nimbus-eth2/docs/the_nimbus_book/src/start-syncing.md

Start syncing

If you're joining a network that has already launched, you need to ensure that your beacon node is completely synced before submitting your deposit.

This is particularly important if you are joining a network that's been running for a while.

Testnet

To start syncing the pyrmont testnet , from the nimbus-eth2 repository, run:

 ./run-pyrmont-beacon-node.sh

Mainnet

Note: Mainnet won't launch before December 1st.

To start monitoring the eth1 mainnet chain for deposits, from the nimbus-eth2 repository, run:

 ./run-mainnet-beacon-node.sh

Web3 provider URL

You should see the following prompt:

To monitor the Eth1 validator deposit contract, you'll need to pair
the Nimbus beacon node with a Web3 provider capable of serving Eth1
event logs. This could be a locally running Eth1 client such as Geth
or a cloud service such as Infura. For more information please see
our setup guide:

https://status-im.github.io/nimbus-eth2/eth1.html

Please enter a Web3 provider URL:

If you're running a local geth instance, geth accepts connections from the loopback interface (127.0.0.1), with default WebSocket port 8546. This means that your default Web3 provider URL should be:

ws://127.0.0.1:8546

Note: If you're using your own Infura endpoint, you should enter that instead.

Once you've entered your Web3 provider URL, you should see the following output:

INF 2020-12-01 11:25:33.487+01:00 Launching beacon node
...
INF 2020-12-01 11:25:34.556+01:00 Loading block dag from database            topics="beacnde" tid=19985314 file=nimbus_beacon_node.nim:198 path=build/data/shared_pyrmont_0/db
INF 2020-12-01 11:25:35.921+01:00 Block dag initialized
INF 2020-12-01 11:25:37.073+01:00 Generating new networking key
...
NOT 2020-12-01 11:25:59.512+00:00 Eth1 sync progress                         topics="eth1" tid=21914 file=eth1_monitor.nim:705 blockNumber=3836397 depositsProcessed=106147
NOT 2020-12-01 11:26:02.574+00:00 Eth1 sync progress                         topics="eth1" tid=21914 file=eth1_monitor.nim:705 blockNumber=3841412 depositsProcessed=106391
...
INF 2020-12-01 11:26:31.000+00:00 Slot start                                 topics="beacnde" tid=21815 file=nimbus_beacon_node.nim:505 lastSlot=96566 scheduledSlot=96567 beaconTime=1w6d9h53m24s944us774ns peers=7 head=b54486c4:96563 headEpoch=3017 finalized=2f5d12e4:96479 finalizedEpoch=3014
INF 2020-12-01 11:26:36.285+00:00 Slot end                                   topics="beacnde" tid=21815 file=nimbus_beacon_node.nim:593 slot=96567 nextSlot=96568 head=b54486c4:96563 headEpoch=3017 finalizedHead=2f5d12e4:96479 finalizedEpoch=3014
...

Command line options

You can pass any nimbus_beacon_node options to the pyrmont and mainnet scripts. For example, if you wanted to launch Nimbus on pyrmont with a different base port, say 9100, you would run:

./run-pyrmont-beacon-node.sh --tcp-port=9100 --udp-port=9100

To see a list of the command line options availabe to you, with descriptions, navigate to the build directory and run:

./nimbus_beacon_node --help