Customize PFN Networks

Advanced customization

Most PFN operators will not need to customize their PFN's network connections. This is only required for advanced use cases, such as connecting to specific peers, or configuring a private PFN. If you do not have a relevant use case, you should avoid making changes to your PFN's network connections.

When running a PFN, you can configure your node's network connections for a few different purposes. For example, you can add a seed peer to your node's configuration to connect your node to a specific peer of your choosing. Or you can leverage a static network identity for your PFN to allow other nodes to connect to you, as described in Generate a PFN Identity.

This document outlines how to configure the network of your PFN for different use cases, including:

• Allowing nodes to connect to your PFN.
• Connecting your PFN to seed peers.
• Configuring priority access for other PFNs.
• Configuring your PFN as a private PFN.

Allowing PFN connections

Generate a static identity

Before allowing other nodes to connect to your PFN, you will need to create a static identity. See Generate a PFN Identity.

Once you start your PFN with a static identity you can allow others to connect to your PFN:

Default port settings

In the steps below, the port numbers used are for illustration only. You can use your choice of port numbers. See PFN Requirements for more information on port settings.

• Make sure you open the TCP port of the network you wish to allow external connections on (e.g., 6180 or 6182). This is required to allow other nodes to connect to your PFN.
• If you are using Docker, simply add - "6180:6180" or - "6182:6182" under ports in your docker-compose.yaml file.
• Share your PFN static network identity with others. They can then use it in the seeds key of their node's configuration file to connect to your PFN. See the section below.
• Make sure the port number you put in the addresses matches the one you have in the PFN configuration file (for example, 6180 or 6182).

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You can share your PFN's network identity in our Discord to advertise your node for others to connect to. Note: this is optional (and not required!).

The snippets below show the configuration file entries and format for allowing other nodes to connect to your PFN. The format of each seed peer entry should have a unique peer_id, list of addresses, and a role:

<Peer_ID>:
  addresses:
  # with DNS
  - "/dns4/<DNS_Name>/tcp/<Port_Number>/noise-ik/<Public_Key>/handshake/0"
  role: Upstream
<Peer_ID>:
  addresses:
  # with IP
  - "/ip4/<IP_Address>/tcp/<Port_Number>/noise-ik/<Public_Key>/handshake/0"
  role: Upstream

For example:

B881EA2C174D8211C123E5A91D86227DB116A44BB345A6E66874F83D8993F813:
  addresses:
  - "/dns4/pfn0.node.devnet.aptoslabs.com/tcp/6182/noise-ik/B881EA2C174D8211C123E5A91D86227DB116A44BB345A6E66874F83D8993F813/handshake/0"
  role: "Upstream"
B881EA2C174D8211C123E5A91D86227DB116A44BB345A6E66874F83D8993F813:
  addresses:
  - "/ip4/100.20.221.187/tcp/6182/noise-ik/B881EA2C174D8211C123E5A91D86227DB116A44BB345A6E66874F83D8993F813/handshake/0"
  role: "Upstream"

Connecting to seed peers

Seeds are not required

Seed peers are not required for your PFN to connect to any Aptos network. All networks (e.g., devnet, testnet and mainnet) are automatically discoverable. Adding seed peers should only be done if you wish to connect to a specific peer (or set of peers), and are confident that the peers are high quality.

To add seed peers to your PFN, the seed peers' addresses should be added to your PFN configuration file, under the seeds key in the public network configuration. Each seed peer entry should have a unique peer_id, list of addresses, and a role (e.g., Upstream). The snippet below shows an example of a configuration file with seed peers manually added:

---
full_node_networks:
  - discovery_method: "onchain"
    listen_address: ...
    seeds: # All seeds are declared below
      bb14af025d226288a3488b4433cf5cb54d6a710365a2d95ac6ffbd9b9198a86a:
        addresses:
          - "/dns4/pfn0.node.devnet.aptoslabs.com/tcp/6182/noise-ik/bb14af025d226288a3488b4433cf5cb54d6a710365a2d95ac6ffbd9b9198a86a/handshake/0"
        role: "Upstream"
      7fe8523388084607cdf78ff40e3e717652173b436ae1809df4a5fcfc67f8fc61:
        addresses:
          - "/dns4/pfn1.node.devnet.aptoslabs.com/tcp/6182/noise-ik/7fe8523388084607cdf78ff40e3e717652173b436ae1809df4a5fcfc67f8fc61/handshake/0"
        role: "Upstream"
      f6b135a59591677afc98168791551a0a476222516fdc55869d2b649c614d965b:
        addresses:
          - "/dns4/pfn2.node.devnet.aptoslabs.com/tcp/6182/noise-ik/f6b135a59591677afc98168791551a0a476222516fdc55869d2b649c614d965b/handshake/0"
        role: "Upstream"

Configuring priority access

To configure your PFN to allow other nodes to connect to it even when your PFN has hit the maximum number of available network connections, follow this method:

In the configuration file for your PFN add the other node as a seed peer with the Downstream role. This will allow the other node to connect directly to you with priority access. For example:

seeds:
  <other node's peer id>
    addresses:
    - <address of the other node>
    role: Downstream # Allows the node to connect to us

Similarly, to make the other node dial out to your PFN, add the following to the other node's configuration file:

seeds:
  <your node's peer id>
    addresses:
    - <address of your npde>
    role: PreferredUpstream # Allows the node to connect to the seed peer

Configuring private PFNs

You can also configure your PFN as a private PFN should you wish. What this means is that your PFN will not allow unauthenticated connections, specifically, any node that is not a validator, VFN or seed peer will be unable to connect to your PFN.

To configure your PFN as a private PFN, add the following to your PFN configuration file. Note, you should add this to the public network entry in the full_node_networks configuration:

...
full_node_networks:
  - discovery_method: "onchain"
    listen_address: ...
    max_inbound_connections: 0  # Prevents any unauthenticated inbound connections
    mutual_authentication: true  # Requires authenticated connections
    ...
...