10 KiB
Run just the beacon node
The beacon node application connects to the eth2 network, manages the blockchain, and provides API's to interact with the beacon chain.
You can run the beacon node without being a validator - doing so allows you to sync the network and access its latest state.
Prerequisites
Before building and running the application, make sure you've gone through the installation guidelines.
Building the node
To build the beacon run:
1. Clone the nim beacon chain repository
git clone https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2
cd nimbus-eth2
2. Run the beacon node build process
make nimbus_beacon_node
Running the node
When running the beacon node, you connect to a specific ethereum 2 network - this may be a private network or a public testnet like Medalla.
Note: when running the node for the first time, you may need to specify network parameters, boot nodes and genesis information. This information can typically be found in the eth2 testnets repository.
Once the beacon node is running, it will first connect to the boot nodes in the network, look for more peers and start syncing the chain. Once the sync is complete, it will keep following the head of the chain (you can interact with it through the API.
Before running the beacon node, it's important that your computer is set to the correct time - preferably using a trusted time source (this can be an NTP server you trust, GPS time or another precise source of time) -- however don't worry if you're unsure of how to do this, it isn't essential for testnet purposes.
Syncing
To start syncing the medalla network:
make medalla
# Build output...
This will build Nimbus and its dependencies, and connect you to Medalla. You should see that the beacon node has launched and started syncing.
INF 2020-07-03 15:28:15+02:00 Starting beacon node topics="beacnde" tid=176865 file=nimbus_beacon_node.nim:866 SECONDS_PER_SLOT=12 SLOTS_PER_EPOCH=32 SPEC_VERSION=0.12.1 cat=init dataDir=/home/arnetheduck/status/nim-beacon-chain/build/data/shared_medalla_0 finalizedRoot=72e7b21c finalizedSlot=20064 headRoot=f92bf720 headSlot=20142 nim="Nim Compiler Version 1.2.2 [Linux: amd64] (be34b5ab)" pcs=start_beacon_node timeSinceFinalization=-108322 version="0.5.0 (c64737e)"
peers: 7 ❯ finalized: 3a806c9f:634 ❯ head: b364f8e9:636:29 ❯ time: 909:7 (29095) ETH: 0.0
Status bar
The status bar shows important health information about your node:
- peers - The number of peers you're connected to
- finalized - The block root and epoch of the latest finalized checkpoint - when the network is healthy, this value will stay at 2-3 epochs from the wall clock
- head - The block root and time of the head block - as blocks are produced and processed, this will be updated to the latest head block as chosen by the consensus algorithm.
- time - The current wall time according to your computer - when the node is synced, the head block will closely follow this time.
- ETH: the total ETH validators attached to the node have accumulated. When there are no validators attached, this number will be 0.
Time is shown as epoch:subslot, starting from the block chain genesis time - one epoch is typically 32 slots but this may vary between networks.
The status bar content may be updated using command line flags.
Metrics
Nimbus includes metrics support using the Prometheus format. To enable it, you need to enable the insecure feature when compiling the application. The http server that exports Prometheus metrics should not be exposed to external parties.
# Compile with insecure features enabled
make NIMFLAGS="-d:insecure" medalla
Help
To see a list of command line options with descriptions, navigate to the build directory and run:
./nimbus_beacon_node --help
You should see the following output:
Usage:
nimbus_beacon_node [OPTIONS]... command
The following options are available:
--log-level Sets the log level.
--eth1-network The Eth1 network tracked by the beacon node.
-d, --data-dir The directory where nimbus will store all blockchain data.
--web3-url URL of the Web3 server to observe Eth1.
--deposit-contract Address of the deposit contract.
--deposit-contract-block The Eth1 block hash where the deposit contract has been deployed.
--non-interactive Do not display interative prompts. Quit on missing configuration.
-b, --bootstrap-node Specifies one or more bootstrap nodes to use when connecting to the network.
--bootstrap-file Specifies a line-delimited file of bootstrap Ethereum network addresses.
--listen-address Listening address for the Ethereum LibP2P traffic.
