Consensus Observer

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Public Fullnodes (PFNs)
The configuration settings described in this document are for public fullnodes (PFNs) only. Consensus observer has already been enabled (by default) for validators and validator fullnodes (VFNs). It is not recommended to change the consensus observer configurations for validators and VFNs.

Consensus observer is a new data dissemination technique that reduces block synchronization time, and transaction latencies for Aptos fullnodes (i.e., VFNs and PFNs). It has been shown to reduce end-to-end transaction latencies in Mainnet by 10% to 50%, depending on the load (i.e., transactions per second).

More information on consensus observer can be found in the AIP: AIP-93: Consensus Observer.

Configure consensus observer

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Minimum Hardware Requirements
Consensus observer is not enabled on PFNs (by default) because it requires nodes to meet the minimum hardware requirements. If your node is under-provisioned and does not meet these requirements, enabling consensus observer will result in degraded performance because it requires more CPU than traditional state sync. Only enable consensus observer if your node meets the minimum hardware requirements.

Enable consensus observer

To enable consensus observer on your PFN, add the following to your node configuration file (e.g., fullnode.yaml):

fullnode.yaml

consensus:
  enable_pre_commit: false
 
consensus_observer:
  observer_enabled: true
  publisher_enabled: true

Disable consensus observer

To disable consensus observer on your PFN, add the following to your node configuration file (e.g., fullnode.yaml):

fullnode.yaml

consensus:
  enable_pre_commit: true
 
consensus_observer:
  observer_enabled: false
  publisher_enabled: false

Configure a Node State Synchronization