geth-prysm-node

Step by step guide for setting up a docker-compose.yml for running a Sepolia Ethereum full node using Geth as the execution client and Prysm as the consensus client on an Ubuntu-based system.

Hardware Requirements

OS: Ubuntu 20.04 or later
RAM	CPU	Disk
8-16 GB	4-6 cores	Initially 550 GB SSD - Can grow upto 1 TB

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Step 1. Install Dependecies

Packages:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

sudo apt install curl iptables build-essential git wget lz4 jq make gcc nano automake autoconf tmux htop nvme-cli libgbm1 pkg-config libssl-dev libleveldb-dev tar clang bsdmainutils ncdu unzip libleveldb-dev  -y

Docker:

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Test Docker
sudo docker run hello-world

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

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Step 2. Create Directories

mkdir -p /root/ethereum/execution
mkdir -p /root/ethereum/consensus

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Step 3. Generate the JWT secret:

openssl rand -hex 32 > /root/ethereum/jwt.hex

Verify JWT secrets exist:

cat /root/ethereum/jwt.hex

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Step 4. Configure docker-compose.yml

cd ethereum

nano docker-compose.yml

• Replace the following code into your docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  geth:
    image: ethereum/client-go:stable
    container_name: geth
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 30303:30303
      - 30303:30303/udp
      - 8545:8545
      - 8546:8546
      - 8551:8551
    volumes:
      - /root/ethereum/execution:/data
      - /root/ethereum/jwt.hex:/data/jwt.hex
    command:
      - --sepolia
      - --http
      - --http.api=eth,net,web3
      - --http.addr=0.0.0.0
      - --authrpc.addr=0.0.0.0
      - --authrpc.vhosts=*
      - --authrpc.jwtsecret=/data/jwt.hex
      - --authrpc.port=8551
      - --syncmode=snap
      - --datadir=/data
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

  prysm:
    image: gcr.io/prysmaticlabs/prysm/beacon-chain
    container_name: prysm
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /root/ethereum/consensus:/data
      - /root/ethereum/jwt.hex:/data/jwt.hex
    depends_on:
      - geth
    ports:
      - 4000:4000
      - 3500:3500
    command:
      - --sepolia
      - --accept-terms-of-use
      - --datadir=/data
      - --disable-monitoring
      - --rpc-host=0.0.0.0
      - --execution-endpoint=http://geth:8551
      - --jwt-secret=/data/jwt.hex
      - --rpc-port=4000
      - --grpc-gateway-corsdomain=*
      - --grpc-gateway-host=0.0.0.0
      - --grpc-gateway-port=3500
      - --min-sync-peers=7
      - --checkpoint-sync-url=https://checkpoint-sync.sepolia.ethpandaops.io
      - --genesis-beacon-api-url=https://checkpoint-sync.sepolia.ethpandaops.io
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

---

Step 5. Port conflicts:

• The setup uses ports 30303, 8545, 8546, 8551, 4000, and 3500. Verify they’re free:

netstat -tuln | grep -E '30303|8545|8546|8551|4000|3500'

If a port is in use, edit the docker-compose.yml to map to a different host port (e.g., 8546:8545 to 8547:8545).

Step 6. Run Geth & Prysm Nodes

• Start Geth & Prysm Nodes:

docker compose up -d

• Node Logs

# All lines of logs:
docker compose logs -f

# Last 100 lines of logs:
docker compose logs -fn 100

• As you see in the logs, Prysm is synced, and Geth yet to be synced later.

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Step 6. Checking If Nodes Are Synced

➡️Execution Node (Geth)

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}' http://localhost:8545

• ✅Response if fully synced:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":false}

• 🚫Response if still syncing:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":{"currentBlock":"0x1a2b3c","highestBlock":"0x1a2b4d","startingBlock":"0x0"}}

• You'll see an object with startingBlock, currentBlock, and highestBlock, indicating the sync progress.

➡️Beacon Node (Prysm)

curl http://localhost:3500/eth/v1/node/syncing

• ✅Response if fully synced:

{"data":{"head_slot":"12345","sync_distance":"0","is_syncing":false}}

If is_syncing is false and sync_distance is 0, the beacon node is fully synced.

• 🚫Response if still syncing:

{"data":{"head_slot":"12345","sync_distance":"100","is_syncing":true}}

• If is_syncing is true, the node is still syncing, and sync_distance indicates how many slots behind it is.

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Step 7. VPS Firewall

• Enable Firewall:

sudo ufw allow 22
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw enable

• Allow incoming traffic on the Geth/Prysm ports:

sudo ufw allow 8545/tcp    # Geth HTTP RPC
sudo ufw allow 3500/tcp    # Prysm HTTP API
sudo ufw allow 30303/tcp   # Geth P2P
sudo ufw allow 30303/udp   # Geth P2P

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Step 8. Getting the RPC Endpoints

Execution Node (Geth)

Geth provides an HTTP RPC endpoint for interacting with the execution layer of Ethereum. Based on docker-compose.yml setup, Geth exposes port 8545 for HTTP RPC. The endpoints are:

• Inside the VPS: http://localhost:8545
• Outside the VPS: http://<vps-ip>:8545 (replace <vps-ip> with your VPS’s public IP address, e.g., http://203.0.113.5:8545).
• Aztec Sequencer Execution RPC: http://<vps-ip>:8545. Since the Aztec Sequencer uses a bridge network to isolate docker container, you can NOT access Geth via localhost.

Beacon Node (Prysm)

Prysm, as the beacon node, offers an HTTP gateway on port 3500. the endpoints are:

• Inside the VPS: http://localhost:3500
• Outside the VPS: http://<vps-ip>:3500 (e.g., http://203.0.113.5:3500).
• Aztec Sequencer Consensus Beacon RPC: http://<vps-ip>:3500. Since the Aztec Sequencer uses a bridge network to isolate docker container, you can NOT access Prysm via localhost.

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Step 9. Monitor System

• Monitor your hardware usage:

htop

• Monitor your Disk usage:

df -h

• Monitor Geth Disk usage:

docker exec -it geth du -sh /data

• Monitor Prysm Disk usage:

docker exec -it prysm du -sh /data