Orbit Fullnode Synchronization Guide

A simple Docker script for launching fullnode for Orbit chains.

Recommended Hardware

Please refer to https://docs.arbitrum.io/node-running/how-tos/running-an-orbit-node#prerequisites

Preparation

Note

For steps 2 and 3, please contact AltLayer team directly for the location of the latest files for your chain.

1. Clone this repository
2. Obtain the nodeConfigFullNodeExt.json file for your chain and place in your clone directory
3. If available, extract the latest snapshot of the chain into your clone directory
   • Your clone directory should now contain a persistence folder, with all chain data stored in persistence/<chain name>
4. Fill up RPC_URL in variables.sh
   • This is the RPC URL for your settlement chain (e.g., Arbitrum Sepolia)
   • You can consider publicly available endpoints (e.g., here), but it's recommended to source one with higher rate limits to avoid any issues
5. If necessary, customize the other parameters in variables.sh
   • DOCKER_TAG: The latest supported version by your Orbit chain
   • PORT_RPC: HTTP-RPC server listening port
   • PORT_WS: WS-RPC server listening port
   • EXTRA_OPTS: Any additional nitro parameters

Operating the Node

Start

./start.sh

You should see something like:

Directory does not exist: /home/ubuntu/orbit-full-node/persistence
Creating...
Container for orbit-full-node does not exist
Creating...
dd04b00ff88cf323f5396491dfd7c95a92962a83ac450714134b3b0b130e9fb8

View Logs

docker logs -f orbit-full-node

Sanity Test

Check Sync Status

curl --location 'localhost:8547' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "eth_syncing",
  "param": [],
  "id": 2
}'

If the node is still syncing, you should see something like:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "result": {
    "batchProcessed": 927,
    "batchSeen": 927,
    "blockNum": 19086,
    "broadcasterQueuedMessagesPos": 0,
    "messageOfLastBlock": 19087,
    "messageOfProcessedBatch": 385836,
    "msgCount": 385837
  }
}

Or if the syncing has completed:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"result":false}

Check After Syncing

curl --location 'localhost:8547' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "eth_blockNumber",
  "id": 2
}'

This should return something like:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "result": "0x2139"
}

Stop

./stop.sh

Note that stopping the node will not remove the persistence folder.

References

• https://docs.arbitrum.io/run-arbitrum-node/run-full-node
• https://github.com/OffchainLabs/nitro