Guide | How to setup a validator on ETH2 mainnet

Become a validator and help secure eth2, a proof-of-stake blockchain. Anyone with 32 ETH can join.

As of August 20 2024, this guide is updated for mainnet. 😁

✨ For the testnet guide, please click here.

🏁 0. Prerequisites

👩💻Skills for operating a eth2 validator and beacon node

As a validator for eth2, you will typically have the following abilities:

• operational knowledge of how to set up, run and maintain a eth2 beacon node and validator continuously

• a long term commitment to maintain your validator 24/7/365

• basic operating system skills

• have learned the essentials by watching 'Intro to Eth2 & Staking for Beginners' by Superphiz

• have passed or is actively enrolled in the Eth2 Study Master course

• and have read the 8 Things Every Eth2 validator should know.

🎗 Minimum Setup Requirements

• Operating system: 64-bit Linux (i.e. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server or Desktop)

• Processor: Dual core CPU, Intel Core i5–760 or AMD FX-8100 or better

• Memory: 8GB RAM

• Storage: 20GB SSD

• Internet: Broadband internet connection with speeds at least 1 Mbps.

• Power: Reliable electrical power.

• ETH balance: at least 32 ETH and some ETH for deposit transaction fees

• Wallet: Metamask installed

🏋♂ Recommended Hardware Setup

• Operating system: 64-bit Linux (i.e. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server or Desktop)

• Processor: Quad core CPU, Intel Core i7–4770 or AMD FX-8310 or better

• Memory: 16GB RAM or more

• Storage: 1TB SSD or more

• Internet: Broadband internet connections with speeds at least 10 Mbps without data limit.

• Power: Reliable electrical power with uninterruptible power supply (UPS)

• ETH balance: at least 32 ETH and some ETH for deposit transaction fees

• Wallet: Metamask installed

✨ Pro Validator Tip: Highly recommend you begin with a brand new instance of an OS, VM, and/or machine. Avoid headaches by NOT reusing testnet keys, wallets, or databases for your validator.

🔓 Recommended eth2 validator Security Best Practices

If you need ideas or a reminder on how to secure your validator, refer to

Security Best Practices for your ETH staking validator node

🛠 Setup Ubuntu

If you need to install Ubuntu Server, refer to

Install Ubuntu Server | UbuntuUbuntu

🎭 Setup Metamask

If you need to install Metamask, refer to this.

🌱 1. Buy/exchange or consolidate ETH

Every 32 ETH you own allows you to make 1 validator. You can run thousands of validators with your beacon node.

Your ETH (or multiples of 32 ETH) should be consolidated into a single address accessible with Metamask.

👩💻 2. Signup to be a validator at the Launchpad

1. Install dependencies, the ethereum foundation deposit tool and generate your two sets of key pairs.

Each validator will have two sets of key pairs. A signing key and a withdrawal key. These keys are derived from a single mnemonic phrase. Learn more about keys.

You have the choice of downloading the pre-built ethereum foundation deposit tool or building it from source.

Build from source code

Install dependencies.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip git -y

Download source code and install.

cd $HOME
git clone https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli.git eth2deposit-cli
cd eth2deposit-cli
sudo ./deposit.sh install

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

Pre-built eth2deposit-cli

Download eth2deposit-cli.

cd $HOME
wget https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli/releases/download/v1.1.0/eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Verify the SHA256 Checksum matches the checksum on the releases page.

sha256sum eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz
# SHA256 should be
# 2107f26f954545f423530e3501ae616c222b6bf77774a4f2743effb8fe4bcbe7

Extract the archive.

tar -xvf eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz
mv eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64 eth2deposit-cli
rm eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd eth2deposit-cli

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

Advanced - Most Secure

🔥**[ Optional ] Pro Security Tip**: Run the eth2deposit-cli tool and generate your mnemonic seed for your validator keys on an air-gapped offline machine booted from usb.

You will learn how to boot up a windows PC into an airgapped Tails operating system.

The Tails OS is an amnesic operating system, meaning it will save nothing and leave no tracks behind each time you boot it.

Part 0 - Prerequisites

You need:

• 2 storage mediums (can be USB stick, SD cards or external hard drives)

• One of them must be > 8GB

• Windows or Mac computer

• 30 minutes or longer depending on your download speed

Part 1 - Download Tails OS

Download the official image from the Tails website. Might take a while, go grab a coffee.

