Step 4: Run an Octez DAL node on Weeklynet

Start the DAL node by running this command:

octez-dal-node run >> "$HOME/octez-dal-node.log" 2>&1

This, too, may take some time to launch the first time because it needs to generate a new identity file, this time for the DAL network.

The DAL node connects to the DAL network but it is not yet receiving shards.

DAL nodes share shards and information about them over a peer-to-peer pub/sub network built on the Gossipsub protocol. As layer 1 assigns shards to the bakers, the Gossipsub network creates topics that DAL nodes can subscribe to. For example, if a user submits data to slot 1, layer 1 creates a list of topics: a topic for the slot 1 shards assigned to baker A, a topic for the slot 1 shards assigned to baker B, and so on for all the bakers that are assigned shards from slot 1.

The baker daemon automatically asks the DAL node to subscribe to the topics that provide the shards that it is assigned to. You can see the topics that the DAL node is subscribed to by running this RPC call:

curl http://localhost:10732/p2p/gossipsub/topics

In the results, each topic contains a shard and the address of the baker that is assigned to it. Now you can run a baker to verify these shards. Continue to Step 5: Run an Octez baking daemon on Weeklynet.