If you do not want to use Docker, you can follow the manual installation instructions.

Create Configuration Files

Run these commands to create the config files. AvalancheGo reads from these default locations on startup.

mkdir -p ~/.avalanchego/configs/chains/C

cat > ~/.avalanchego/configs/node.json << 'EOF'{  "network-id": "mainnet",  "public-ip-resolution-service": "opendns",  "http-host": "0.0.0.0",  "http-port": 9650,  "staking-port": 9651}EOF

# Error generating chain config

Configure Firewall

Open the required ports for your node to communicate with the network.

# Open P2P port only (validators don't expose RPC)sudo ufw allow 9651/tcp comment 'AvalancheGo P2P'sudo ufw --force enablesudo ufw status

Validators only need the P2P port. The RPC port is bound to localhost for security.

Run Docker

Start the node. Config is read from the mounted volume — no env vars needed.

docker run -it -d \    --name avago \    -p 127.0.0.1:9650:9650 -p 9651:9651 \    -v ~/.avalanchego:/root/.avalanchego \    -e AVAGO_CONFIG_FILE=/root/.avalanchego/configs/node.json \    avaplatform/avalanchego:v1.14.2

Restart anytime with docker restart avago — config changes are picked up automatically.

Wait for the Node to Bootstrap

Your node will now bootstrap and sync the Primary Network (P-Chain, X-Chain, and C-Chain). This process can take several hours to days depending on your hardware and network connection.

You can follow the process by checking the logs with the following command:

docker logs -f avago

Backup Validator Credentials

Your validator identity is defined by these files in ~/.avalanchego/staking/

# Backup your validator credentialsmkdir -p ~/avalanche-backupcp -r ~/.avalanchego/staking ~/avalanche-backup/# Verify backupls -la ~/avalanche-backup/staking/