Provider Installation

This guide shows how to install the Akash provider on your Kubernetes cluster.

Time: 30-45 minutes

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

Required

  • Kubernetes cluster deployed and verified
  • Domain name that you control (e.g., provider.example.com)
  • Akash wallet with:
    • Minimum 50 AKT recommended (0.5 AKT deposit per bid)
    • Funded account (Fund Your Account)

Optional (if configured)

  • GPU support enabled
  • Persistent storage (Rook-Ceph) deployed

STEP 1 - Prepare Provider Wallet

Don’t have an Akash wallet yet?

Export Wallet Key

On your local machine (where you created your Akash wallet):

Terminal window
# Export your private key
provider-services keys export <your-key-name>

You’ll be prompted for your keyring passphrase. The output will look like:

-----BEGIN TENDERMINT PRIVATE KEY-----
kdf: bcrypt
salt: <salt-value>
type: secp256k1


<base64-encoded-key>
-----END TENDERMINT PRIVATE KEY-----

Save this output to a file called key.pem.

Create Key Secret

Create a password for your key:

Terminal window
echo "your-secure-password" > key-pass.txt

STEP 2 - Setup on Control Plane Node

SSH into your Kubernetes control plane node and create the provider directory:

Terminal window
mkdir -p /root/provider
cd /root/provider

Upload Files

Upload the following files to /root/provider/:

  • key.pem (your private key)
  • key-pass.txt (your key password)

Encode Secrets

Terminal window
# Base64 encode the key
KEY_SECRET=$(cat /root/provider/key.pem | openssl base64 -A)


# Base64 encode the password
KEY_PASSWORD=$(cat /root/provider/key-pass.txt | openssl base64 -A)


# Get your provider address
ACCOUNT_ADDRESS=$(provider-services keys show <your-key-name> -a)

STEP 3 - Install Helm and Add Akash Repository

Install Helm

Terminal window
# Download Helm
wget https://get.helm.sh/helm-v4.0.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -zxvf helm-v4.0.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
install linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm


# Verify installation
helm version

Add Akash Helm Repository

Terminal window
helm repo add akash https://akash-network.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

STEP 4 - Create Namespaces

Create all required namespaces:

Terminal window
kubectl create namespace akash-services
kubectl create namespace lease
kubectl label namespace akash-services akash.network=true
kubectl label namespace lease akash.network=true

STEP 5 - Install Akash RPC Node

Important: Running your own RPC node is a strict requirement for Akash providers. This removes dependence on public nodes and ensures reliable access to the blockchain.

Install Akash Node via Helm

The default installation uses blockchain snapshots for fast synchronization.

Terminal window
helm install akash-node akash/akash-node \
  -n akash-services

Verify Node is Running

Terminal window
kubectl -n akash-services get pods -l app=akash-node

Expected output:

NAME             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
akash-node-1-0   1/1     Running   0          2m

Sync Time: The node will download and extract a blockchain snapshot, then sync to the latest block. This typically takes ~5 minutes. You can proceed with the next steps while it syncs.

STEP 6 - Install Akash Operators

Install Hostname Operator

Terminal window
helm install akash-hostname-operator akash/akash-hostname-operator \
  -n akash-services

Install Inventory Operator

Without persistent storage:

Terminal window
helm install inventory-operator akash/akash-inventory-operator \
  -n akash-services \
  --set inventoryConfig.cluster_storage[0]=default \
  --set inventoryConfig.cluster_storage[1]=ram

With persistent storage (adjust beta3 to your storage class):

Terminal window
helm install inventory-operator akash/akash-inventory-operator \
  -n akash-services \
  --set inventoryConfig.cluster_storage[0]=default \
  --set inventoryConfig.cluster_storage[1]=beta3 \
  --set inventoryConfig.cluster_storage[2]=ram

Note:

  • Index 0 is always default (ephemeral storage)
  • Index 1 is ram (SHM/shared memory) if no persistent storage, or your persistent storage class (beta1/beta2/beta3)
  • Index 2 is ram (SHM/shared memory) if you have persistent storage
  • All providers should support SHM for deployments requiring shared memory