Make sure you follow the guide on the Tails website to verify your download of Tails.

Part 2 - Download and install the software to transfer your Tails image on your USB stick

For Windows:

• Etcher
• Win32 Disk Imager
• Rufus

For Mac download Etcher

Part 3 - Making your bootable USB stick

Run the above software. This is an example how it looks like on Mac OS with etcher. But other software should be similar.

Select the Tails OS image that you downloaded as the image. Then select the USB stick (the larger one).

Then flash the image to the larger USB stick.

Part 4 - Download and verify the eth2-deposit-cli

You can refer to the other tab on this guide on how to download and verify the eth2-deposit-cli.

Copy the file to the other USB stick.

Part 5 - Reboot your computer and into Tails OS

After you have done all the above, you can reboot. If you are connected by a LAN cable to the internet, you can disconnect it manually.

Plug in the USB stick that has your Tails OS.

On Mac, press and hold the Option key immediately upon hearing the startup chime. Release the key after Startup Manager appears.

On Windows, it depends on your computer manufacturer. Usually it is by pressing F1 or F12. If it doesn't work, try googling "Enter boot options menu on [Insert your PC brand]"

Choose the USB stick that you loaded up with Tails OS to boot into Tails.

Part 6 - Welcome to Tails OS

You can boot with all the default settings.

Part 7 - Run the eth2-deposit-cli

Plug in your other USB stick with the eth2-deposit-cli file.

You can then open your command line and navigate into the directory containing the file. Then you can continue the guide from the other tab.

Make a new mnemonic.

./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --chain mainnet

If you ran this command directly from your non-Tails USB stick, the validator keys should stay on it. If it hasn't, copy the directory over to your non-Tails USB stick.

🔥Make sure you have saved your validator keys directory in your other USB stick (non Tails OS) before you shutdown Tails. Tails will delete everything saved on it after you shutdown..

🎉Congrats on learning how to use Tails OS to make an airgapped system. As a bonus, you can reboot into Tails OS again and connect to internet to surf the dark web or clear net safely!

Advanced - Most Secure

🔥**[ Optional ] Pro Security Tip**: Run the eth2deposit-cli tool and generate your mnemonic seed for your validator keys on an air-gapped offline machine booted from usb.

Follow this ethstaker.cc exclusive for the low down on making a bootable usb.

Part 1 - Create a Ubuntu 20.04 USB Bootable Drive

Part 2 - Install Ubuntu 20.04 from the USB Drive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C97:6MrufCEwww.youtube.com

You can copy via USB key the pre-built eth2deposit-cli binaries from an online machine to an air-gapped offline machine booted from usb. Make sure to disconnect the ethernet cable and/or WIFI.

1. Follow the prompts and pick a password. Write down your mnemonic and keep this safe and offline.

2. Follow the steps at https://launchpad.ethereum.org/ while skipping over the steps you already just completed. Study the eth2 phase 0 overview material. Understanding eth2 is the key to success!
3. Back on the launchpad website, upload yourdeposit_data-#########.json found in the validator_keys directory.

4. Connect to the launchpad with your Metamask wallet, review and accept terms.

5. Confirm the transaction(s). There's one deposit transaction of 32 ETH for each validator.

Your transaction is sending and depositing your ETH to the official ETH2 deposit contract address.

Check, double-check, triple-check that the official Eth2 deposit contract address is correct.0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa

****🔥 Critical Crypto Reminder: Keep your mnemonic, keep your ETH. 🚀

• Write down your mnemonic seed offline. Not email. Not cloud.

• Multiple copies are better. Best stored in a metal seed.
• The withdrawal keys will be generated from this mnemonic in the future.

• Make offline backups, such as to a USB key, of your validator_keys directory.

🛸 3. Install a ETH1 node

Ethereum 2.0 requires a connection to Ethereum 1.0 in order to monitor for 32 ETH validator deposits. Hosting your own Ethereum 1.0 node is the best way to maximize decentralization and minimize dependency on third parties such as Infura.

The subsequent steps assume you have completed the best practices security guide.

