Best Practices

Recommendations for optimizing hardware, configuration, and operation for peak performance and stability.

These integrated practices focus on maximizing the reliability, efficiency, and security of your Erigon node setup.

1. Hardware and Data Integrity

Practice	Details	Rationale
Use a High-End NVMe SSD	This is a non-negotiable prerequisite. NVMe SSDs are essential for reliable, high-performance node operation.	Erigon is highly disk I/O intensive. Fast storage prevents bottlenecks and sync issues.
Integrate Hardware Reliability	Use ECC memory and consider a disk RAID setup. Do regular backups of your chain data.	While Erigon's database is fully-transactional and resilient to graceful shutdowns, crashes, and power outages, it is not protected against hardware failures (disk or RAM corruption).
Symlink Data Directories (Advanced)	For systems with multiple disks, consider symlinking snapshots and temp directories to a cheaper, high-capacity drive, while keeping the main chaindata on the fast NVMe.	Optimizes cost and capacity while retaining performance for critical files.
Maintain Sufficient RAM	Ensure your system has at least the recommended RAM for your chosen network and sync mode.	Insufficient RAM, even with Erigon's memory efficiency, will lead to OOM-kill events (Out-of-Memory).

2. Node Configuration and Startup

Practice	Details	Rationale
Make a Mindful Pruning Mode Decision	The --prune.mode flag is irreversible. Choose full for most cases, minimal for validators with limited space, and archive only if all historical data is absolutely needed.	An incorrect choice can lead to a necessary resync. Full is a balance of performance and space.
Employ a Process Manager	Always run Erigon as a systemd or supervisor service.	Ensures a graceful shutdown and allows for automatic restarts, contributing to stability.
Use a Dedicated User Account	Run the Erigon service with a non-root, dedicated user account.	Follows security best practices and prevents potential permission-related errors.
Avoid Graceful Shutdown (Unless Necessary)	While a process manager ensures a graceful shutdown, know that Erigon is safe against abrupt halts like process kills (kill -9) or a power outage.	Erigon's database is fully-transactional, meaning writes are atomic ("all-or-nothing"), preventing "partial writes" and database corruption from non-hardware failures.
Tune Sync Speed with Flags	Use flags like --sync.loop.block.limit and --batchSize to tune the synchronization speed, especially during the initial sync.	Allows you to optimize the sync process based on your system's hardware capabilities.
Lock the Latest State in RAM (Advanced)	On systems with high historical RPC traffic, a tool like vmtouch can be used to lock the latest state files in RAM.	Improves RPC response times for common queries by keeping the latest data in the fastest memory.

3. Security and Monitoring

Practice	Details	Rationale
Configure Firewall Rules	Configure your firewall to allow only the necessary ports for P2P and RPC communication.	Standard security practice to limit attack surface.
Never Expose RPC Ports	Never expose the RPC ports to the public internet without a reverse proxy.	RPC (Remote Procedure Call) ports grant access to node functions; public exposure is a major security risk.
Monitor Your Node's Health	Implement comprehensive monitoring using tools like Prometheus and Grafana to track key metrics like disk I/O, CPU load, and sync status in real time.	Essential for proactively identifying performance bottlenecks and stability issues.
Enable JSON-RPC Compression	Use the --http.compression flag.	Reduces network bandwidth usage for RPC requests.
Tune RPC Batch Concurrency	Adjust the --rpc.batch.concurrency flag.	Limits the number of parallel database reads to prevent a single batch request from overloading the server.

4. Maintenance and Development

Practice	Details	Rationale
Keep Your Binary Updated	Regularly update your binary. Erigon is in active development.	New releases often contain critical bug fixes and performance improvements essential for stability.
Use Official Docker Images	If using Docker, rely on the official images provided by the Erigon team.	Best compatibility and stability for containerized deployment.
Run a Test Sync on a Testnet	Before running on Mainnet, consider performing a sync on a testnet (e.g., Sepolia).	Familiarizes you with the process and your system's performance characteristics.
Report Issues with Diagnostics	When a bug is encountered, provide a detailed report on GitHub with a stack trace and other diagnostic information.	Helps the development team quickly identify and fix issues.

5. Validator-Specific Practices

Practice	Details	Rationale
Check Validator Health	For validator nodes, a daily check of the node's logs and service status is essential.	Confirms that the node is signing attestations and performing its duty.
Maintain a Sufficient ETH Balance	Validators must maintain an adequate ETH balance on their signer address.	Required to cover transaction fees for checkpoint submissions.