Run an Aptos Indexer

Summary

To run an indexer fullnode, these are the steps in summary:

1. Make sure that you have all the required tools and packages described below in this document.
2. Follow the instructions to set up a public fullnode but do not start the fullnode yet.
3. Edit the fullnode.yaml as described below in this document.
4. Run the indexer fullnode per the instructions below.

Prerequisites

Install the packages below. Note, you may have already installed many of these while preparing your development environment. You can confirm by running which command-name and ensuring the package appears in the output (although libpq will not be returned even when installed).

Important: If you are on macOS, you will need to install Docker following the official guidance rather than brew.

For an Aptos indexer fullnode, install these packages:

• brew - /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)" Run the commands emitted in the output to add the command to your path and install any dependencies
• cargo Rust package manager - curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
• docker - brew install docker
• libpq Postgres C API library containing the pg_ctl command - brew install libpq Make sure to perform all export commands after the installation.
• postgres PostgreSQL server - brew install postgresql
• diesel - brew install diesel

Set up the database

1. Start the PostgreSQL server: brew services start postgresql
2. Ensure you can run psql postgres and then exit the prompt by entering: \q
3. Create a PostgreSQL user postgres with the createuser command (find it with which):
   Terminal

   /path/to/createuser -s postgres
4. Clone aptos-core repository if you have not already:
   Terminal

   git clone https://github.com/aptos-labs/aptos-core.git
5. Navigate (or cd) into aptos-core/crates/indexer directory.
6. Create the database schema:
   Terminal

   diesel migration run --database-url postgresql://localhost/postgres
   This will create a database schema with the subdirectory migrations located in this aptos-core/crates/indexer directory. If for some reason this database is already in use, try a different database. For example: DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres@localhost:5432/indexer_v2 diesel database reset

Start the fullnode indexer

1. Follow the instructions to set up a public fullnode and prepare the setup, but do not yet start the indexer (with cargo run or docker run).

2. Pull the latest indexer Docker image with:

   Terminal

   docker pull aptoslabs/validator:nightly_indexer

3. Edit the ./fullnode.yaml and add the following configuration:

   fullnode.yaml

   storage:
     enable_indexer: true
     # This is to avoid the node being pruned
     storage_pruner_config:
       ledger_pruner_config:
         enable: false
    
   indexer:
     enabled: true
     postgres_uri: "postgres://postgres@localhost:5432/postgres"
     processor: "default_processor"
     check_chain_id: true
     emit_every: 500

1. Run the indexer fullnode with either cargo run or docker run depending upon your setup. Remember to supply the arguments you need for your specific node:
   Terminal

   docker run -p 8080:8080 \
     -p 9101:9101 -p 6180:6180 \
     -v $(pwd):/opt/aptos/etc -v $(pwd)/data:/opt/aptos/data \
     --workdir /opt/aptos/etc \
     --name=aptos-fullnode aptoslabs/validator:nightly_indexer aptos-node \
     -f /opt/aptos/etc/fullnode.yaml
   or:
   Terminal

   cargo run -p aptos-node --features "indexer" --release -- -f ./fullnode.yaml

Restart the indexer

To restart the PostgreSQL server:

1. Shut down the server by searching for the postmaster process and killing it:

   Terminal

   ps -ef | grep -i postmaster

2. Copy the process ID (PID) for the process and pass it to the following command to shut it down:

   Terminal

   kill -INT PID

3. Restart the PostgreSQL server with:

   Terminal

   brew services restart postgresql@14