🛑 Do not run your processes as ROOT user. 😱

Your choice of either OpenEthereum, Geth, Besu, Nethermind, Infura or Chainstack.

OpenEthereum (Parity)

OpenEthereum - It's ****goal is to be the fastest, lightest, and most secure Ethereum client using the Rust programming language. OpenEthereum is licensed under the GPLv3 and can be used for all your Ethereum needs.

⚙ Install dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl jq unzip -y

🤖 Install OpenEthereum

Review the latest release at https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip, add execute permissions and cleanup.

mkdir $HOME/openethereum
cd $HOME/openethereum
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/openethereum/openethereum/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux | xargs wget -q --show-progress
unzip -o openethereum*.zip
chmod +x openethereum
rm openethereum*.zip

​ ⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description     = openethereum eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/openethereum/openethereum
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Nimbus Specific Configuration: Add the following flag to the ExecStart line.

--ws-origins=all

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

⛓ Start OpenEthereum

sudo systemctl start eth1

Geth

Geth - Go Ethereum is one of the three original implementations (along with C++ and Python) of the Ethereum protocol. It is written in Go, fully open source and licensed under the GNU LGPL v3.

Review the latest release notes at https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/releases

🧬 Install from the repository

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install ethereum -y

⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description     = geth eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = /usr/bin/geth --http --metrics --pprof
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Nimbus Specific Configuration: Add the following flag to the ExecStart line.

--ws

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

⛓ Start geth

sudo systemctl start eth1

Besu

Hyperledger Besu is an open-source Ethereum client designed for demanding enterprise applications requiring secure, high-performance transaction processing in a private network. It's developed under the Apache 2.0 license and written in Java.

🧬 Install java dependency

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-18-jdk -y

🌜 Download and unzip Besu

Review the latest release at https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases

File can be downloaded from https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo

cd
wget -O besu.tar.gz https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo/besu-20.10.1.tar.gz
tar -xvf besu.tar.gz
rm besu.tar.gz
mv besu* besu

⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description     = openethereum eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/besu/bin/besu --metrics-enabled --rpc-http-enabled --data-path="$HOME/.besu"
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

⛓ Start besu

sudo systemctl start eth1

Nethermind

Nethermind is a flagship Ethereum client all about performance and flexibility. Built on .NET core, a widespread, enterprise-friendly platform, Nethermind makes integration with existing infrastructures simple, without losing sight of stability, reliability, data integrity, and security.

⚙ Install dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl libsnappy-dev libc6-dev jq libc6 unzip -y

🌜 Download and unzip Nethermind

Review the latest release at https://github.com/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip and cleanup.

mkdir $HOME/nethermind
cd $HOME/nethermind
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux  | xargs wget -q --show-progress
unzip -o nethermind*.zip
rm nethermind*linux*.zip

⚙ Setup and configure systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define your eth1.service configuration.

Simply copy/paste the following.

cat > $HOME/eth1.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description     = openethereum eth1 service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/nethermind/Nethermind.Runner --baseDbPath $HOME/.nethermind --Metrics.Enabled true --JsonRpc.Enabled true --Sync.DownloadBodiesInFastSync true --Sync.DownloadReceiptsInFastSync true --Sync.AncientBodiesBarrier 11052984 --Sync.AncientReceiptsBarrier 11052984
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system and give it permissions.

sudo mv $HOME/eth1.service /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable eth1

⛓ Start Nethermind

sudo systemctl start eth1

Minimum Hardware Setup (Infura)

Infura is suitable for limited disk space setups. Always run your own full eth1 node when possible.

Sign up for an API access key at https://infura.io/

1. Sign up for a free account.

2. Confirm your email address.

3. Visit your dashboard https://infura.io/dashboard
4. Create a project, give it a name.

5. Select Mainnet as the ENDPOINT

6. Follow the specific configuration for your eth2 client found below.

Alternatively use a free Ethereum node at https://ethereumnodes.com/

Nimbus Specific Configuration

1. When creating your systemd's unit file, update the --web-url parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the websocket endpoint. Starts with wss://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--web3-url=<your wss:// infura endpoint>

Teku Specific Configuration

1. After creating the teku.yaml located in /etc/teku/teku.yaml, update the --eth1-endpoint parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the http endpoint. Starts with http://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
eth1-endpoint: <your https:// infura endpoint>

