[Node Operator Question] Deployment of full node with partial state retention over last 5000000 blocks

[free-cornet]

Are you running the most up to date node software?

• Yes

Did you check the documentation?

• Yes

Did you check for duplicate questions?

• Yes

Issue Description

Due to storage limitations, I’d like to run a full node that retains only the most recent 5,000,000 blocks of historical state. According to the documentation, this should be achievable by setting the flags --history.state=5000000 and/or --history.transactions=5000000, together with --state.scheme=path. I’ve deployed a local full node using these parameters.

My goal is to use the Web3 method debug_traceBlockByNumber on blocks within this 5,000,000-block window to extract internal transactions. However, while it works correctly for the most recent 128 blocks, attempting to trace older blocks results in the following error:

"code": -32000,
"message": "historical state is not available"

I’m wondering if I’ve misunderstood how these flags work. Is it possible to configure a node to retain partial historical state for recent blocks, enabling tracing with debug_traceBlockByNumber, without having to run a full archive node?

Steps to Reproduce

Deploy a local full node, using the following config:

/usr/local/bin/geth \
  --ws \
  --ws.port=8547 \
  --ws.addr=localhost \
  --ws.origins="*" \
  --ws.api=eth,net,web3,debug \
  --http \
  --http.port=8548 \
  --http.addr=localhost \
  --http.vhosts="*" \
  --http.corsdomain="*" \
  --http.api=eth,net,web3,debug \
  --port=30305 \
  --authrpc.addr=localhost \
  --authrpc.jwtsecret=/mnt/crypto/optimism/setup/jwt.txt \
  --authrpc.port=8552 \
  --authrpc.vhosts="*" \
  --datadir=/mnt/optimism/datadir \
  --verbosity=3 \
  --rollup.disabletxpoolgossip=true \
  --rollup.sequencerhttp=https://mainnet-sequencer.optimism.io/ \
  --op-network=op-mainnet \
  --state.scheme=path \
  --history.state=5000000 \
  --history.transactions=5000000

Then try to query the RPC with the Web3 method debug_traceBlockByNumber for a block older than the 128 most recent blocks (but part of the 5000000 most recent blocks):

curl -X POST http://localhost:8548 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "debug_traceBlockByNumber",
    "params": ["0x88f8a48", {}],
    "id": 1
  }'

Which component is affected?

• op-geth
• op-node
• Other

Expected vs. Actual Behavior

I expect to receive the trace execution of the queried block, containing the internal transactions. Instead I got:

{
    "jsonrpc":"2.0",
    "id":1,
    "error":{
        "code":-32000,
        "message":"historical state is not available"
    }
}

Environment Details

The node is running in a Ubuntu 24.04 LTS VM.

• CPU: 16 cores
• Memory: 64GB
• Disk space: 5TB SATA (mounted over NFS)

The Ethereum L1 node is an archive node deployed locally on the same machine using Erigon and Prysm, using a 2TB NVMe as storage.

Protocol Information

• op-geth version: 1.101603.2-stable-f305011e
• op-node version: v1.14.3-8c183919-1761178868
• network name: op-mainnet
• chain ID: 10
• L1 chain: mainnet (Ethereum, Chain ID=1)

Node Logs

No logs relative to --history flags.

Only relevant log is:

State scheme set by user scheme=path

Troubleshooting Attempts

No response

Additional Information

No response

Feedback

No response

[Chomtana]

You have to launch the node using a full archival snapshot if your node is recently launched

If you use snap sync or full node snapshot, snapshot doesn't have required past blocks