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This page outlines the minimum and recommended system requirements for running Sui nodes.

Validator Requirements

Validators participate in consensus and require higher performance hardware:

Hardware

ComponentMinimum SpecificationRecommended Specification
CPU24 physical cores48+ physical cores
Memory128 GB RAM256 GB RAM
Storage4 TB NVMe SSD8 TB+ NVMe SSD
Network1 Gbps10 Gbps

CPU Requirements

  • Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or ARM64
  • Features: AVX2 instruction set recommended for cryptographic operations
  • Cores: 24 physical cores minimum (48 virtual cores with hyperthreading)
  • Performance: High single-thread performance for consensus operations

Memory Requirements

  • Minimum: 128 GB RAM
  • Recommended: 256 GB RAM for production validators
  • Swap: Not recommended; validators should not swap to disk

Storage Requirements

  • Type: NVMe SSD required (SATA SSDs are too slow)
  • Capacity: 4 TB minimum, 8 TB+ recommended
  • IOPS: 10,000+ random read/write IOPS
  • Throughput: 500+ MB/s sequential read/write
  • Latency: Less than 1ms average latency

Storage Growth

The blockchain database grows continuously:
  • Rate: Approximately 50-100 GB per month (network dependent)
  • Pruning: Configure authority-store-pruning-config to manage growth
  • Planning: Provision at least 12 months of growth capacity

Network Requirements

  • Bandwidth: 1 Gbps minimum, 10 Gbps recommended
  • Latency: Less than 100ms to other validators (lower is better)
  • Reliability: Stable connection with less than 1% packet loss
  • IPv4: Required (IPv6 optional)

Required Ports

PortProtocolDirectionPurpose
8080TCPInboundProtocol/transaction interface
8081TCP/UDPInbound/OutboundConsensus interface
8082UDPInbound/OutboundNarwhal worker
8084UDPInbound/OutboundP2P state sync
8443TCPOutboundMetrics push
9184TCPLocalhostMetrics scraping

Fullnode Requirements

Fullnodes store blockchain state and serve RPC requests but do not participate in consensus:

Hardware

ComponentMinimum SpecificationRecommended Specification
CPU8 cores16+ cores
Memory32 GB RAM64 GB RAM
Storage2 TB SSD4 TB+ NVMe SSD
Network500 Mbps1 Gbps

CPU Requirements

  • Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or ARM64
  • Cores: 8 cores minimum, 16+ cores recommended
  • Features: AVX2 support recommended

Memory Requirements

  • Minimum: 32 GB RAM
  • Recommended: 64 GB RAM for production fullnodes serving RPC traffic
  • Swap: Limited swap acceptable (not recommended for performance)

Storage Requirements

  • Type: SSD required (NVMe recommended for high-traffic nodes)
  • Capacity: 2 TB minimum, 4 TB+ recommended
  • IOPS: 5,000+ random read/write IOPS
  • Throughput: 200+ MB/s sequential read/write

Network Requirements

  • Bandwidth: 500 Mbps minimum, 1 Gbps recommended
  • Latency: less than 200ms to validators (lower is better)
  • IPv4: Required

Required Ports

PortProtocolPurpose
8080TCPTransaction interface
8084UDPP2P state sync
9000TCPJSON-RPC interface
9184TCPMetrics (localhost)

Operating System

Supported Operating Systems

  • Linux: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 11+ (recommended)
  • macOS: macOS 12+ (development only, not recommended for production)
  • Windows: Not officially supported

Linux Distribution Recommendations

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: Recommended for most users
  • Debian 11+: Good alternative with long-term support
  • RHEL 8+/Rocky Linux: Suitable for enterprise environments

Required Software

  • Kernel: Linux kernel 5.4+
  • libc: glibc 2.31+ or musl libc
  • systemd: For service management (recommended)
  • Docker: 20.10+ (if using containerized deployment)

Environment Variables

Key environment variables for node operation:
# Logging configuration
RUST_LOG=info,sui_core=debug,consensus=debug,jsonrpsee=error
RUST_LOG_JSON=1  # Enable JSON structured logging

# Backtrace on errors
RUST_BACKTRACE=1

# Database configuration
SUI_DB_SYNC_TO_DISK=true  # Enable fsync for durability

# Cache sizing (optional)
SUI_MAX_CACHE_SIZE=100000
SUI_PACKAGE_CACHE_SIZE=1000
SUI_OBJECT_CACHE_SIZE=100000

Performance Tuning

File Descriptors

Increase the file descriptor limit:
# Add to /etc/security/limits.conf
sui soft nofile 65535
sui hard nofile 65535

TCP/IP Stack

Optimize network settings for high-throughput connections:
# Add to /etc/sysctl.conf
net.core.rmem_max = 134217728
net.core.wmem_max = 134217728
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 67108864
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 67108864
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr
Apply settings:
sudo sysctl -p

Disk I/O Scheduler

Use the none or kyber scheduler for NVMe drives:
echo none | sudo tee /sys/block/nvme0n1/queue/scheduler

Monitoring Requirements

Ensure adequate resources for monitoring infrastructure:
  • Prometheus: 20 GB disk, 4 GB RAM
  • Grafana: 10 GB disk, 2 GB RAM
  • Log aggregation: Size based on retention requirements

Backup and Recovery

Plan for backup infrastructure:
  • Snapshot storage: 2x node database size
  • Backup bandwidth: Sufficient for daily snapshots
  • Recovery time objective (RTO): less than 4 hours recommended

Cloud Provider Recommendations

AWS Instance Types

Validators:
  • r6i.8xlarge (32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)
  • r6i.12xlarge (48 vCPUs, 384 GB RAM)
  • Storage: io2 volumes with provisioned IOPS
Fullnodes:
  • m6i.4xlarge (16 vCPUs, 64 GB RAM)
  • Storage: gp3 volumes with 3,000+ IOPS

Google Cloud Instance Types

Validators:
  • n2-highmem-32 (32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)
  • n2-highmem-48 (48 vCPUs, 384 GB RAM)
  • Storage: SSD persistent disks
Fullnodes:
  • n2-highmem-16 (16 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM)
  • Storage: Balanced persistent disks

Azure Instance Types

Validators:
  • Standard_E32s_v5 (32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)
  • Storage: Premium SSD with P50 or higher
Fullnodes:
  • Standard_E16s_v5 (16 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM)
  • Storage: Premium SSD

Cost Estimation

Monthly operating costs (approximate): Validator:
  • Cloud compute: $2,000-4,000/month
  • Storage: $500-1,000/month
  • Network: $100-500/month
  • Total: $2,600-5,500/month
Fullnode:
  • Cloud compute: $500-1,000/month
  • Storage: $200-400/month
  • Network: $50-200/month
  • Total: $750-1,600/month
Bare metal hosting typically reduces costs by 40-60% compared to cloud providers.

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