From www.coincashew.com/coins/overview-xmr/guide-or-how-to-run-a-full-node
Guide | How to run your own Monero node
? Why should I run my own Monero node?
- To independently have the ability to send/receive/verify transactions while maintaining the highest privacy and security, you will want to run your own node.
- If you do not run your own node, you are relying on other’s nodes to verify and send your transactions.
- To contribute to the decentralization of the Monero network.
- To use a monero wallet requires connecting to a fully synched node. Best node is your own.
- To connect to the monero network, you run a peer-to-peer application called monerod (the d stands for daemon) and it forms the backbone of the Monero network.
- Optional: Offering your node as a public remote note is to volunteer your node as a public resource by helping onboard new monero nodes and relay other monero users transactions.
Monero nodes come in two flavours.
- Full Node: Stores all blockchain data
- Pruned Node: Stores a random 1/8th of the blockchain’s data and requires much less disk space
?Minimum Full Node System Requirements
- Dual-core CPU
- 4+ GB RAM
- 160GB+ SSD HD
? Minimum Pruned Node System Requirements
- Same as full node yet with a smaller HD
- 80GB+ SSD HD
As of early 2021, a pruned node uses 32GB and a full node uses 96GB of storage space.
? 1. Configuring ports and firewall

Full Public Node with port 18089, a restricted RPC port, UNLIKE the graphic above, since you must open port 18089 as well (or instead of 18081).
# By default, deny all incoming and outgoing traffic sudo ufw default deny incoming sudo ufw default allow outgoing # Allow ssh access sudo ufw allow ssh # Allow monerod p2p port sudo ufw allow 18080 # Allow monerod restricted RPC port sudo ufw allow 18089 # Enable firewall sudo ufw enable
# Verify status sudo ufw status numbered
Setup service accounts.
# creates system user account for monero service sudo adduser --system --group --no-create-home monero
Create some folders the service needs & set their ownership:
# logfile goes here sudo mkdir /var/log/monero # blockchain database goes here sudo mkdir /var/lib/monero # create file for config touch /var/lib/monero/monerod.conf # set permissions to service account sudo chown -R monero:monero /var/lib/monero sudo chown -R monero:monero /var/log/monero
Download the latest monero node binaries.
cd $HOME wget --content-disposition https://downloads.getmonero.org/cli/linux64
Verify the download hash signature.
#download latest hashes.txt file wget https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/hashes.txt #search hashes.txt file for the computed sha256sum grep -e $(sha256sum monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2) hashes.txt
A match appears and this confirms the file is valid.
Example output:
hashes.txt:b566652c5281970c6137c27dd15002fe6d4c9230bc37d81545b2f36c16e7d476 monero-linux-x64-v0.17.1.8.tar.bz2
Extract tar and copy to /usr/local/bin
tar -xvf monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2 sudo mv monero-x86_64-linux-gnu-*/* /usr/local/bin sudo chown -R monero:monero /usr/local/bin/monero*
Cleanup files.
rm monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2 rm hashes.txt rm -rf monero-x86_64-linux-gnu-*/
Configure your Monero Node with a config file.
sudo nano /var/lib/monero/monerod.conf
Add this to the file.
#blockchain data / log locations data-dir=/var/lib/monero log-file=/var/log/monero/monero.log #log options log-level=0 max-log-file-size=0 # Prevent monerod from managing the log files; we want logrotate to take care of that # P2P full node p2p-bind-ip=0.0.0.0 # Bind to all interfaces (the default) p2p-bind-port=18080 # Bind to default port public-node=true # Advertises the RPC-restricted port over p2p peer lists # rpc settings rpc-restricted-bind-ip=0.0.0.0 rpc-restricted-bind-port=18089 # i2p settings tx-proxy=i2p,127.0.0.1:8060 # node settings prune-blockchain=true db-sync-mode=safe # Slow but reliable db writes enforce-dns-checkpointing=true enable-dns-blocklist=true # Block known-malicious nodes no-igd=true # Disable UPnP port mapping no-zmq=true # ZMQ configuration # bandwidth settings out-peers=32 # This will enable much faster sync and tx awareness; the default 8 is suboptimal nowadays in-peers=32 # The default is unlimited; we prefer to put a cap on this limit-rate-up=1048576 # 1048576 kB/s == 1GB/s; a raise from default 2048 kB/s; contribute more to p2p network limit-rate-down=1048576 # 1048576 kB/s == 1GB/s; a raise from default 8192 kB/s; allow for faster initial sync
{% hint style=”info” %} Configuration File Comments
- Modify
prune-blockchain
tofalse
if you want to store full blockchain - Modify
public-node
tofalse
if you do not want other users to use your node. rpc-restricted-bind-ip/port flags
enable restricted access to your node but allow full RPC from other Monero wallets on your LAN.- Limit the upload speed in case you have a data cap:
limit-rate-up=8192
(in kB/s). Conversely, if you have an unlimited data plan, consider increasing the upload speeds to better support the Monero network. A node can typically use up to 1TB traffic per month. {% endhint %}
Create a monerod.service
systemd unit file. Simply copy and paste the following.