Lighthouse Specific Configuration

1. When creating your beacon chain systemd unit file, add the --eth1-endpoint parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the https endpoint. Starts with https://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--eth1-endpoint=<your https:// infura endpoint>

Prysm Specific Configuration

1. When creating your beacon chain systemd unit file, update the --http-web3provider parameter with this endpoint.

2. Copy the https endpoint. Starts with https://

3. Save this for step 4, configuring your eth2 node.

#example
--http-web3provider=<your https:// infura endpoint>

Syncing an eth1 node can take up to 1 week. On high-end machines with gigabit internet, expect syncing to take less than a day.

Your eth1 node is fully sync'd when these events occur.

• OpenEthereum: Imported #<block number>

• Geth: Imported new chain segment

• Besu: Imported #<block number>

• Nethermind: No longer syncing Old Headers

🛠 Helpful eth1.service commands

​​ 🗒 To view and follow eth1 logs

journalctl -u eth1 -f

🗒 To stop eth1 service

sudo systemctl stop eth1

🌜 4. Configure a ETH2 beacon chain node and validator

Your choice of Lighthouse, Nimbus, Teku, Prysm, or Lodestar.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an Eth2.0 client with a heavy focus on speed and security. The team behind it, Sigma Prime, is an information security and software engineering firm who have funded Lighthouse along with the Ethereum Foundation, Consensys, and private individuals. Lighthouse is built in Rust and offered under an Apache 2.0 License.

⚙ 4.1. Install rust dependency

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Enter '1' to proceed with the default install.

Update your environment variables.

echo export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Install rust dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install -y git gcc g++ make cmake pkg-config libssl-dev

💡 4.2. Build Lighthouse from source

mkdir ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse.git
cd lighthouse
git fetch --all && git checkout stable && git pull
make

In case of compilation errors, run the following sequence.

rustup update
cargo clean
make

This build process may take a few minutes.

Verify lighthouse was installed properly by checking the version number.

lighthouse --version

🎩 4.3. Import validator key

When you import your keys into Lighthouse, your validator signing key(s) are stored in the $HOME/.lighthouse/mainnet/validators folder.

Run the following command to import your validator keys from the eth2deposit-cli tool directory.

Enter your keystore's password to import accounts.

lighthouse account validator import --network mainnet --directory=$HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys

Verify the accounts were imported successfully.

lighthouse account_manager validator list --network mainnet

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL KEYSTORES TO VALIDATE WITH ANOTHER CLIENT, OR YOU WILL GET SLASHED.

🔥 4.4. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.

• Lighthouse beacon chain requires port 9000 for tcp and udp

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

✨ Port Forwarding Tip: You'll need to forward and open ports to your validator. Verify it's working with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or https://canyouseeme.org/ .

⛓ 4.5. Start the beacon chain

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your beacon chain

1. Auto-start your beacon chain when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed beacon chain processes.

3. Maximize your beacon chain up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions for Systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(which lighthouse) bn --staking --metrics --network mainnet
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

****🔥 Lighthouse Pro Tip: On the ExecStart line, adding the --eth1-endpoints flag allows for redundant eth1 nodes. Separate with comma. Make sure the endpoint does not end with a trailing slash or/ Remove it.

# Example:
--eth1-endpoints http://localhost:8545,https://nodes.mewapi.io/rpc/eth,https://mainnet.eth.cloud.ava.do,https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/xxx

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your beacon node service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beacon-chain
sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

Troubleshooting common issues:

The beacon chain couldn't connect to the :8545 service?

• In the beacon chain unit file under [Service], add, "ExecStartPre = /bin/sleep 30" so that it waits 30 seconds for eth1 node to startup before connecting.

CRIT Invalid eth1 chain id. Please switch to correct chain id.

• Allow your eth1 node to fully sync to mainnet.

