* Support for driving multiple EL nodes from a single Nimbus BN
Full list of changes:
* Eth1Monitor has been renamed to ELManager to match its current
responsibilities better.
* The ELManager is no longer optional in the code (it won't have
a nil value under any circumstances).
* The support for subscribing for headers was removed as it only
worked with WebSockets and contributed significant complexity
while bringing only a very minor advantage.
* The `--web3-url` parameter has been deprecated in favor of a
new `--el` parameter. The new parameter has a reasonable default
value and supports specifying a different JWT for each connection.
Each connection can also be configured with a different set of
responsibilities (e.g. download deposits, validate blocks and/or
produce blocks). On the command-line, these properties can be
configured through URL properties stored in the #anchor part of
the URL. In TOML files, they come with a very natural syntax
(althrough the URL scheme is also supported).
* The previously scattered EL-related state and logic is now moved
to `eth1_monitor.nim` (this module will be renamed to `el_manager.nim`
in a follow-up commit). State is assigned properly either to the
`ELManager` or the to individual `ELConnection` objects where
appropriate.
The ELManager executes all Engine API requests against all attached
EL nodes, in parallel. It compares their results and if there is a
disagreement regarding the validity of a certain payload, this is
detected and the beacon node is protected from publishing a block
with a potential execution layer consensus bug in it.
The BN provides metrics per EL node for the number of successful or
failed requests for each type Engine API requests. If an EL node
goes offline and connectivity is resoted later, we report the
problem and the remedy in edge-triggered fashion.
* More progress towards implementing Deneb block production in the VC
and comparing the value of blocks produced by the EL and the builder
API.
* Adds a Makefile target for the zhejiang testnet
* Local sim impovements
* Added support for running Capella and EIP-4844 simulations
by downloading the correct version of Geth.
* Added support for using Nimbus remote signer and Web3Signer.
Use 2 out of 3 threshold signing configuration in the mainnet
configuration and regular remote signing in the minimal one.
* The local testnet simulation can now use a payload builder.
This is currently not activated in CI due to lack of automated
procedures for installing third-party relays or builders.
You are adviced to use mergemock for now, but for most realistic
results, we can create a simple builder based on the nimbus-eth1
codebase that will be able to propose transactions from the regular
network mempool.
* Start the simulation from a merged state. This would allow us
to start removing pre-merge functionality such as the gossip
subsciption logic. The commit also removes the merge-forcing
hack installed after the TTD removal.
* Consolidate all the tools used in the local simulation into a
single `ncli_testnet` binary.
The "on" default for validator monitor details incurs a heavy
performance penalty on large-validator setups - this may cause excess
memory usage or slowdowns when metrics are queried - this PR changes the
default to off, as was intended for the 23.1.0 release.
By enabling the validator monitor, more precise information about the
lifecycle of an attestation is logged at the higher `NOTICE` log level
while current `sent` messages are logged at `INF` instead, since they
are less interesting.
In particular, missed attestations and those that vote for the wrong
head are now detected and logged at NOTICE.
In addition to logging, this feature enables rich metrics around
attestation and sync committee performance - by default, validators are
tracked in aggregate but a detailed mode exists as well
This feature has been available since early Nimbus days, but it has now
been tuned and optimised such that it is safe to enable by default, even
for large setups.
* enable automatic validator monitoring by default
* replace `--validator-monitor-totals` flag with
`--validator-monitor-details` - the detailed mode is disabled by default
* lower "sent" log level to `INF` for several messages - in particular
those that are traced by the validator monitor
This is a retake on #3531 which was later reverted in #3578.
Introduce (optional) pruning of historical data - a pruned node will
continue to answer queries for historical data up to
`MIN_EPOCHS_FOR_BLOCK_REQUESTS` epochs, or roughly 5 months, capping
typical database usage at around 60-70gb.
To enable pruning, add `--history=prune` to the command line - on the
first start, old data will be cleared (which may take a while) - after
that, data is pruned continuously.
When pruning an existing database, the database will not shrink -
instead, the freed space is recycled as the node continues to run - to
free up space, perform a trusted node sync with a fresh database.