--tcp-port Listening TCP port for Ethereum LibP2P traffic.
--udp-port Listening UDP port for node discovery.
--max-peers The maximum number of peers to connect to.
--nat Specify method to use for determining public address. Must be one of: any, none,
upnp, pmp, extip:<IP>.
-v, --validator Path to a validator keystore.
--validators-dir A directory containing validator keystores.
--secrets-dir A directory containing validator keystore passwords.
--wallets-dir A directory containing wallet files.
-s, --state-snapshot Json file specifying a recent state snapshot.
--node-name A name for this node that will appear in the logs. If you set this to 'auto', a
persistent automatically generated ID will be selected for each --data-dir
folder.
--verify-finalization Specify whether to verify finalization occurs on schedule, for testing.
--stop-at-epoch A positive epoch selects the epoch at which to stop.
--metrics Enable the metrics server.
--metrics-address Listening address of the metrics server.
--metrics-port Listening HTTP port of the metrics server.
--status-bar Display a status bar at the bottom of the terminal screen.
--status-bar-contents Textual template for the contents of the status bar.
--rpc Enable the JSON-RPC server.
--rpc-port HTTP port for the JSON-RPC service.
--rpc-address Listening address of the RPC server.
--in-process-validators Disable the push model (the beacon node tells a signing process with the private
keys of the validators what to sign and when) and load the validators in the
beacon node itself.
--dump Write SSZ dumps of blocks, attestations and states to data dir.
Available sub-commands:
nimbus_beacon_node createTestnet [OPTIONS]...
The following options are available:
--validators-dir Directory containing validator keystores.
--total-validators The number of validator deposits in the newly created chain.
--first-validator Index of first validator to add to validator list.
--last-user-validator The last validator index that will free for taking from a testnet participant.
--bootstrap-address The public IP address that will be advertised as a bootstrap node for the
testnet.
--bootstrap-port The TCP/UDP port that will be used by the bootstrap node.
--genesis-offset Seconds from now to add to genesis time.
--output-genesis Output file where to write the initial state snapshot.
--with-genesis-root Include a genesis root in 'network.json'.
--output-bootstrap-file Output file with list of bootstrap nodes for the network.
nimbus_beacon_node deposits [OPTIONS]... command
The following options are available:
--deposit-private-key Private key of the controlling (sending) account.
Available sub-commands:
nimbus_beacon_node deposits create [OPTIONS]...
Creates validator keystores and deposits.
The following options are available:
--count Number of deposits to generate.
--wallet An existing wallet ID. If not specified, a new wallet will be created.
--out-validatorss-dir Output folder for validator keystores and deposits.
--out-secrets-dir Output folder for randomly generated keystore passphrases.
--dont-send By default, all created deposits are also immediately sent to the validator
deposit contract. You can use this option to prevent this behavior. Use the
`deposits send` command to send the deposit transactions at your convenience
later.
nimbus_beacon_node deposits send [OPTIONS]...
Sends prepared deposits to the validator deposit contract.
The following options are available:
--validators-dir A folder with validator metadata created by the `deposits create` command.
--min-delay Minimum possible delay between making two deposits (in seconds).
--max-delay Maximum possible delay between making two deposits (in seconds).
nimbus_beacon_node deposits status
Displays status information about all deposits.
nimbus_beacon_node wallets command
Available sub-commands:
nimbus_beacon_node wallets create [OPTIONS]...
Creates a new EIP-2386 wallet.
The following options are available:
--name An easy-to-remember name for the wallet of your choice.
--next-account Initial value for the 'nextaccount' property of the wallet.
--out Output wallet file.
nimbus_beacon_node wallets restore [OPTIONS]...
Restores a wallet from cold storage.
The following options are available:
--name An easy-to-remember name for the wallet of your choice.
--deposits Expected number of deposits to recover. If not specified, Nimbus will try to
guess the number by inspecting the latest beacon state.
--out Output wallet file.
nimbus_beacon_node wallets list
Lists details about all wallets.