Apply Provider CRDs

Terminal window
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/akash-network/provider/main/pkg/apis/akash.network/crd.yaml

STEP 7 - Configure DNS

Configure at Your DNS Provider

Log into your DNS provider (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Route53, etc.) and create the following DNS records:

1. Provider A Record:

Type: A
Name: provider (or your subdomain)
Value: <your-provider-public-ip>
TTL: 3600 (or Auto)

2. Wildcard Ingress A Record:

Type: A
Name: *.ingress.provider (or *.ingress.your-subdomain)
Value: <your-provider-public-ip>
TTL: 3600 (or Auto)

Example:

provider.example.com           →  203.0.113.45
*.ingress.provider.example.com →  203.0.113.45

Verify DNS Propagation

After configuring DNS, verify both records resolve correctly:

Terminal window
# Check provider domain
dig provider.example.com +short


# Check wildcard ingress domain
dig test.ingress.provider.example.com +short

Both should return your provider’s public IP.

Note: DNS propagation can take a few minutes. Wait until both records resolve before proceeding.

STEP 8 - Create Provider Configuration

Download Price Script

Terminal window
cd /root/provider
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/akash-network/provider/main/price_script_generic.sh > price_script.sh
chmod +x price_script.sh

Create provider.yaml

Replace the values with your actual configuration:

Terminal window
cat > /root/provider/provider.yaml << 'EOF'
---
from: "$ACCOUNT_ADDRESS"
key: "$KEY_SECRET"
keysecret: "$KEY_PASSWORD"
domain: "provider.example.com"
node: "http://akash-node-1:26657"
withdrawalperiod: 12h
chainid: "akashnet-2"
attributes:
  - key: region
    value: us-west
  - key: host
    value: akash
  - key: tier
    value: community
  - key: organization
    value: "Your Organization"
  - key: country
    value: US
  - key: city
    value: "San Francisco"
  - key: location-type
    value: datacenter
  - key: capabilities/cpu
    value: intel
  - key: capabilities/cpu/arch
    value: x86-64
  - key: capabilities/memory
    value: ddr4
  - key: network-speed-up
    value: 1000
  - key: network-speed-down
    value: 1000


email: [email protected]
website: https://example.com
organization: Your Organization


# Pricing (in uakt per unit)
price_target_cpu: 1.60
price_target_memory: 0.30
price_target_hd_ephemeral: 0.02
price_target_hd_pers_hdd: 0.01
price_target_hd_pers_ssd: 0.03
price_target_hd_pers_nvme: 0.10
price_target_endpoint: 0.05
price_target_ip: 5.00
EOF

Add Persistent Storage Attributes (if you have Rook-Ceph)

If you configured persistent storage with Rook-Ceph, add the storage attributes to your provider.yaml:

attributes:
  # ... existing attributes ...
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/class
    value: <storage-class>
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/persistent
    value: "true"

Example for beta3 (NVMe) storage class:

  - key: capabilities/storage/1/class
    value: beta3
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/persistent
    value: "true"

Example for beta2 (SSD) storage class:

  - key: capabilities/storage/1/class
    value: beta2
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/persistent
    value: "true"

Important: You can only advertise one storage class per provider. Choose either beta1 (HDD), beta2 (SSD), or beta3 (NVMe) based on what you configured in Rook-Ceph.

Add GPU Attributes (if you have GPUs)

If you configured GPU support, add GPU attributes to your provider.yaml:

attributes:
  # ... existing attributes ...
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/<model>
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/<model>/ram/<ram>
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/<model>/interface/<interface>
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/<model>/interface/<interface>/ram/<ram>
    value: "true"

Example for NVIDIA RTX 4090:

  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/rtx4090
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/rtx4090/ram/24Gi
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/rtx4090/interface/pcie
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/rtx4090/interface/pcie/ram/24Gi
    value: "true"

Note: Model names should be lowercase with no spaces. List each GPU model you’re offering.

