Golem Provider installation guide

Welcome to the Golem Provider installation guide. This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to become a provider in the Golem Network and earn GLM tokens.

The recommended way to run a provider is with Docker. A container keeps your provider running after you close the terminal, restarts it automatically when the machine reboots or the process crashes, and lets you update to a new release with a single command.

If you prefer to install the software directly on your system, see installing directly on your system at the end of this guide.

To follow this tutorial, you will need the following:

• A linux machine with the x86-64 architecture
• Nested virtualization enabled in your BIOS, so that the host exposes the /dev/kvm device
• Docker Engine with the Compose plugin

Always run the most recent stable release of the provider image. You can find the available tags on Docker Hub, and the accompanying release notes on the yagna releases page.

Create a directory for your provider and add a docker-compose.yml file inside it:

services:
  provider:
    image: golemfactory/provider:0.17.9
    container_name: golem-provider
    command: ['golemsp', 'run', '--no-interactive']
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: 'host'
    devices:
      - /dev/kvm:/dev/kvm
    volumes:
      - golem-yagna:/root/.local/share/yagna
      - golem-provider:/root/.local/share/ya-provider
    environment:
      NODE_NAME: 'my-golem-provider'
      YA_ACCOUNT: '0xYourEthereumAddress'
      YA_PAYMENT_NETWORK_GROUP: 'mainnet'
      SUBNET: 'public'
      YA_RT_CORES: 4
      YA_RT_MEM: 8.0
      YA_RT_STORAGE: 40

volumes:
  golem-yagna:
  golem-provider:

A few of these settings are worth explaining:

Adjust the environment variables in docker-compose.yml to match your setup:

The resource values are yours to decide - they determine how much of your machine you offer to the network. The image ships with deliberately small defaults (2 cores, 1 GiB of RAM and 20 GiB of disk), so set them to values that reflect what you actually want to share. Remember to leave enough headroom for the host system itself.

From the directory containing your docker-compose.yml, run:

docker compose up -d

The provider now runs in the background. You can close your terminal, and it will keep computing tasks.

To check your node's status and see if it is active and computing tasks from the network, run:

docker compose exec provider golemsp status

As an output, you will get the information about your node's current state as shown below. The following, more important values are given and correspond to:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Status                                           │
│                                                   │
│  Service    is running                            │
│  Version    0.17.9                                │
│  Commit     4575190df                             │
│  Date       2026-07-31                            │
│  Build      1468                                  │
│                                                   │
│  Node Name  my-golem-provider                     │
│  Subnet     public                                │
│  VM         valid                                 │
│                                                   │
│  Driver     Ok                                    │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Wallet                                           │
│  0x2a14f8ae0272bd4c38ed1b40c66e88ed719dab69       │
│                                                   │
│  network                mainnet                   │
│  amount (total)         0 GLM                     │
│      (on-chain)         0 GLM                     │
│      (polygon)          0 GLM                     │
│                                                   │
│  pending                0 GLM (0)                 │
│  issued                 0 GLM (0)                 │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Tasks                                            │
│                                                   │
│  last 1h processed     0                          │
│  last 1h in progress   0                          │
│  total processed       0                          │
│  (including failures)                             │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

A healthy node reports Service is running, VM valid and Driver Ok. If VM is not valid, the container most likely cannot reach /dev/kvm - see the provider troubleshooting guide for details.

Pricing is stored in the golem-provider volume rather than passed as an environment variable, so it is set with golemsp settings set inside the running container:

docker compose exec provider golemsp settings set --cpu-per-hour 0.1 --env-per-hour 0.005 --starting-fee 0

When configuring your pricing, consider the current market conditions. The initial default rate is set at 0.1 GLM per hour, per thread, which might be high given the current market rates. To ensure your pricing is competitive, you can refer to the list of online providers and their earnings on the Golem Network Stats page. The table of providers is automatically sorted by earnings, which can help you gauge and set a more market-aligned pricing.

Your settings persist across restarts and updates, because they live in a named volume. The full list of options is described in configuring your provider.

To watch what your provider is doing:

docker compose logs -f

docker compose stop

To start it again, use docker compose start. Use docker compose down if you also want to remove the container - your wallet and settings stay safe in the named volumes, as long as you do not add the -v flag.

With the ongoing development of the Golem Network, new and improved versions of the Golem Provider are frequently released. To update, check the newest stable tag on Docker Hub, change the image: line in your docker-compose.yml to that version, and then run:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Compose recreates the container with the new image. Your node identity, wallet and settings are preserved in the volumes.

The Yagna service utilizes UDP protocol on port 11500 to facilitate communication. While the Golem Network can relay data through nodes without direct port forwarding, configuring your node to have a public IP address significantly strengthens the network's resilience and stability. Nodes with a public IP can provide better performance and are generally more desirable to Requestors.

Although not mandatory, setting up port forwarding is highly encouraged as it contributes to a more robust network. To do this, you'll need to manually open UDP port 11500 on your router.

Because the container uses host networking, port forwarding is configured exactly as it would be for a provider installed directly on the machine - there are no Docker port mappings involved.

For detailed instructions tailored to your router model, visit PortForward.com

To verify if port forwarding is correctly configured, check CanYouSeeMe.org. Should you encounter any difficulties, contacting your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for assistance with your router's settings may be necessary.

If you would rather not use Docker, you can install the provider straight onto your machine.

Launch your terminal and execute the following command to run the installer:

curl -sSf https://join.golem.network/as-provider | bash -

After installing all required components, you will be asked to set up your node, by providing configuration values. If you leave them empty, the default values (presented in brackets) will be applied. Press Enter for each entry to save it.

Post-installation, you may need to update your system's PATH. This step ensures that you can run Golem commands directly from the terminal without having to specify the full path to the executable each time.

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

To run the Golem provider on the mainnet, type the following command into the terminal:

golemsp run

To check the node's status, open a second terminal window and run golemsp status.