Nice work. Your beacon chain is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the beacon chain is active

sudo systemctl is-active beacon-chain

🔎 View the status of the beacon chain

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔄 Restarting the beacon chain

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

🛑 Stopping the beacon chain

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

🧬 4.6. Start the validator

🚀 Setup Graffiti and POAP

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn a POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your validator

1. Auto-start your validator when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed validator processes.

3. Maximize your validator up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions for Systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(which lighthouse) vc --network mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}" --metrics
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your validator.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable validator
sudo systemctl start validator

Nice work. Your validator is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the validator is active

sudo systemctl is-active validator

🔎 View the status of the validator

sudo systemctl status validator

🔄 Restarting the validator

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart validator

🛑 Stopping the validator

sudo systemctl stop validator

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=validator -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=validator --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=validator --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=validator --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

Nimbus

Nimbus is a research project and a client implementation for Ethereum 2.0 designed to perform well on embedded systems and personal mobile devices, including older smartphones with resource-restricted hardware. The Nimbus team are from Status the company best known for their messaging app/wallet/Web3 browser by the same name. Nimbus (Apache 2) is written in Nim, a language with Python-like syntax that compiles to C.

⚙ 4.1. Build Nimbus from source

Install dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install curl build-essential git -y

Install and build Nimbus.

mkdir ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2
cd nimbus-eth2
make NIMFLAGS="-d:insecure" nimbus_beacon_node

The build process may take a few minutes.

Verify Nimbus was installed properly by displaying the help.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build
./nimbus_beacon_node --help

Copy the binary file to /usr/bin

sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/bin

🎩 4.2. Import validator key

Create a directory structure to store nimbus data.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/nimbus

Take ownership of this directory and set the correct permission level.

sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) /var/lib/nimbus
sudo chmod 700 /var/lib/nimbus

The following command will import your validator keys.

Enter your keystore's password to import accounts.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2
build/nimbus_beacon_node deposits import --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus $HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys

Now you can verify the accounts were imported successfully by doing a directory listing.

ll /var/lib/nimbus/validators

You should see a folder named for each of your validator's pubkey.

When you import your keys into Nimbus, your validator signing key(s) are stored in the /var/lib/nimbus folder, under secrets and validators.

The secrets folder contains the common secret that gives you access to all your validator keys.

The validators folder contains your signing keystore(s) (encrypted keys). Keystores are used by validators as a method for exchanging keys.

For more on keys and keystores, see here.

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL KEYSTORES TO VALIDATE WITH ANOTHER CLIENT, OR YOU WILL GET SLASHED.

🔥 4.3. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.

• Nimbus beacon chain node will use port 9000 for tcp and udp

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

✨ Port Forwarding Tip: You'll need to forward and open ports to your validator. Verify it's working with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or https://canyouseeme.org/ .

🏂 4.4. Start the beacon chain and validator

Nimbus combines both the beacon chain and validator into one process.

🚀 Setup Graffiti and POAP

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn a POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your beacon chain and validator

1. Auto-start your beacon chain when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed beacon chain processes.

3. Maximize your beacon chain up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
Type            = simple
User            = $(whoami)
WorkingDirectory= /var/lib/nimbus
ExecStart       = /bin/bash -c '/usr/bin/nimbus_beacon_node --network=mainnet --graffiti="${MY_GRAFFITI}" --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus --web3-url=ws://127.0.0.1:8546 --metrics --metrics-port=8008 --rpc --rpc-port=9091 --validators-dir=/var/lib/nimbus/validators --secrets-dir=/var/lib/nimbus/secrets --log-file=/var/lib/nimbus/beacon.log'
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Nimbus only supports websocket connections ("ws://" and "wss://") for the ETH1 node. Geth, OpenEthereum, Infura and Chainstack ETH1 nodes are verified compatible.

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your beacon node service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beacon-chain
sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

Nice work. Your beacon chain is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the beacon chain is active

sudo systemctl is-active beacon-chain

🔎 View the status of the beacon chain

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔄 Restarting the beacon chain

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

🛑 Stopping the beacon chain

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

Teku

PegaSys Teku (formerly known as Artemis) is a Java-based Ethereum 2.0 client designed & built to meet institutional needs and security requirements. PegaSys is an arm of ConsenSys dedicated to building enterprise-ready clients and tools for interacting with the core Ethereum platform. Teku is Apache 2 licensed and written in Java, a language notable for its materity & ubiquity.

⚙ 4.1 Build Teku from source

Install git.

sudo apt-get install git -y

Install Java 18.