Complete Example with All Features

Here’s a full example showing GPU, persistent storage, and all optional attributes:

---
from: "akash1..."
key: "LS0tLS1CRUdJTi..."
keysecret: "eHJiajdSS..."
domain: "provider.example.com"
node: "http://akash-node-1:26657"
withdrawalperiod: 12h
chainid: "akashnet-2"


attributes:
  # Location
  - key: region
    value: us-west
  - key: country
    value: US
  - key: city
    value: "San Francisco"
  - key: location-type
    value: datacenter
  - key: datacenter
    value: us-west-dc-1


  # Required
  - key: host
    value: akash
  - key: tier
    value: community
  - key: organization
    value: "Your Organization"


  # CPU
  - key: capabilities/cpu
    value: intel
  - key: capabilities/cpu/arch
    value: x86-64


  # Memory
  - key: capabilities/memory
    value: ddr5ecc


  # Network
  - key: network-speed-up
    value: 10000
  - key: network-speed-down
    value: 10000


  # GPU (if you have GPUs)
  - key: capabilities/gpu
    value: nvidia
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/h100
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/h100/ram/80Gi
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/h100/interface/sxm
    value: "true"
  - key: capabilities/gpu/vendor/nvidia/model/h100/interface/sxm/ram/80Gi
    value: "true"
  - key: cuda
    value: "13.0"


  # Persistent Storage (if you have Rook-Ceph)
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/class
    value: beta3
  - key: capabilities/storage/1/persistent
    value: "true"


  # SHM (Shared Memory) storage class (optional)
  - key: capabilities/storage/2/class
    value: ram
  - key: capabilities/storage/2/persistent
    value: "false"


email: [email protected]
website: https://example.com
organization: Your Organization


# Pricing
price_target_cpu: 1.60
price_target_memory: 0.30
price_target_hd_ephemeral: 0.02
price_target_hd_pers_hdd: 0.01
price_target_hd_pers_ssd: 0.03
price_target_hd_pers_nvme: 0.10
price_target_endpoint: 0.05
price_target_ip: 5.00


# GPU pricing (format: "model=price,model=price" or "*=price" for all)
price_target_gpu_mappings: "h100=840,*=840"

Note: This example shows all possible configurations. Only include the sections relevant to your provider setup.

STEP 9 - Install Provider

Terminal window
cd /root/provider


helm install akash-provider akash/provider \
  -n akash-services \
  -f provider.yaml \
  --set bidpricescript="$(cat price_script.sh | openssl base64 -A)"

Verify Provider

Terminal window
kubectl -n akash-services get pods

Expected output:

NAMESPACE        NAME                                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
akash-services   akash-node-1-0                                    1/1     Running   0          4d1h
akash-services   akash-provider-0                                  1/1     Running   0          47h
akash-services   operator-hostname-79fbbffbb7-xxxxx                1/1     Running   0          47h
akash-services   operator-inventory-7bb766f7bb-xxxxx               1/1     Running   0          39m
akash-services   operator-inventory-hardware-discovery-node1       1/1     Running   0          38m

All pods should show Running status and 1/1 ready.

STEP 10 - Install Ingress Controller

Create Ingress Configuration

Terminal window
cat > /root/ingress-nginx-custom.yaml << 'EOF'
controller:
  service:
    type: ClusterIP
  ingressClassResource:
    name: "akash-ingress-class"
  kind: DaemonSet
  hostPort:
    enabled: true
  admissionWebhooks:
    port: 7443
  config:
    allow-snippet-annotations: false
    compute-full-forwarded-for: true
    proxy-buffer-size: "16k"
  metrics:
    enabled: true
  extraArgs:
    enable-ssl-passthrough: true


tcp:
  "8443": "akash-services/akash-provider:8443"
  "8444": "akash-services/akash-provider:8444"
EOF

Install Ingress-NGINX

Terminal window
helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm repo update


helm install ingress-nginx ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  --namespace ingress-nginx \
  --create-namespace \
  --version 4.12.1 \
  -f /root/ingress-nginx-custom.yaml

Label Ingress Resources

Terminal window
kubectl label namespace ingress-nginx app.kubernetes.io/name=ingress-nginx app.kubernetes.io/instance=ingress-nginx
kubectl label ingressclass akash-ingress-class akash.network=true

Verify Ingress

Terminal window
kubectl -n ingress-nginx get pods

Expected output:

NAME                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
ingress-nginx-controller-xxx     1/1     Running   0          2m

STEP 11 - Verify Provider On-Chain

Check Provider Status

Terminal window
provider-services query provider get $ACCOUNT_ADDRESS \
  --node https://rpc.akashnet.net:443

Expected output:

attributes:
- key: region
  value: us-west
- key: host
  value: akash
- key: tier
  value: community
host_uri: https://provider.example.com:8443
info:
  email: ""
  website: ""
owner: akash1...