cat > $HOME/monerod.service << EOF [Unit] Description=monerod After=network.target [Service] Type=forking PIDFile=/var/lib/monero/monerod.pid ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/monerod --config-file /var/lib/monero/monerod.conf --detach --pidfile /var/lib/monero/monerod.pid User=monero Group=monero Restart=always RestartSec=5 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target EOF
Move the file to /etc/systemd/system/monerod.service
sudo mv $HOME/monerod.service /etc/systemd/system/monerod.service
Restart monerod in order for config change to take effect.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable monerod
sudo systemctl restart monerod
Check the systemd service with
journalctl -fu monerod
Review the logs for any errors. CTRL + C to exit.
tail -f /var/log/monero/monero.log
{% hint style=”info” %} Allow the node to sync. This may take a few hours up to a few days depending on your node’s system resources. {% endhint %}
Your node is completely synchronized the node status says height: n / n 100% and has the same block height as a public xmr block explorer such as https://blockchair.com/monero or http://xmrchain.net/
Check your node’s block height with the following command.
monerod status
{% hint style=”success” %} Connect to your brand new node with your favorite clients such as Monerujo, CakeWallet or Monero-GUI. Simply enter your node’s IP or hostname into the remote node field. Congrats! ? {% endhint %}
⛏️ Optional: Start mining
Like winning a lotto ticket, your monero node has a chance to mine a block. You may never win a block but your hashrate helps protect and strengthen the network.
Start with 1 thread, check your mining hashrate and increase if your CPU resources allow.
Run the following command.
monerod start_mining <YOUR XMR ADDRESS> <NUMBER OF THREADS>
? Optional: Setup I2P
Download I2p.
wget https://github.com/i2p-zero/i2p-zero/releases/download/v1.20/i2p-zero-linux.v1.20.zip unzip i2p-zero-linux.v1.20 sudo cp -r i2p-zero-linux.v1.20/* /usr/local/bin sudo chown -R i2p:i2p /usr/local/bin/router rm i2p-zero-linux.v1.20.zip rm -rf i2p-zero-linux.v1.20
Setup service accounts.
# creates system user account for i2p service sudo adduser --system --group --no-create-home i2p
Create a i2pzero.service
systemd unit file. Simply copy and paste the following.
cat > $HOME/i2pzero.service << EOF [Unit] Description=i2pzero After=network.target [Service] Type=simple User=i2p Group=i2p ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/router/bin/i2p-zero Restart=always RestartSec=5 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target EOF
Move the file to /etc/systemd/system/i2pzero.service
sudo mv $HOME/i2pzero.service /etc/systemd/system/i2pzero.service
Check the logs.
journalctl -fu i2pzero
Restart i2pzero in order for config change to take effect.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable i2pzero
sudo systemctl start i2pzero
sudo systemctl status i2pzero
Based on the status, open the port <NUMBER> on your firewall for best performance.
For best performance, please open port <NUMBER> on your firewall for incoming UDP and TCP connections. This port has been randomly assigned to you. For privacy reasons, please do not share this port with others.
cd $HOME/i2p-zero-linux INBOUND_I2P=$(router/bin/tunnel-control.sh server.create 127.0.0.1 8061) echo INBOUND I2P: $INBOUND_I2P router/bin/tunnel-control.sh socks.create 8060
Append the following to your monerod config file.
sudo nano /var/lib/monero/monerod.conf tx-proxy=i2p,127.0.0.1:8060 anonymous-inbound=<Your INBOUND_I2P>,127.0.0.1:8061
Open the i2p port.
# i2p port sudo ufw allow 8060
Restart monerod.
sudo systemctl restart monerod
:tools: 2. How to update a monero node
When a new release is cut, you will want to update to the latest stable release. The following shows you how to update your monero node.
Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.
https://github.com/monero-project/monero/releases
Download the latest monero node binaries.
cd $HOME wget --content-disposition https://downloads.getmonero.org/cli/linux64
Verify the download hash signature.
#download latest hashes.txt file wget https://www.getmonero.org/downloads/hashes.txt #search hashes.txt file for the computed sha256sum grep -e $(sha256sum monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2) hashes.txt
A match appears and this confirms the file is valid.
Also check the new version number matches your expectations.
Example output:
hashes.txt:b566652c5281970c6137c27dd15002fe6d4c9230bc37d81545b2f36c16e7d476 monero-linux-x64-v0.17.1.8.tar.bz2
Extract tar file.
tar -xvf monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2
Stop, copy new binaries and restart monerod service.
sudo systemctl stop monerod
sudo mv monero-x86_64-linux-gnu-*/* /usr/local/bin sudo chown -R monero:monero /usr/local/bin/monero* sudo systemctl start monerod
Check the logs to verify the services are working properly and ensure there are no errors.
sudo systemctl status monerod
Review the logs for any errors. CTRL + C to exit.
tail -f /var/log/monero/monero.log
Cleanup files.
rm monero-linux-x64-*.tar.bz2 rm hashes.txt rm -rf monero-x86_64-linux-gnu-*/