Baking Without DAL

Default Setup Includes DAL

DAL is part of the standard TezBake baker setup. The mainnet and testnet setup guides install the node, baker, signer, and DAL together with tezbake setup --with-dal.

Use this guide only when you intentionally need to run without a local DAL node. If you want DAL on another machine, another IP address, or another network segment, use Baking with Prism instead.

What You Give Up

Running without DAL is not a recommended steady-state setup for an active baker.

  • Your baker will miss the DAL portion of baking rewards, currently about 10%.
  • Your baker may log warnings about attestations without DAL content.
  • Your setup will not help provide data availability for rollups and other DAL users.
  • This is not a slashing condition by itself, but it is still lost income and reduced network participation.

When This Makes Sense

Use this only as an exception path:

  • Temporary recovery while you are fixing a DAL host, disk, bandwidth, or network issue
  • A test or lab setup where DAL participation is intentionally out of scope
  • A constrained environment where you accept the reward loss
  • A migration step before moving DAL to a separate host with Prism

If your reason is privacy or IP address exposure, do not remove DAL first. Prefer Baking with Prism so you can run DAL elsewhere while keeping DAL rewards.

New Setup Without DAL

For normal production setup, stop here and follow Baking on Mainnet or Baking on Testnets.

If you intentionally want a new setup without DAL, omit --with-dal:

tezbake setup

For a testnet, keep the network configuration but omit --with-dal:

tezbake setup --node-configuration=https://configs.tez.capital/bakingnet.json
tezbake setup --node-configuration=https://configs.tez.capital/tallinnnet.json

Continue with the normal key import, baker registration, and staking steps from the relevant setup guide.

Remove DAL From an Existing Setup

Stop TezBake before changing components:

tezbake stop

Remove the DAL component:

tezbake remove --dal

Re-apply the node configuration without DAL:

tezbake setup --node
tezbake upgrade
tezbake start

If prompted to merge configuration, choose yes unless you have a specific reason to discard your existing node settings.

Verify the No-DAL State

Check TezBake status:

tezbake info

Watch baker logs for DAL-related warnings so you understand the reward impact:

tezbake node log baker -f

If you disabled DAL temporarily, keep a note of why and when you plan to restore it.

Restore Local DAL Later

To return to the standard local DAL setup:

tezbake setup --dal
tezbake update-dal-profiles --auto
tezbake upgrade
tezbake start

If you use a tz4/BLS consensus key, confirm the DAL companion key is loaded by the baker:

tezbake node show configuration.additional_key_aliases
tezbake info --dal

For the common TezSign setup where the active consensus key is imported as baker, only companion needs to be listed as an additional alias:

tezbake node modify --set configuration.additional_key_aliases '["companion"]'
tezbake upgrade

If your TezSign consensus key is imported as consensus instead of baker, include both aliases:

tezbake node modify --set configuration.additional_key_aliases '["consensus","companion"]'
tezbake upgrade

Run DAL Elsewhere

If your goal is to avoid exposing the same IP address for your L1 node and DAL node, or you want the DAL node on a different host, do not use the no-DAL path.

Use Baking with Prism to connect TezBake components across hosts while keeping DAL enabled.

Any questions/comments/concerns? Please contact the Tez Capital team on Discord or Telegram