Bare Metal

Author: [ Godwin]

System Requirements

CPU	OS	RAM	DISK
4 -8 Cores	Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS	34 - 128GB	1TB

The Sonic Archive Node has a size of 590GB as of 3/10/2025.

Pre-Requisites

Update System

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo apt install -y git gcc make --fix-missing

Install GO

Sonic requires go version 1.22 or greater to run

# Remove previous installation of GO
rm -rf /usr/local/go # For GO installations locacated within /usr/local/go
rm -rf /usr/local/bin/go # For GO installations located within /usr/local/bin/go

# Download GO
wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.24.1.linux-amd64.tar.gz

# Extract and place within /usr/local
tar -xzf go1.24.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local && rm go1.24.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Firewall Configuration

The system firewall must allow TCP and UDP connections from/to port 5050.

Set Explicit Firewall Configuration

sudo ufw default deny incoming && sudo ufw default allow outgoing

Allow SSH

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

Allow Connections for sonic ports

sudo ufw allow 80
sudo ufw allow 443
sudo ufw allow 18545
sudo ufw allow 18546
sudo ufw allow 5050/tcp
sudo ufw allow 5050/udp

Enable Firewall Rules

sudo ufw enable

Check Status of Firewall Rules (UFW)

sudo ufw status verbose

Build Sonic Client

Create directory to store data and code repository

mkdir sonic-index && cd sonic-index

mkdir sonic-data

Download the Sonic source code from the following GitHub repository.

git clone https://github.com/0xsoniclabs/Sonic.git
cd Sonic

Switch to the most recent Sonic release.

git fetch --tags && git checkout -b v2.0.1 tags/v2.0.1

Build the Sonic binary using the provided configuration.

make all

Transfer the new binaries to the bin folder for system-wide access.

sudo cp build/sonic* /usr/local/bin/

Prime Sonic State DB

Download the most recent network archive genesis file for the Sonic mainnet or Blaze testnet.

wget https://genesis.soniclabs.com/sonic-mainnet/genesis/sonic.g

The genesis file will be used to prime your local state database and will allow you to join the network and synchronize with it. Please check the downloaded genesis file using the provided checksum.

wget https://genesis.soniclabs.com/sonic-mainnet/genesis/sonic.g.md5
md5sum --check sonic.g.md5

The expected output is sonic.g: OK.

Prime Sonic Database

Use the sonictool app (created during the building process as build/sonictool) to prime a validated archive state database for the Sonic client. Start the genesis expansion.

GOMEMLIMIT=50GiB sonictool --datadir sonic-data --cache 12000 genesis <genesis path>

The last step of the genesis processing is the state validation. Please double-check that the output log contains the following messages with details about the verified state:

StateDB imported successfully, stateRoot matches module=gossip-store index=1 root="1ccba39...9ea2be"

Create System Services

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/sonic.service

Copy and past the config settings

[Unit]
Description=Sonic Archival Node
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
TimeoutSec=900
User=root
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/sonicd \
        --datadir /root/sonic-index/sonic-data \
        --cache 12000 --nat extip:<your-node-external-ip> \
        --http \
        --http.addr=0.0.0.0 \
        --http.port=18545 \
        --http.corsdomain=* \
        --http.vhosts=* \
        --http.api=eth,web3,net,ftm,txpool,abft,dag,trace,debug \
        --ws \
        --ws.addr=0.0.0.0 \
        --ws.port=18546 \
        --ws.origins=* \
        --ws.api=eth,web3,net,ftm,txpool,abft,dag,trace,debug
Environment="GOMEMLIMIT=90GiB"
LimitNOFILE=200000

KillSignal=SIGTERM

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Run System Services

Reload System Services

systemctl daemon-reload

Run Sonic Service

systemctl enable sonic.service 
systemctl start sonic.service

Query Node

Check Logs

journalctl -xeu sonic.service -o cat

Response should follow this

Mar 12 22:12:14 sonicd[45638]: INFO [03-12|22:12:14.055] New block                                index=13323260 id=563709..664f13   gas_used=910,015     gas_rate=2936366.148           base_fee=50000000000  txs=2/0      age=666.223ms         t=4.721ms     epoch=15237
Mar 12 22:12:14 sonicd[45638]: INFO [03-12|22:12:14.371] New block                                index=13323261 id=52e8c7..ddd174   gas_used=396,112     gas_rate=1249237.219           base_fee=50000000000  txs=1/0      age=665.575ms         t=8.661ms     epoch=15237
Mar 12 22:12:14 sonicd[45638]: INFO [03-12|22:12:14.673] New block                                index=13323262 id=20a5d7..5cc02f   gas_used=251,646     gas_rate=811205.918            base_fee=50000000000  txs=1/0      age=657.086ms         t=2.020ms     epoch=15237
Mar 12 22:12:14 sonicd[45638]: INFO [03-12|22:12:14.998] New block                                index=13323263 id=48ac9c..ac0c96   gas_used=1,911,456   gas_rate=6212358.041           base_fee=50000000000  txs=3/0      age=674.246ms         t=7.683ms     epoch=15237

Check Sync Status

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0", "method":"eth_syncing", "params":[], "id":1}' \
http://localhost:18545

# If node is done syncing - the response should resemble the below.
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":false}

Check Block Number

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0", "method":"eth_blockNumber", "params":[], "id":1}' \
http://localhost:18545

# Response should resemble the below.
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0xcb4b6a"}

References

Archive Node | Sonic Documentation | EVM Layer-1 Blockchaindocs.soniclabs.com

Sonic Genesis Filesgenesis.soniclabs.com

GitHub - 0xsoniclabs/sonic: Sonic is the highest-performing EVM blockchain, combining speed, incentives, and world-class infrastructure.GitHub