Check Provider Logs

Terminal window
kubectl -n akash-services logs -f akash-provider-0

Look for messages indicating the provider is bidding on deployments.

STEP 12 - Verify Firewall

Ensure these ports are open on your provider’s public IP:

Required:

  • 80/tcp - HTTP
  • 443/tcp - HTTPS
  • 8443/tcp - Provider Endpoint
  • 8444/tcp - Provider GRPC
  • 30000-32767/tcp - Kubernetes NodePort range

Optional (if using external access):

  • 6443/tcp - Kubernetes API

Test connectivity:

Terminal window
# From an external machine
curl -k https://provider.example.com:8443/status

STEP 13 - Install ReplicaSet Cleanup Script (Recommended)

When deployments update but the provider is out of resources, Kubernetes won’t destroy old pods until new ones are created. This can cause deployments to get stuck.

This script automatically removes old ReplicaSets when new ones fail due to insufficient resources.

See GitHub Issue #82 for more details.

Create the Script

On the control plane node, create /usr/local/bin/akash-force-new-replicasets.sh:

cat > /usr/local/bin/akash-force-new-replicasets.sh <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
#
# Version: 0.2 - 25 March 2023
# Files:
# - /usr/local/bin/akash-force-new-replicasets.sh
# - /etc/cron.d/akash-force-new-replicasets
#
# Description:
# This workaround identifies deployments stuck due to "insufficient resources"
# and removes older ReplicaSets, leaving only the newest one.


kubectl get deployment -l akash.network/manifest-service -A -o=jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.namespace} {.metadata.name}{"\n"}{end}' |
  while read ns app; do
    kubectl -n $ns rollout status --timeout=10s deployment/${app} >/dev/null 2>&1
    rc=$?
    if [[ $rc -ne 0 ]]; then
      if kubectl -n $ns describe pods | grep -q "Insufficient"; then
        OLD="$(kubectl -n $ns get replicaset -o json -l akash.network/manifest-service --sort-by='{.metadata.creationTimestamp}' | jq -r '(.items | reverse)[1:][] | .metadata.name')"
        for i in $OLD; do kubectl -n $ns delete replicaset $i; done
      fi
    fi
  done
EOF

Make Executable

Terminal window
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/akash-force-new-replicasets.sh

Install JQ (if not already installed)

Terminal window
apt -y install jq

Create Cron Job

Create /etc/cron.d/akash-force-new-replicasets:

Terminal window
cat > /etc/cron.d/akash-force-new-replicasets << 'EOF'
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
SHELL=/bin/bash


*/5 * * * * root /usr/local/bin/akash-force-new-replicasets.sh
EOF

The script runs every 5 minutes to clean up stuck ReplicaSets.

Next Steps

Your provider is now running!

Verify your provider:

Quick health checks:

  • Monitor provider status: kubectl -n akash-services get pods
  • Check bids: kubectl -n akash-services logs akash-provider-0 | grep bid
  • Watch for leases: kubectl -n lease get pods

Optional enhancements:

Provider Resources:

Additional Configuration

Update Provider Attributes

To update your provider attributes:

  1. Edit /root/provider/provider.yaml
  2. Upgrade the Helm release:
Terminal window
cd /root/provider


helm upgrade akash-provider akash/provider \
  -n akash-services \
  -f provider.yaml \
  --set bidpricescript="$(cat price_script.sh | openssl base64 -A)"

Update Pricing

Edit the price_target_* values in provider.yaml and run the upgrade command above.

Check Provider Version

Terminal window
kubectl -n akash-services get pod akash-provider-0 -o yaml | grep image:
Edit page on github
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