> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.clishachain.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.clishachain.com/quick-start/start-node.md).

# Start Node

### Prerequisites

[Besu installed](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/get-started/install/binary-distribution.md)

### Local block data

When connecting to a network other than the network previously connected to, you must either delete the local block data or use the [`--data-path`](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/cli/options.md#data-path) option to specify a different data directory.

To delete the local block data, delete the `database` directory in the `besu/build/distribution/besu-<version>` directory.

### Genesis configuration

To define a genesis configuration, create a [genesis file](/quick-start/genesis-file.md) (for example, `genesis.json`) and specify the file using the [`--genesis-file`](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/cli/options.md#genesis-file) option.

When you specify [`--network=dev`](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/cli/options.md#network), ClishaChain uses the development mode genesis configuration with a fixed low difficulty. A node started with [`--network=dev`](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/cli/options.md#network) has an empty bootnodes list by default.

### Confirm node is running

If you started Besu with the [`--rpc-http-enabled`](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/cli/options.md#rpc-http-enabled) option, use [cURL](https://curl.haxx.se/) to call [JSON-RPC API methods](https://github.com/ClishaChain/docs/blob/main/docs/besu/reference/api/index.md) to confirm the node is running.

!!!example

````
* `eth_chainId` returns the chain ID of the network.

    ```bash
    curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_chainId","params":[],"id":1}' localhost:8545
    ```

* `eth_syncing` returns the starting, current, and highest block.

    ```bash
    curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}' localhost:8545
    ```

    For example, after connecting to Mainnet, `eth_syncing` will return something similar to:

    ```json
    {
      "jsonrpc" : "2.0",
      "id" : 1,
      "result" : {
        "startingBlock" : "0x0",
        "currentBlock" : "0x2d0",
        "highestBlock" : "0x66c0"
      }
    }
    ```
````

### Run a node for testing

To run a node that mines blocks at a rate suitable for testing purposes:

```bash
besu --network=dev --miner-enabled --miner-coinbase=0xfe3b557e8fb62b89f4916b721be55ceb828dbd73 --rpc-http-cors-origins="all" --host-allowlist="*" --rpc-ws-enabled --rpc-http-enabled --data-path=/tmp/tmpDatdir
```

You can also use the following configuration file on the command line to start a node with the same options as above:

```toml
network="dev"
miner-enabled=true
miner-coinbase="0xfe3b557e8fb62b89f4916b721be55ceb828dbd73"
rpc-http-cors-origins=["all"]
host-allowlist=["*"]
rpc-ws-enabled=true
rpc-http-enabled=true
data-path="/tmp/tmpdata-path"
```

### Run a node

To run a node on ClishaChain network specifying a genesis file and data directory:

```bash
besu --genesis-file=<path>/genesis.json --data-path=<data-path> --rpc-http-enabled --bootnodes=<bootnodes>
```

Where `<data-path>` is the path to the directory to save the chain data to. Ensure you configure a peer discovery method, such as [bootnodes](/consensus/bootnodes.md)