Prerequisites

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 Mandatory skills for stake pool operators
As a stake pool operator for Cardano, you must be competent with the following abilities:
Operational knowledge of how to set up, run and maintain a Cardano node continuously
A commitment to maintain your node 24/7/365
System operation skills including general knowledge of using Bash scripts, systemd services and cron jobs​
Server administration skills (operational and maintenance)
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 Mandatory experience for stake pool operators
Experience of development and operations (DevOps)
Experience on how to harden and secure a server.
In the Cardano Developer Portal, successfully complete the section Operate a Stake Pool including the Stake Pool Course​
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 Before continuing this guide, you must satisfy the above requirements. 🚧
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 Minimum Stake Pool Hardware Requirements
Two separate servers: 1 for block producer node, 1 for relay node
One air-gapped offline machine (cold environment)
Operating system: 64-bit Linux (i.e. Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS)
Processor: An Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more cores, at 2GHz or faster
Memory: 12GB of RAM
Storage: 50GB of free storage
Internet: Broadband internet connection with speeds at least 10 Mbps.
Data Plan: at least 1GB per hour. 720GB per month.
Power: Reliable electrical power
ADA balance: at least 505 ADA for pool deposit and transaction fees
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 Recommended Future-proof Stake Pool Hardware Setup
Three separate servers: 1 for block producer node, 2 for relay nodes
One air-gapped offline machine (cold environment)
Operating system: 64-bit Linux (i.e. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
Processor: 4 core or higher CPU
Memory: 16GB+ of RAM
Storage: 256GB+ SSD
Internet: Broadband internet connections with speeds at least 100 Mbps
Data Plan: Unlimited
Power: Reliable electrical power with UPS
ADA balance: more pledge is better, to be determined by a0, the pledge influence factor
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 Recommended Stake Pool Security
If you need ideas on how to harden your stake pool's nodes, refer to this guide.
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 Setup Ubuntu
If you need to install Ubuntu Server, refer to this guide.​
For instructions on installing Ubuntu Desktop, refer to this guide.​
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 Rebuilding Nodes
If you are rebuilding or reusing an existing cardano-node installation, refer to the section Resetting an Installation.