Installation

Update the system and install dependencies:

apt update && apt upgrade -yapt install -y curl nvme-cli aria2 jq

Add the package repository and install the testnet build of monad:

cat <<EOF > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/category-labs.sourcesTypes: debURIs: https://pkg.category.xyz/Suites: nobleComponents: mainSigned-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/category-labs.gpgEOFcurl -fsSL https://pkg.category.xyz/keys/public-key.asc | gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/keyrings/category-labs.gpg
apt updateapt install -y monad=0.16.0apt-mark hold monad

Create the monad service user and config directories:

useradd -m -s /bin/bash monadmkdir -p /home/monad/monad-bft/config/{forkpoint,validators} /home/monad/monad-bft/ledger

Partition your dedicated NVMe drive for the TrieDB (verify with lsblk first — this wipes the drive) and format it:

TRIEDB_DRIVE=/dev/nvme1n1   # change to your NVMe device, must have no mountpointsparted $TRIEDB_DRIVE mklabel gptparted $TRIEDB_DRIVE mkpart triedb 0% 100%
PARTUUID=$(lsblk -o PARTUUID $TRIEDB_DRIVE | tail -n 1)echo "ENV{ID_PART_ENTRY_UUID}==\"$PARTUUID\", MODE=\"0666\", SYMLINK+=\"triedb\"" | tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-triedb.rulesudevadm trigger && udevadm control --reload && udevadm settle
systemctl start monad-mpt          # formats the partitionjournalctl -u monad-mpt -n 14 -o cat   # verify it completed successfully

Open the consensus P2P port in the firewall:

ufw allow sshufw allow 8000ufw allow 8001ufw enable

Download the testnet configuration for a full node:

MF_BUCKET=https://bucket.monadinfra.comcurl -o /home/monad/.env $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/.env.examplecurl -o /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml $MF_BUCKET/config/testnet/latest/full-node-node.toml

Set a keystore password and generate your node's keys — back up /opt/monad/backup/ to an external location, it contains your node identity:

sed -i "s|^KEYSTORE_PASSWORD=$|KEYSTORE_PASSWORD='$(openssl rand -base64 32)'|" /home/monad/.envsource /home/monad/.envmkdir -p /opt/monad/backup/
monad-keystore create --key-type secp --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" > /opt/monad/backup/secp-backupmonad-keystore create --key-type bls  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-bls  --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" > /opt/monad/backup/bls-backup

Edit /home/monad/monad-bft/config/node.toml:

• beneficiary — leave the burn address 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 for a full node
• node_name — set something unique, e.g. full_<PROVIDER>-1
• confirm enable_client = true under [fullnode_raptorcast] and expand_to_group = true under [statesync]
• leave [blocksync_override] peers empty

Sign your node's name record (needed for peer discovery):

source /home/monad/.envmonad-sign-name-record \  --ip $(curl -s4 ifconfig.me) \  --tcp-port 8000 --udp-port 8000 --authenticated-udp-port 8001 \  --keystore-path /home/monad/monad-bft/config/id-secp \  --password "${KEYSTORE_PASSWORD}" \  --self-record-seq-num 1

Copy the printed self_ip:self_tcp_port, self_record_seq_num and self_name_record_sig into the [peer_discovery] section of node.toml.

Fix permissions and enable the services:

chown -R monad:monad /home/monad/systemctl enable monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Import a snapshot first (see Hard Reset note above), then start the node:

systemctl start monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Additional

View logs:

sudo journalctl -u monad-bft -f

Restart node:

sudo systemctl restart monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Check metrics (via the bundled OTEL collector):

curl localhost:8889/metrics

Stop node:

sudo systemctl stop monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpc

Remove node:

sudo systemctl disable monad-bft monad-execution monad-rpcsudo apt remove --purge -y monadsudo rm -rf /home/monad /opt/monad