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Running an Aztec Node with Sedge (Full Node or Sequencer)

What is Aztec?​

Aztec is a privacy-first L2 that uses a sequencer to order and publish L2 blocks to Ethereum (L1).

Sedge can generate a Docker Compose setup for an Aztec node, including:

  • An Ethereum execution client
  • An Ethereum consensus client
  • The Aztec node client (full node or sequencer)

Prerequisites​

Supported networks

Sedge currently provides Aztec sequencer templates for --network mainnet and --network sepolia.

Before you generate the stack, you will need:

  • Docker + Docker Compose plugin (see Dependencies)
  • (Sequencer only) An Aztec sequencer keystore (keystore.json)
  • A P2P IP address that other nodes can reach (typically your machine’s public IP)

Workflow breakdown​

  1. Generate your Aztec sequencer keystore
  2. Generate the Sedge stack
  3. Run the stack
  4. (Optional) Enable monitoring (Prometheus + Grafana)

1) Generate the Aztec sequencer keystore (sequencer only)​

Aztec expects the keystore to be generated using the Aztec tooling:

aztec validator-keys new

This will produce a keystore.json file you will pass to Sedge.

For the latest Aztec instructions, see the Aztec docs on sequencer management: https://docs.aztec.network/network/setup/sequencer_management.

2) Generate the stack with Sedge​

Sedge uses a single generator command for Aztec. Select the mode with --type:

  • --type node: Aztec full node (default)
  • --type sequencer: Aztec sequencer (requires keystore + P2P IP)

Aztec full node (default)​

From your Sedge directory (or wherever you run Sedge), generate an Aztec full node stack:

sedge generate aztec \
  --network sepolia \
  --execution nethermind \
  --consensus lighthouse

Aztec sequencer​

From your Sedge directory (or wherever you run Sedge), generate an Aztec sequencer stack:

sedge generate aztec \
  --type sequencer \
  --network sepolia \
  --execution nethermind \
  --consensus lighthouse \
  --aztec-keystore-path /path/to/keystore.json \
  --aztec-p2p-ip <YOUR_PUBLIC_IP>
note

--aztec-keystore-path is required when running with --type sequencer.

tip

Setting --execution-api-url and --consensus-url will skip generating the execution and consensus clients, and configure the Aztec sequencer to use your existing endpoints instead.

This is useful if you already have synced execution/consensus nodes. It will save synchronization time.

For example you can set: sedge generate aztec --type sequencer --execution-api-url http://execution:port --consensus-url http://consensus:port -n sepolia --aztec-keystore-path /path/to/keystore.json --aztec-p2p-ip <YOUR_PUBLIC_IP>

Useful optional flags​

  • Use a custom Aztec image:
sedge generate aztec --aztec-image <IMAGE>
  • Pass extra Aztec flags:
sedge generate aztec --aztec-extra-flag "p2p.maxPeers=200"

3) Run the stack​

Start the generated Docker Compose stack:

sedge run

If you generated into a custom directory, pass the same path to sedge run:

sedge run --path /path/to/sedge-data

4) Monitoring (Prometheus + Grafana)​

Monitoring through Grafana Dashboards​

Sedge provides an integrated monitoring stack with pre-configured Grafana dashboards. These dashboards display detailed insights about your Aztec node/sequencer performance, including key metrics such as L1/L2 block height progress, peer count, and sequencer health state.

How to Launch the Grafana Service​

  1. To initialize and start the monitoring stack, run the following command:
sedge monitoring init aztec

The following flags can also be included:

  • --metrics-port: Port where Prometheus will scrape the Aztec metrics from the collector (default: 9464).
  • --otlp-grpc-port: OTLP gRPC receiver port for Aztec nodes to send metrics to (default: 4317).
  • --otlp-http-port: OTLP HTTP receiver port for Aztec nodes to send metrics to (default: 4318).
  • --log-level: Collector log level (default: info).
  • --metric-expiry: How long to keep stale metric series before expiring them (default: 5m).
  1. This will install and configure the monitoring services for your Aztec node, including Grafana and Prometheus, as well as the Grafana OnCall and Prometheus alertmanager modules.
  2. Once the monitoring stack is running, you can access the Grafana dashboards by navigating to http://localhost:3000.

OTLP metrics port (must match)​

The generated Aztec sequencer config sends OTLP HTTP metrics to:

http://sedge_aztec_exporter:<PORT>/v1/metrics

By default, <PORT> is 4318. If you change the port, update it in both places:

  • Aztec generation: sedge generate aztec --otel-metrics-port <PORT>
  • Monitoring collector: sedge monitoring init aztec --otlp-http-port <PORT>

Example (port 14318):

sedge generate aztec --otel-metrics-port 14318 \
  --type sequencer \
  --aztec-keystore-path /path/to/keystore.json \
  --aztec-p2p-ip <YOUR_PUBLIC_IP>
sedge monitoring init aztec --otlp-http-port 14318

Alerting for Aztec Exporter and Sequencer​

To monitor critical events from your Aztec node operations (exporter down, sequencer unhealthy, etc.), Grafana OnCall is connected to Prometheus Alertmanager. Sedge's monitoring stack provides pre-configured alerts for common Aztec failure scenarios.

I. Initialize the monitoring stack with Aztec-specific configurations:​

sedge monitoring init aztec

II. Verify Prometheus targets and rules​

  1. Open Prometheus at http://localhost:9090.
  2. Visit /targets to confirm the Aztec exporter is up.
  3. Visit /rules to confirm the Aztec alert group is loaded.

III. View alerts in Grafana OnCall​

In your Grafana instance (http://localhost:3000):

  1. Go to Alerts & IRM and select OnCall.
  2. You should see Aztec alerts such as:
    • Aztec exporter down
    • Node not processing L2 blocks
    • Low peer count
    • Node not seeing new L1 blocks
    • Sequencer not healthy
    • High block proposal failure rate
    • Blob publishing failures

IV. Configure Contact Points in Grafana OnCall​

To start receiving alerts:

  1. Navigate to OnCall settings in Grafana.
  2. Ensure that your contact points (email, Slack, Telegram, etc.) are configured for notifications.
  3. Grafana will send notifications based on the pre-configured alert rules whenever critical events occur.

Troubleshooting​

  • No Aztec metrics in Grafana:

    • Confirm the monitoring stack is running (sedge monitoring init aztec)
    • Confirm the ports match (see OTLP metrics port (must match))
    • Check Prometheus targets at http://localhost:9090/targets

  • Sequencer not reachable by peers:

    • Ensure --aztec-p2p-ip is a reachable IP (not 127.0.0.1)