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Validators participate in Sui’s consensus protocol and secure the network. This guide covers the complete process of setting up a validator node.

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Prerequisites

Before setting up a validator:
  • Meet the validator system requirements
  • Have sufficient SUI for staking (minimum stake requirement)
  • Generate validator key pairs
  • Obtain genesis.blob for the target network

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Key Generation

Validators require four cryptographic key pairs:
KeySchemePurpose
protocol.keyBLS12381Transaction signing, consensus
account.keyEd25519Controls validator assets and staking
network.keyEd25519P2P networking, state sync
worker.keyEd25519Narwhal worker validation

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Generate Keys

Using the Sui CLI: 
# Download sui CLI
wget https://releases.sui.io/$SUI_SHA/sui
chmod +x sui

# Generate protocol key (BLS12381)
./sui keytool generate bls12381

# Generate account, network, and worker keys (Ed25519)
./sui keytool generate ed25519
./sui keytool generate ed25519
./sui keytool generate ed25519
This creates key files like:
  • bls-0x1b7a4038f207d6c65cc106dd5be7270b3031e671fc8f9c1318b19e94a3bf3ed5.key
  • 0x0061b30cdda02b6f55f575f1485a2890ec5c95b753deabbf823b6de7c936eb26.key
Rename and secure these files: 
chmod 600 *.key
mv bls-*.key protocol.key
mv 0x*.key account.key
# Rename remaining keys to network.key and worker.key
Store your private keys securely. Loss of these keys means loss of validator access and staked funds. Use hardware security modules (HSMs) or encrypted storage for production validators.

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Installation

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Download Binary

export SUI_SHA=<version>
wget https://releases.sui.io/$SUI_SHA/sui-node
chmod +x sui-node
sudo mv sui-node /opt/sui/bin/

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Using Docker

docker pull mysten/sui-node:$SUI_SHA

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Configuration

1

Create directory structure

sudo useradd sui
sudo mkdir -p /opt/sui/bin
sudo mkdir -p /opt/sui/config
sudo mkdir -p /opt/sui/db
sudo mkdir -p /opt/sui/key-pairs
sudo chown -R sui:sui /opt/sui
2

Copy keys to the validator

sudo cp protocol.key account.key network.key worker.key /opt/sui/key-pairs/
sudo chmod 600 /opt/sui/key-pairs/*.key
sudo chown -R sui:sui /opt/sui/key-pairs
3

Create validator configuration

Create /opt/sui/config/validator.yaml:
protocol-key-pair:
  path: /opt/sui/key-pairs/protocol.key
worker-key-pair:
  path: /opt/sui/key-pairs/worker.key
network-key-pair:
  path: /opt/sui/key-pairs/network.key
account-key-pair:
  path: /opt/sui/key-pairs/account.key
db-path: /opt/sui/db/authorities_db
network-address: /ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/8080/http
metrics-address: 0.0.0.0:9184
admin-interface-port: 1337
json-rpc-address: 0.0.0.0:9000

consensus-config:
  db-path: /opt/sui/db/consensus_db

p2p-config:
  listen-address: 0.0.0.0:8084
  external-address: /dns/$HOSTNAME/udp/8084  # UPDATE THIS
  anemo-config:
    max-concurrent-connections: 0

genesis:
  genesis-file-location: /opt/sui/config/genesis.blob

enable-index-processing: false

authority-store-pruning-config:
  num-epochs-to-retain: 0
  num-epochs-to-retain-for-checkpoints: 2

checkpoint-executor-config:
  checkpoint-execution-max-concurrency: 200
  local-execution-timeout-sec: 10

metrics:
  push-interval-seconds: 60
  push-url: https://metrics-proxy.mainnet.sui.io:8443/publish/metrics
4

Copy genesis blob

sudo cp genesis.blob /opt/sui/config/
sudo chown sui:sui /opt/sui/config/genesis.blob

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Deployment

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Using Systemd

Create /etc/systemd/system/sui-node.service: 
[Unit]
Description=Sui Node

[Service]
User=sui
WorkingDirectory=/opt/sui/
Environment=RUST_BACKTRACE=1
Environment=RUST_LOG=info,sui_core=debug,consensus=debug,jsonrpsee=error
ExecStart=/opt/sui/bin/sui-node --config-path /opt/sui/config/validator.yaml
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Enable and start: 
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable sui-node
sudo systemctl start sui-node

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Using Docker Compose

Create docker-compose.yaml: 
version: "3"

services:
  validator:
    container_name: validator
    image: mysten/sui-node:${SUI_SHA}
    environment:
      - RUST_BACKTRACE=1
      - RUST_LOG=info,sui_core=debug,consensus=debug,jsonrpsee=error
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "8081:8081/tcp"
      - "8081:8081/udp"
      - "8082:8082/udp"
      - "8084:8084/udp"
      - "9184:9184"
    network_mode: "host"
    volumes:
      - ./validator.yaml:/opt/sui/config/validator.yaml:ro
      - ./genesis.blob:/opt/sui/config/genesis.blob:ro
      - ./key-pairs:/opt/sui/key-pairs/:ro
      - /opt/sui/db:/opt/sui/db:rw
    command:
      [
        "/opt/sui/bin/sui-node",
        "--config-path",
        "/opt/sui/config/validator.yaml",
      ]
    restart: on-failure
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-file: "10"
        max-size: "5g"
Start the validator: 
export SUI_SHA=<version>
docker compose up -d

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Network Configuration

Open the following ports on your firewall:
PortProtocolDirectionPurpose
8080TCPInboundProtocol/transaction interface
8081TCP/UDPInbound/OutboundConsensus interface
8082UDPInbound/OutboundNarwhal worker
8084UDPInbound/OutboundP2P state sync
8443TCPOutboundMetrics push
9184TCPLocalhostMetrics scraping

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On-Chain Registration

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Become a Validator Candidate

1

Create validator info

sui validator make-validator-info \
  "My Validator" \
  "Validator description" \
  "https://example.com/image.png" \
  "https://example.com" \
  "validator.example.com" \
  1000
This generates validator.info and copies keys from your sui.keystore.
2

Submit candidacy on-chain

sui validator become-candidate validator.info
Verify the transaction succeeded in the output.
3

Stake SUI tokens

Stake tokens to your validator address. Once you have the minimum stake, you can join the committee.
4

Join the validator committee

sui validator join-committee
You will become an active validator starting from the next epoch.

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Verification

Check validator status: 
# View logs
journalctl -u sui-node -f

# Check metrics
curl http://localhost:9184/metrics | grep highest_synced_checkpoint

# Check on-chain metadata
sui validator display-metadata
Monitor your validator on:

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Next Steps

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