When switching on archive mode in a pruned node, history is retained
from that point onwards.
History pruning is scheduled to be enabled by default in a future
release.
In this PR, `minimal` mode from #4419 is not implemented meaning
retention periods for states and blocks are always the same - depending
on user demand, a future PR may implement `minimal` as well.
With https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2/pull/4420 implemented, the
checks that we perform are equivalent to those of a `SYNCING` EL - as
such, we can treat missing EL the same as SYNCING and proceed with an
optimistic sync.
This mode of operation significantly speeds up recovery after an offline
EL event because the CL is already synced and can immediately inform the
EL of the latest head.
It also allows using a beacon node for consensus archival queries
without an execution client.
* deprecate `--optimistic` flag
* log block details on EL error, soften log level because we can now
continue to operate
* `UnviableFork` -> `Invalid` when block hash verification fails -
failed hash verification is not a fork-related block issue
Other changes:
* More optimal search for TTD block.
* Add timeouts to all REST requests during trusted node sync.
Fixes#4037
* Removed support for storing a deposit snapshot in the network
metadata.
Currently, we require genesis and a checkpoint block and state to start
from an arbitrary slot - this PR relaxes this requirement so that we can
start with a state alone.
The current trusted-node-sync algorithm works by first downloading
blocks until we find an epoch aligned non-empty slot, then downloads the
state via slot.
However, current
[proposals](https://github.com/ethereum/beacon-APIs/pull/226) for
checkpointing prefer finalized state as
the main reference - this allows more simple access control and caching
on the server side - in particular, this should help checkpoint-syncing
from sources that have a fast `finalized` state download (like infura
and teku) but are slow when accessing state via slot.
Earlier versions of Nimbus will not be able to read databases created
without a checkpoint block and genesis. In most cases, backfilling makes
the database compatible except where genesis is also missing (custom
networks).
* backfill checkpoint block from libp2p instead of checkpoint source,
when doing trusted node sync
* allow starting the client without genesis / checkpoint block
* perform epoch start slot lookahead when loading tail state, so as to
deal with the case where the epoch start slot does not have a block
* replace `--blockId` with `--state-id` in TNS command line
* when replaying, also look at the parent of the last-known-block (even
if we don't have the parent block data, we can still replay from a
"parent" state) - in particular, this clears the way for implementing
state pruning
* deprecate `--finalized-checkpoint-block` option (no longer needed)
In optimistic mode, Nimbus will sync optimistically even when the
execution client is offline / not available.
An optimistic node is less secure because it has not validated block
transactions via the execution client and can thus not be used for
validation duties.
Allow config of deployment phase via config instead of attempting to
derive from genesis content (when running relevant testnets), so that
we don't have to keep maintaining the list inside the binary.
The `eth1_monitor` check to require engine API from bellatrix onward
has issues in setups where the EL and CL are started simultaneously
because the EL may not be ready to answer requests by the time that the
check is performed. This can be observed, e.g., on Raspberry Pi 4 when
using Besu as the EL client. Now that the merge transition happened, the
check is also not that useful anymore, as users have other ways to know
that their setup is not working correctly (e.g., repeated exchange logs)
When running as Gnosis-chain binary the config was no longer adjustable.
Restores loading custom configs when running as Gnosis-chain binary,
as long as the following keys remain same:
- SLOTS_PER_EPOCH=16
- SECONDS_PER_SLOT=5
- BASE_REWARD_FACTOR=25
- EPOCHS_PER_SYNC_COMMITTEE_PERIOD=512
This allows running the Gnosis-chain binary on custom test networks.
When the BN-embedded LC makes sync progress, pass the corresponding
execution block hash to the EL via `engine_forkchoiceUpdatedV1`.
This allows the EL to sync to wall slot while the chain DAG is behind.
Renamed `--light-client` to `--sync-light-client` for clarity, and
`--light-client-trusted-block-root` to `--trusted-block-root` for
consistency with `nimbus_light_client`.
