- properly distributing the keys between BNs & VCs - fixing finalization - will switch to ON by default as soon as finalization becomes overall stable

- added a new altona-vc Makefile target which uses a separate VC process

Makefile

@@ -188,6 +188,22 @@ altona: | beacon_node
 		--data-dir=build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID) \
 		$(GOERLI_TESTNETS_PARAMS) $(NODE_PARAMS)
 
+altona-vc: | beacon_node validator_client
+	# if launching a VC as well - send the BN looking nowhere for validators/secrets
+	mkdir build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID)/empty_dummy_folder -p
+	build/beacon_node \
+		--network=altona \
+		--log-level="$(LOG_LEVEL)" \
+		--data-dir=build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID) \
+		--validators-dir=build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID)/empty_dummy_folder \
+		--secrets-dir=build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID)/empty_dummy_folder \
+		$(GOERLI_TESTNETS_PARAMS) $(NODE_PARAMS) &
+	sleep 4
+	build/validator_client \
+		--log-level="$(LOG_LEVEL)" \
+		--data-dir=build/data/shared_altona_$(NODE_ID) \
+		--rpc-port=$$(( $(BASE_RPC_PORT) +$(NODE_ID) ))
+
 altona-dev: | beacon_node
 	build/beacon_node \
 		--network=altona \

README.md

@@ -203,6 +203,17 @@ the `VALIDATORS` between beacon nodes and validator clients - for example with `
 validators and `6` nodes you will end up with 6 beacon node and 6 validator client
 processes, where each of them will handle 16 validators.
 
+<!--
+By default, validators will be split in half between beacon node and validator
+client processes, communicating through the
+[official validator API](https://ethereum.github.io/eth2.0-APIs/#/ValidatorRequiredApi)
+(for example with `192` validators and `6` nodes you will roughly end up with 6
+beacon node and 6 validator client processes, where each of them will handle 16
+validators), but if you don't want to use external validator clients and instead
+want to have all the validators handled in-process by the beacon nodes you may
+use `BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT=no` as an additional argument to `make eth2_network_simulation`.
+-->
+
 By default, the simulation will start from a pre-generated genesis state. If you wish to
 simulate the bootstrap process with a Ethereum 1.0 validator deposit contract, start the
 simulation with `WAIT_GENESIS=yes`

beacon_chain/spec/datatypes.nim

@@ -706,8 +706,8 @@ func init*(T: type GraffitiBytes, input: string): GraffitiBytes
     distinctBase(result)[0 ..< input.len] = toBytes(input)
 
 func defaultGraffitiBytes*(): GraffitiBytes =
-  let graffityBytes = toBytes("Nimbus " & fullVersionStr)
+  let graffitiBytes = toBytes("Nimbus " & fullVersionStr)
-  distinctBase(result)[0 ..< graffityBytes.len] = graffityBytes
+  distinctBase(result)[0 ..< graffitiBytes.len] = graffitiBytes
 
 proc writeValue*(w: var JsonWriter, value: GraffitiBytes)
                 {.raises: [IOError, Defect].} =

tests/simulation/run_node.sh

@@ -55,18 +55,16 @@ rm -rf "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
 
 VALIDATORS_PER_NODE=$(( NUM_VALIDATORS / (TOTAL_NODES - 1) ))
-
+if [ "${USE_BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT:-}" == "yes" ]; then
-if [[ $NODE_ID -lt $BOOTSTRAP_NODE ]]; then
+  # if using validator client binaries in addition to beacon nodes we will
-  # if using validator client binaries in addition to beacon nodes
+  # split the keys for this instance in half between the BN and the VC
-  # we will split the keys for this instance in half between the BN and the VC
+  # and the validators for the BNs will be from the first half of all validators
-  if [ "${BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT:-}" == "yes" ]; then
+  VALIDATORS_PER_NODE=$((VALIDATORS_PER_NODE / 2 ))
-    ATTACHED_VALIDATORS=$((VALIDATORS_PER_NODE / 2))
-  else
-    ATTACHED_VALIDATORS=$VALIDATORS_PER_NODE
 fi
 
+if [[ $NODE_ID -lt $BOOTSTRAP_NODE ]]; then
   pushd "$VALIDATORS_DIR" >/dev/null
-  for VALIDATOR in $(ls | tail -n +$(( ($VALIDATORS_PER_NODE * $NODE_ID) + 1 )) | head -n $ATTACHED_VALIDATORS); do
+  for VALIDATOR in $(ls | tail -n +$(( ($VALIDATORS_PER_NODE * $NODE_ID) + 1 )) | head -n $VALIDATORS_PER_NODE); do
       cp -a "$VALIDATOR" "$NODE_VALIDATORS_DIR"
       cp -a "$SECRETS_DIR/$VALIDATOR" "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
     done

tests/simulation/run_validator.sh

@@ -25,14 +25,15 @@ mkdir -p "$NODE_VALIDATORS_DIR"
 rm -rf "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
 
-VALIDATORS_PER_NODE=$((NUM_VALIDATORS / TOTAL_NODES))
+# we will split the keys for this instance in half between the BN and the VC
+# and the validators for the VCs will be from the second half of all validators
+VALIDATORS_PER_NODE=$(( (NUM_VALIDATORS / TOTAL_NODES) / 2 ))
+VALIDATOR_OFFSET=$((NUM_VALIDATORS / 2))
 
 if [[ $NODE_ID -lt $TOTAL_NODES ]]; then
-  # we will split the keys for this instance in half between the BN and the VC
-  ATTACHED_VALIDATORS=$((VALIDATORS_PER_NODE / 2))
 
   pushd "$VALIDATORS_DIR" >/dev/null
-  for VALIDATOR in $(ls | tail -n +$(( ($VALIDATORS_PER_NODE * $NODE_ID) + 1 + $ATTACHED_VALIDATORS )) | head -n $ATTACHED_VALIDATORS); do
+  for VALIDATOR in $(ls | tail -n +$(( $VALIDATOR_OFFSET + ($VALIDATORS_PER_NODE * $NODE_ID) + 1 )) | head -n $VALIDATORS_PER_NODE); do
       cp -ar "$VALIDATOR" "$NODE_VALIDATORS_DIR"
       cp -a "$SECRETS_DIR/$VALIDATOR" "$NODE_SECRETS_DIR"
     done

tests/simulation/start.sh

@@ -231,8 +231,8 @@ for i in $(seq $BOOTSTRAP_NODE -1 $TOTAL_USER_NODES); do
 
   run_cmd $i "${SIM_ROOT}/run_node.sh ${i} --verify-finalization" "node"
 
-  if [ "${BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT:-}" == "yes" ]; then
+  if [ "${USE_BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT:-}" == "yes" ]; then
-    # start the VC with a few seconds of delay so that we can connect through RPC
+    # start the VC with a few seconds of delay so that there are less RPC connection retries
     run_cmd $i "sleep 3 && ${SIM_ROOT}/run_validator.sh ${i}" "validator"
   fi
 done

tests/simulation/vars.sh

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ TOTAL_NODES=${NODES:-4}
 TOTAL_USER_NODES=${USER_NODES:-0}
 TOTAL_SYSTEM_NODES=$(( TOTAL_NODES - TOTAL_USER_NODES ))
 BOOTSTRAP_NODE=$(( TOTAL_NODES - 1 ))
+USE_BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT=${BN_VC_VALIDATOR_SPLIT:-no}
 
 SIMULATION_DIR="${SIM_ROOT}/data"
 METRICS_DIR="${SIM_ROOT}/prometheus"