For Ubuntu 20.x, use the following

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openjdk-18-jdk -y

For Ubuntu 18.x, use the following

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linuxuprising/java
sudo apt update
sudo apt install oracle-java11-set-default -y

Verify Java 18+ is installed.

java --version

Install and build Teku.

mkdir ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/ConsenSys/teku.git
cd teku
./gradlew distTar installDist

This build process may take a few minutes.

Verify Teku was installed properly by displaying the version.

cd $HOME/git/teku/build/install/teku/bin
./teku --version

Copy the teku binary file to /usr/bin/teku

sudo cp -r $HOME/git/teku/build/install/teku /usr/bin/teku

🔥 4.2. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.

• Teku beacon chain node will use port 9000 for tcp and udp

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

****✨ Port Forwarding Tip: You'll need to forward and open ports to your validator. Verify it's working with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or https://canyouseeme.org/ .

🏂 4.3. Configure the beacon chain and validator

Teku combines both the beacon chain and validator into one process.

Setup a directory structure for Teku.

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/teku
sudo mkdir -p /etc/teku
sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) /var/lib/teku

Copy your validator_files directory to the data directory we created above and remove the extra deposit_data file.

cp -r $HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys /var/lib/teku
rm /var/lib/teku/validator_keys/deposit_data*

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL KEYSTORES TO VALIDATE WITH ANOTHER CLIENT, OR YOU WILL GET SLASHED.

Store your validator's password in a file.

Update your password between the quotation marks after echo.

echo 'my_password_goes_here' > $HOME/validators-password.txt
sudo mv $HOME/validators-password.txt /etc/teku/validators-password.txt

🚀 Setup Graffiti and POAP

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn a POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

Generate your Teku Config file. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/teku.yaml << EOF
# network
network: "mainnet"

# p2p
p2p-enabled: true
p2p-port: 9000
# validators
validator-keys: "/var/lib/teku/validator_keys:/var/lib/teku/validator_keys"
validators-graffiti: "${MY_GRAFFITI}"

# Eth 1
eth1-endpoint: "http://localhost:8545"

# metrics
metrics-enabled: true
metrics-port: 8008

# database
data-path: "$(echo $HOME)/tekudata"
data-storage-mode: "archive"

# rest api
rest-api-port: 5051
rest-api-docs-enabled: true
rest-api-enabled: true

# logging
log-include-validator-duties-enabled: true
log-destination: CONSOLE
EOF

Move the config file to /etc/teku

sudo mv $HOME/teku.yaml /etc/teku/teku.yaml

🎩 4.4 Import validator key

When specifying directories for your validator-keys, Teku expects to find identically named keystore and password files.

For example keystore-m_12221_3600_1_0_0-11222333.json and keystore-m_12221_3600_1_0_0-11222333.txt

Create a corresponding password file for every one of your validators.

for f in /var/lib/teku/validator_keys/keystore*.json; do cp /etc/teku/validators-password.txt /var/lib/teku/validator_keys/$(basename $f .json).txt; done

Verify that your validator's keystore and validator's passwords are present by checking the following directory.

ll /var/lib/teku/validator_keys

🏁 4.5. Start the beacon chain and validator

Use systemd to manage starting and stopping teku.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your beacon chain and validator

1. Auto-start your beacon chain when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed beacon chain processes.

3. Maximize your beacon chain up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = /usr/bin/teku/bin/teku -c /etc/teku/teku.yaml
Restart         = on-failure
Environment     = JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx5g

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your beacon node service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beacon-chain
sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

Nice work. Your beacon chain is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the beacon chain is active

sudo systemctl is-active beacon-chain

🔎 View the status of the beacon chain

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔄 Restarting the beacon chain

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

🛑 Stopping the beacon chain

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

Prysm

Prysm is a Go implementation of Ethereum 2.0 protocol with a focus on usability, security, and reliability. Prysm is developed by Prysmatic Labs, a company with the sole focus on the development of their client. Prysm is written in Go and released under a GPL-3.0 license.

⚙ 4.1. Install Prysm

mkdir ~/prysm && cd ~/prysm
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/master/prysm.sh --output prysm.sh && chmod +x prysm.sh

🔥 4.2. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.

