Run validators and RPC nodes with erpc validator and erpc rpc

Deploy a node

# check the server, pin the client releases, store the node in 1Password
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 init --host <address> --vault <vault id> --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# install, fetch a snapshot, apply the firewall, start
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 deploy --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# both layers, sync and head
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 status --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# check the server, pin the client releases, store the node in 1Password
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 init --host <address> --vault <vault id> --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# install, fetch a snapshot, apply the firewall, start
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 deploy --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# both layers, sync and head
erpc rpc --chain ethereum -n mainnet --name eth1 status --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Choose the chain, network and host

• erpc validator (alias v), erpc rpc (alias r) and erpc node (alias n, for Avalanche and Sui) run the node commands.
• Run a command group without a verb (erpc validator) to list its verbs.
• On node commands, --json has to go before the command: erpc --json rpc ….

Commands that work on every chain

Chains and guides

What erpc needs on the server

• erpc logs in over SSH as a sudo user (ubuntu by default) with your key, from the 1Password SSH agent or SSH_AUTH_SOCK, and pins the host key the first time.
• The server needs /usr/bin/python3 and a login whose sudo asks for no password.
• /opt must already be a real directory owned by root that neither its group nor others can write, as Ubuntu ships it; erpc does not create it. /opt/erpc and the runs and uploads directories erpc makes in it are held to the same rule, and none of these may be a symbolic link: to keep them on another volume, mount the volume at /opt/erpc. For a node, the filesystem that holds /opt/erpc must also keep POSIX ACLs (ext4 and XFS do by default), or erpc stops.
• A new Solana host needs Ubuntu 24.04, systemd 255 and x86-64 with AVX2 and SHA CPU features. ERPC requires at least 32 logical threads and 480 GiB of usable memory for a Solana RPC node, 24 threads and 300 GiB for a mainnet validator, and 24 threads and 120 GiB for a testnet validator.

How erpc runs a node

• Most chains run the client as its own user that cannot log in, check each release against a pinned checksum before it is installed, and apply an nftables firewall with a timed rollback that a fresh management connection must confirm. Not all of them do: a new Solana node is built on the server from a pinned source commit, and a Solana node recorded on the solv backend runs as a login user with passwordless sudo and fetches some tools without a checksum.
• erpc applies no firewall to Solana validators on the solv backend, Ethereum validators or Bitcoin nodes, so filtering those hosts is yours to do.
• Keep an independent way to reach the host during network changes.
• While a protected service's drop-in directory holds another file, such as an override.conf from systemctl edit, the firewall step refuses and changes nothing. Move your drop-in out of the directory and run the command again.
• Secrets sent from your machine reach the server over standard input, never on a command line.
• A new Solana validator syncs under a separate identity with voting disabled. deploy --activate-validator switches a healthy host to its original registered identity after public registration and native BLS checks. --backend solv resumes an existing solv host and cannot create a new one.
• Do not restore an Ethereum validator's signer from a backup: move a signer with erpc v --chain eth migrate.

Where each chain stands