Operator Guide

During Suzaku's testnet, we offer operators the ability to become validators of multiple permissionless Avalanche L1s and the first Suzaku-secured networks. This important step will allow us to set up workflows and communication channels with operators.

This guide walks you through the process of becoming a Suzaku operator: from Suzaku Core smart contract interaction to hardware setup.

Testnet phases overview

The Suzaku testnet is divided into 4 phases, each with its own set of goals and requirements. The testnet phases are as follows:

• Phase 1 - 🐉 Seiryu: Proof-of-Authority (PoA) L1 with ValidatorManager contract deployed on the L1 itself.
  This is the most basic post-ACP-77 L1 deployment and will allow testing tooling and coordination end-to-end.
• Phase 2 - 🐅 Byakko: PoA L1 with ValidatorManager on the C-Chain and message forwarding through relayers.
  This is a setup closer to Suzaku v1, where the protocol contracts are hosted on the C-Chain, and validator set updates are automatically propagated to the P-Chain.
• Phase 3 - 🐢 Genbu: Suzaku-secured PoS L1 (only using the L1 staking token for security).
  All validator set management will go through the Suzaku protocol core, involving stakers, curators, and operators.
• Phase 4 - 🦌 Kirin: Multiple Suzaku-secured L1s, using different security models: restaking, dual-staking, etc.

Suzaku Core Operator registration

AvalancheGo node setup

Being a Suzaku operator during the testnet phase boils down to running an AvalancheGo (opens in a new tab) node and tracking one or more Avalanche L1s that are part of the Suzaku protocol.

There are multple ways to run an AvalancheGo node:

• Using the Ash Console (opens in a new tab): recommended if you are creating a new AvalancheGo node and will be using AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Using the ansible-avalanche-collection (opens in a new tab) Ansible role: recommended if you are creating a new AvalancheGo node and are familiar with Ansible and/or you use a cloud provider not supported by the Ash Console
• Manually: i.e., you are already running an AvalancheGo node

Node hardware requirements

• CPU: Equivalent of 2 AWS vCPU
• RAM: 4 GiB
• Storage: 50 GiB
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04

avalancheNodeConfig:
  avalanchego_version: 1.12.0
  avalanchego_track_subnets:
    - 22XB5waRLucd7upLoKpJ1R8j5hUDnnTzGc9Z7giEKjPYdu5VDK
  avalanchego_vms_install:
    suaku-seiryu-vm: 0.6.12
  avalanchego_vms_list:
    suaku-seiryu-vm:
      download_url: https://github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/releases/download
      id: dkr3SJRCf2QfRUaepreGf2PtfEtpLHuPixeBMNrf1QQBxWLNN
      ash_vm_type: SubnetEVM
      binary_filename: subnet-evm
      versions_comp:
        0.6.12:
          ge: 1.11.13
          le: 1.12.0

Node registration

During Phase 1 of the Suzaku testnet, we invite participants to register their interest in becoming Suzaku operators by creating a new Operator Registration Issue (opens in a new tab).

Operators will need to provide the following information:

• Operator name
• Operator description
• NodeID
• BLS Public Key
• BLS Proof of Possession

curl -s -X POST --data '{
  "jsonrpc":"2.0",
  "id"     :1,
  "method" :"info.getNodeID"
  }' -H 'content-type:application/json;' X.X.X.X:9650/ext/info | jq

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    "nodeID": "NodeID-A8rdxK5Yddh9kwbMkgkpb7oEN1GAxiBkz",
    "nodePOP": {
      "publicKey": "0xa2d8524afaa3954d6d030e372af6606e959cf62b5442be07d1113c75c67c4cf6742a3338180eec1a325e9010eaaa3656",
      "proofOfPossession": "0xaeb3362dba19f937825f671c2a8395e91b5350909bff25918eb759f7c79bbd7beb86f67d36082f63a98504c1e6ef3bcf0980ea141e8a583373f4294f01401644c2386f39c47b53aa91a47ae90310c2c29e536de4d12f862f7d74c11f5ab2899a"
    }
  },
  "id": 1
}

Once submitted, the Suzaku team will let you know in the issues when the node has been successfully registered to the insert-cool-testnet-name L1 validator set.

Upon successful registration, an operator can confirm that their node is part of the validator set by running the following commands:

curl --location --request POST https://api.avax-test.network/ext/bc/P \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "id"     :1,
    "method" :"platform.getValidatorsAt",
    "params" :{
      "height": "proposed",
      "subnetID":"22XB5waRLucd7upLoKpJ1R8j5hUDnnTzGc9Z7giEKjPYdu5VDK"
    }
  }' | jq

Output:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    [...]
    "NodeID-78ibWpjtZz5ZGT6EyTEdu8VKmboUHTuGT": {
      "publicKey": "0x8327dbe1ba411c270637b080a8471fb41eeb8a9b3917af0727501ef8bdaa901d063780bd702f30f458a61f3d4297dc98",
      "weight": "100"
    },
    [...]
  },
  "id": 1
}

If your validator's NodeID is in the list, you are successfully registered as a Suzaku operator and validating !