🚀 Deploy a NEAR Endorsements Validator Node (Mainnet)

⚠️ Important: To participate as a validator, you must have a NEAR account with at least 5 NEAR available. You will also need access to that account in order to sign transactions and generate your validator key. If you're creating a new account, make sure it is funded and you know its full address (account ID) before starting.

This guide walks you through installing and running a NEAR endorsements validator node from scratch. No advanced knowledge is required, just basic familiarity with Linux CLI.

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📋 Recommended Server Specs

Component	Minimum Requirement
CPU	4 vCPUs (Intel/AMD)
RAM	8 GB
Disk	80 GB SSD
OS	Debian 12 (recommended)

💡 Note: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS also works fine.

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📦 Step 1 – Install Dependencies

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y git curl wget jq build-essential clang python3

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🦀 Step 2 – Install Rust and NEAR Core

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source $HOME/.cargo/env

git clone https://github.com/near/nearcore.git
cd nearcore
export NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION=2.6.3
git checkout $NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION
make release

🔧 This may take a few minutes. The neard binary will be built in target/release/.

✅ Once the build completes, return to your home directory before continuing:

cd ~

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📡 Step 3 – Prepare NEAR Directory

Create the required directory structure:

mkdir -p ~/.near/data && cd ~/.near

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🔑 Step 4 – Generate node_key.json

Use the following command to generate a node_key.json:

~/nearcore/target/release/neard init --chain-id mainnet

⚠️ This command will also create default versions of config.json and genesis.json. These files will be replaced in the next step with the official configuration from the NEAR network.

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📡 Step 5 – Download Official Configuration Files

Download and overwrite the default configuration with the official mainnet files:

wget -O ~/.near/genesis.json https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/genesis.json
wget -O ~/.near/config.json https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/validator/config.json

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🔐 Step 6 – Retrieve validator_key.json

To participate as a validator on NEAR, you'll need a validator_key.json tied to your validator account. This is automatically saved when you authenticate with NEAR CLI using your funded account.

First, install NEAR CLI:

sudo npm install -g near-cli

Before logging in, set the network environment to mainnet and make it persistent:

export NEAR_ENV=mainnet
echo 'export NEAR_ENV=mainnet' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Then, authenticate with your validator account:

near login

🔐 This will open a browser window where you can sign in with your NEAR Wallet (Meteor or any other wallet of your choice) and authorize the CLI.

💡 If you're using a server without a GUI, copy the URL and open it in a browser on another device. After signing the transaction, the CLI might return an error because it cannot open the local redirect (127.0.0.1). This is expected. Simply provide your NEAR account ID when prompted and confirm that the message Logged in successfully appears.

⚠️ Make sure the account you're logging in with is already funded with at least 5 NEAR, and that you know the full account ID before proceeding. If you're creating a new account during the login process, it may not be properly saved or funded, leading to errors.

Once logged in, your credentials will be saved locally in:

~/.near-credentials/mainnet/<your-validator-account>.json

Rename and move this file to the required location:

mv ~/.near-credentials/mainnet/<your-validator-account>.json ~/.near/validator_key.json

⚠️ This file contains your private key. Keep it secure and never share it.

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🕝 Step 7 – Upload Existing Keys (if needed)

If you're restoring an existing validator identity, transfer your node_key.json and validator_key.json into ~/.near/:

scp node_key.json username@your.server:/home/username/.near/
scp validator_key.json username@your.server:/home/username/.near/

💡 If you already generated node_key.json in Step 4, you can skip copying it manually.

🔐 These are critical for your validator identity. Never share them.

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⚡ Step 8 – Sync via Epoch Sync

# Get list of boot nodes (filtering duplicate IPs)
BOOT_NODES=$(curl -s -X POST https://rpc.mainnet.near.org -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "network_info", "params": [], "id": "sync"
}' | jq -r '.result.active_peers[] | "\(.addr) \(.id)"' | sort -u | awk '!seen[$1]++ {print $2 "@" $1}' | paste -sd "," -)

# Inject into config.json
jq --arg nodes "$BOOT_NODES" '.network.boot_nodes = $nodes' ~/.near/config.json > ~/.near/config.json.tmp && mv ~/.near/config.json.tmp ~/.near/config.json

Optional: use snapshot sync. May use more storage space.

cd ~/.near
wget https://snapshots.mainnet.near.org/latest.tar.gz
rm -rf data/*
tar -xvf latest.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C data/

🔍 If you're applying the snapshot after starting the node, make sure to stop it first:

sudo systemctl stop neard

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🔧 Step 9 – Create systemd Service

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/neard.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=NEAR Validator Node
After=network.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=$HOME/nearcore/target/release/neard run
WorkingDirectory=$HOME/.near
Restart=always
RestartSec=30
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl enable --now neard

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🗺 Step 10 – Monitor the Logs

journalctl -u neard -f -n 100

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⚙️ (Optional) Network Performance Tuning

If you're running on a dedicated server and want to tune TCP parameters for better validator performance:

MaxExpectedPathBDP=8388608

sudo sysctl -w net.core.rmem_max=$MaxExpectedPathBDP
sudo sysctl -w net.core.wmem_max=$MaxExpectedPathBDP
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_rmem="4096 87380 $MaxExpectedPathBDP"
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_wmem="4096 16384 $MaxExpectedPathBDP"
sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_slow_start_after_idle=0

sudo bash -c "cat > /etc/sysctl.d/99-near-validator.conf" <<EOL
net.core.rmem_max = $MaxExpectedPathBDP
net.core.wmem_max = $MaxExpectedPathBDP
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 $MaxExpectedPathBDP
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 16384 $MaxExpectedPathBDP
net.ipv4.tcp_slow_start_after_idle = 0
EOL

sudo sysctl --system

💡 These changes apply immediately and persist after reboot. No need to stop the neard service to apply them.

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✅ Step 11 – Announce the Validator (Stake)

To activate your validator, you must deposit and stake NEAR from your validator account:

near call <your-validator-account> deposit_and_stake --accountId <signer-account> --amount "999"

• Replace <your-validator-account> with the account you want to stake for. This is the account whose validator key is in validator_key.json.
• Replace <signer-account> with the account that is executing and signing the transaction. If you're using the same account for both, these will be identical.

📅 Example:

near call validator-account.near deposit_and_stake --accountId validator-account.near --amount "999"

• --amount is the amount of NEAR tokens to stake (minimum is 30 NEAR to enter the validator set).

🔐 This command signs a transaction. Ensure you’re logged in with the right account and have enough balance.

Check your validator status:

near validators current

Your account may appear in one of these states:

• current: actively validating
• next: will start validating in the next epoch
• proposals: pending approval
• kicked out: did not meet requirements or failed performance checks

You're now officially participating in NEAR's proof-of-stake consensus! 🎉

🔗 Extra Resources

• NEAR Validator Docs
• NEAR GitHub
• NEAR Explorer
• Snapshot source

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✅ Always validate each step as you go.

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