Note that this does not work well in practice at this time:
- Geth sticks to the optimistic sync:
"Ignoring payload while snap syncing" (when passing the LC head)
"Forkchoice requested unknown head" (when updating to LC head)
- Nethermind syncs to LC head but does not report ancestors as VALID,
so the main forward sync is still stuck in optimistic mode:
"Pre-pivot block, ignored and returned Syncing"
To aid EL client teams in fixing those issues, having this available
as a hidden option is still useful.
* Keymanager API for the validator client
* Properly treat the 'description' field as optional when loading Keystores
* Spec-compliant serialization of the slashing data in Keymanager's DeleteKeys response ()
Fixes#3940Fixes#3964Closes#3884 by adding test
* packaging updates
* one package per binary (nimbus_beacon_node, nimbus_validator_client)
* use `-` in package name (`_` is separating the version)
* don't include (un)installation scripts in package
* default metrics port 8108 for vc
* fix several upgrade/install errors in scripts
* add JWT option to service files
* don't attempt to remove user on purge
* MEV validator registration
* add nearby canary to detect new beacon chain forks
* remove special MEV graffiti
* web3signer support
* fix trace logging
* Nim 1.2 needs raises Defect
* use template rather than proc in REST JSON parsing
* use --payload-builder-enable and --payload-builder-url
* explicitly default MEV to disabled
* explicitly empty default value for payload builder URL
* revert attestation pool to unstable version
* Use final `v1` version for light client protocols
* Unhide LC data collection options
* Default enable LC data serving
* rm unneeded import
* Connect to EL on startup
* Add docs for LC based EL sync
Adds the `--web3-url` launch argument to `nimbus_light_client` to enable
driving the EL with the optimistic head obtained from LC sync protocol.
This will keep issuing `newPayload` / `forkChoiceUpdated` requests for
new blocks, marking them as optimistic. `ZERO_HASH` is reported as the
finalized block for now.
* merge LC db into main BN db
To treat derived LC data similar to derived state caches, merge it into
the main beacon node DB.
* shorten table names, group with lc prefix
* persist LC data across restarts
With the Altair spec `LightClientUpdate` structure taking its final form
it is finally possible to persist LC data across restarts without having
to worry about data migration due to spec changes. A separate `lcdataV1`
database is created in the `caches` subdirectory to hold known LC data.
A full database with default settings (129 periods) uses <15 MB disk.
* extend LC data DB rationale
* wording
* add `isSupportedBySQLite` helper and explicit return
* remove redundant `return`
Adds a `--light-client-data-max-periods` option to override the number
of sync committee periods to retain light client data.
Raising it above the default enables archive nodes to serve full data.
Lowering below the default speeds up import times (still no persistence)
For consistency with other options, use a common prefix for light client
data configuration options.
* `--serve-light-client-data` --> `--light-client-data-serve`
* `--import-light-client-data` --> `--light-client-data-import-mode`
No deprecation of the old identifiers as they were only sparingly used
and all usage can be easily updated without interferance.
When launched with `--light-client-enable` the latest blocks are fetched
and optimistic candidate blocks are passed to a callback (log for now).
This helps accelerate syncing in the future (optimistic sync).
Adds a `LightClient` instance to the beacon node as preparation to
accelerate syncing in the future (optimistic sync).
- `--light-client-enable` turns on the feature
- `--light-client-trusted-block-root` configures block to start from
If no block root is configured, light client tracks DAG `finalizedHead`.
Introduces a new library for syncing using libp2p based light client
sync protocol, and adds a new `nimbus_light_client` executable that uses
this library for syncing. The new executable emits log messages when
new beacon block headers are received, and is integrated into testing.
* remove deprecated JSON-RPC server
* keep the command-line options around as no-ops, temporarily
* service -> server; JSON-RPC is still used elsewhere
* `gnosis-chain` -> `gnosis`
Use same name as LH/Teku throughout
* fixes#3504
* fixes large stack temporary that can cause crashes during genesis
detection
* era: load blocks and states
Era files contain finalized history and can be thought of as an
alternative source for block and state data that allows clients to avoid
syncing this information from the P2P network - the P2P network is then
used to "top up" the client with the most recent data. They can be
freely shared in the community via whatever means (http, torrent, etc)
and serve as a permanent cold store of consensus data (and, after the
merge, execution data) for history buffs and bean counters alike.
