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Running a Node

This guide covers setting up and operating a Bitcoin Knots full node.

Hardware Requirements​

Minimum​

ResourceRequirement
CPU2+ cores
RAM4 GB
Storage~25 GB (pruned)
Network10+ Mbps
Pruned node footprint

A pruned node's real disk usage is more than just the retained blocks: the chainstate (UTXO database) alone is around 12 GB as of mid-2026, plus indexes and undo data. Budget roughly 20-25 GB even with aggressive pruning. An unpruned node needs on the order of 700 GB for the full blockchain.

ResourceRequirement
CPU4+ cores
RAM8+ GB
Storage1 TB SSD
Network50+ Mbps

Initial Setup​

1. Install Bitcoin Knots​

See Installation Guide.

2. Create Configuration​

~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
# Server mode
server=1
daemon=1

# RPC configuration (only needed for remote clients — see note below)
#rpcauth=<userpw generated with share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py>

# Performance
maxconnections=125

# Knots-specific (traditional Knots default; current releases
# temporarily default to 83)
datacarriersize=42
Prefer cookie auth or rpcauth

If you set no RPC credentials, bitcoind writes a random .cookie file to the data directory that local bitcoin-cli picks up automatically — this is the safest option for local use. For remote clients, use rpcauth (or Knots' rpcauthfile) rather than plaintext rpcuser/rpcpassword in bitcoin.conf.

dbcache

Since Knots v29.3, leaving dbcache unset auto-scales the database cache to your system memory (between 100 MiB and 2 GiB). Setting a large value manually (e.g. dbcache=4000 and up) is only worthwhile to speed up the initial block download on machines with plenty of RAM — well beyond the 4 GB minimum — and can be removed once synced.

3. Start the Node​

bitcoind -daemon

4. Monitor Sync Progress​

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo

Operation Modes​

Full Node (Default)​

Stores the complete blockchain:

# No special config needed - this is the default

Pruned Node​

Keeps only recent blocks:

bitcoin.conf
prune=10000  # Keep ~10GB of blocks

Archive Node​

Store all data including transaction index:

bitcoin.conf
txindex=1

Monitoring​

Check Status​

# Overall status
bitcoin-cli -getinfo

# Blockchain info
bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo

# Network info
bitcoin-cli getnetworkinfo

# Memory pool
bitcoin-cli getmempoolinfo

View Logs​

tail -f ~/.bitcoin/debug.log

Maintenance​

Backup​

# Stop node first
bitcoin-cli stop

# Backup wallet
cp -r ~/.bitcoin/wallets ~/bitcoin-backup/

# Backup configuration
cp ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf ~/bitcoin-backup/

Updates​

  1. Stop the node: bitcoin-cli stop
  2. Download new version
  3. Verify the release signatures and checksums before installing — see Verify Downloads
  4. Replace binaries
  5. Start node: bitcoind -daemon

Troubleshooting​

Node Won't Sync​

  1. Check internet connection
  2. Verify no firewall blocking port 8333
  3. Increase dbcache for faster sync
  4. Check disk space

High Memory Usage​

bitcoin.conf
dbcache=1000
maxmempool=300

Disk Space Running Low​

Enable pruning:

bitcoin.conf
prune=5000

See Also​