This PR gently introduces support for loading blocks and states in two
cases: block requests from rest/p2p and frontfilling when doing
checkpoint sync.
The era files are used as a secondary source if the information is not
found in the database - compared to the database, there are a few key
differences:
* the database stores the block indexed by block root while the era file
indexes by slot - the former is used only in rest, while the latter is
used both by p2p and rest.
* when loading blocks from era files, the root is no longer trivially
available - if it is needed, it must either be computed (slow) or cached
(messy) - the good news is that for p2p requests, it is not needed
* in era files, "framed" snappy encoding is used while in the database
we store unframed snappy - for p2p2 requests, the latter requires
recompression while the former could avoid it
* front-filling is the process of using era files to replace backfilling
- in theory this front-filling could happen from any block and
front-fills with gaps could also be entertained, but our backfilling
algorithm cannot take advantage of this because there's no (simple) way
to tell it to "skip" a range.
* front-filling, as implemented, is a bit slow (10s to load mainnet): we
load the full BeaconState for every era to grab the roots of the blocks
- it would be better to partially load the state - as such, it would
also be good to be able to partially decompress snappy blobs
* lookups from REST via root are served by first looking up a block
summary in the database, then using the slot to load the block data from
the era file - however, there needs to be an option to create the
summary table from era files to fully support historical queries
To test this, `ncli_db` has an era file exporter: the files it creates
should be placed in an `era` folder next to `db` in the data directory.
What's interesting in particular about this setup is that `db` remains
as the source of truth for security purposes - it stores the latest
synced head root which in turn determines where a node "starts" its
consensus participation - the era directory however can be freely shared
between nodes / people without any (significant) security implications,
assuming the era files are consistent / not broken.
There's lots of future improvements to be had:
* we can drop the in-memory `BlockRef` index almost entirely - at this
point, resident memory usage of Nimbus should drop to a cool 500-600 mb
* we could serve era files via REST trivially: this would drop backfill
times to whatever time it takes to download the files - unlike the
current implementation that downloads block by block, downloading an era
at a time almost entirely cuts out request overhead
* we can "reasonably" recreate detailed state history from almost any
point in time, turning an O(slot) process into O(1) effectively - we'll
still need caches and indices to do this with sufficient efficiency for
the rest api, but at least it cuts the whole process down to minutes
instead of hours, for arbitrary points in time
* CI: ignore failures with Nim-1.6 (temporary)
* test fixes
Co-authored-by: Ștefan Talpalaru <stefantalpalaru@yahoo.com>
Light clients require full nodes to serve additional data so that they
can stay in sync with the network. This patch adds a new launch option
`--import-light-client-data` to configure what data to make available.
For now, data is only kept in memory; it is not persisted at this time.
Note that data is only locally collected, a separate patch is needed to
actually make it availble over the network. `--serve-light-client-data`
will be used for serving data, but is not functional yet outside tests.
When performing trusted node sync, historical access is limited to
states after the checkpoint.
Reindexing restores full historical access by replaying historical
blocks against the state and storing snapshots in the database.
The process can be initiated or resumed at any point in time.
* --stop-at-synced-epoch
This allows benchmarking the initial sync (only forward sync, 1s error
margin). Might be useful in CI, with a timeout, as a sanity check.
* Support for Gnosis Chain
`make gnosis-chain-build` will build the Nimbus gnosis chain binary,
stored in `build/nimbus_beacon_node_for_gnosis_chain`.
`make gnosis-chain` will connect to the network.
Other changes:
* Restore compilation with -d:has_genesis_detection
* Removed Makefile target related to testnet0 and testnet1
* Added more debug logging for failed peer handshakes
* Report misconfigured builds which try to embed network metadata
that is incompatible with the currently selected const preset.
* Don't bundle network metadata in minimal builds, as they are not compatible