• Prysm beacon chain node will use port 12000 for udp and port 13000 for tcp

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

✨ Port Forwarding Tip: You'll need to forward and open ports to your validator. Verify it's working with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or https://canyouseeme.org/ .

🎩 4.3. Import validator key

Accept terms of use, accept default wallet location, enter a new password to encrypt your wallet and enter the password for your imported accounts.

$HOME/prysm/prysm.sh validator accounts import --mainnet --keys-dir=$HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys

Verify your validators imported successfully.

$HOME/prysm/prysm.sh validator accounts list --mainnet

Confirm your validator's pubkeys are listed.

#Example output:

Showing 1 validator account View the eth1 deposit transaction data for your accounts by running `validator accounts list --show-deposit-data

Account 0 | pens-brother-heat [validating public key] 0x2374.....7121

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL KEYSTORES TO VALIDATE WITH ANOTHER CLIENT, OR YOU WILL GET SLASHED.

🏂 4.4. Start the beacon chain

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your beacon chain and validator

1. Auto-start your beacon chain when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed beacon chain processes.

3. Maximize your beacon chain up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
Type            = simple
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/prysm/prysm.sh beacon-chain --mainnet --p2p-max-peers=75 --http-web3provider=http://127.0.0.1:8545 --accept-terms-of-use
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your beacon node service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beacon-chain
sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

Nice work. Your beacon chain is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the beacon chain is active

sudo systemctl is-active beacon-chain

🔎 View the status of the beacon chain

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔄 Restarting the beacon chain

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

🛑 Stopping the beacon chain

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

🗒 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

🧬 4.5. Start the validator

Store your validator's password in a file and make it read-only.

echo 'my_password_goes_here' > $HOME/.eth2validators/validators-password.txt
sudo chmod 600 $HOME/.eth2validators/validators-password.txt

🚀 Setup Graffiti and POAP

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn a POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

Your choice of running a validator manually from command line or automatically with systemd.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your validator

1. Auto-start your validator when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed validator processes.

3. Maximize your validator up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions for systemd

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/prysm/prysm.sh validator --mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}" --accept-terms-of-use --wallet-password-file $(echo $HOME)/.eth2validators/validators-password.txt
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your validator.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable validator
sudo systemctl start validator

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the validator is active

sudo systemctl is-active validator

🔎 View the status of the validator

sudo systemctl status validator

🔄 Restarting the validator

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart validator

🛑 Stopping the validator

sudo systemctl stop validator

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=validator -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=validator --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=validator --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=validator --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

Verify that your validator public key appears in the logs.

journalctl --unit=validator --since=today
# Example below
# INFO Enabled validator       voting_pubkey: 0x2374.....7121

Lodestar

Lodestar is a Typescript implementation of the official Ethereum 2.0 specification by the ChainSafe.io team. In addition to the beacon chain client, the team is also working on 22 packages and libraries. A complete list can be found here. Finally, the Lodestar team is leading the Eth2 space in light client research and development and has received funding from the EF and Moloch DAO for this purpose.

Lodestar may not be fully functional and stable yet.

⚙ 4.1 Build Lodestar from source

Install curl and git.

sudo apt-get install git curl -y

Install yarn.

curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install yarn

Confirm yarn is installed properly.

yarn --version
# Should output version >= 1.22.4

Install nodejs.

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Confirm nodejs is installed properly.

nodejs -v
# Should output version >= v12.18.3

Install and build Lodestar.

mkdir ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/chainsafe/lodestar.git
cd lodestar
yarn install
yarn run build

This build process may take a few minutes.

Verify Lodestar was installed properly by displaying the help menu.

yarn run cli --help

🔥 4.2. Configure port forwarding and/or firewall

Specific to your networking setup or cloud provider settings, ensure your validator's firewall ports are open and reachable.

• Lodestar beacon chain node will use port 30607 for tcp and port 9000 for udp peer discovery.

• eth1 node requires port 30303 for tcp and udp

****✨ Port Forwarding Tip: You'll need to forward and open ports to your validator. Verify it's working with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or https://canyouseeme.org/ .

🎩 4.3. Import validator key

yarn run cli account validator import \
  --network mainnet \
  --directory $HOME/eth2deposit-cli/validator_keys

Enter your keystore's password to import accounts.

Confirm your keys were imported properly.

yarn run cli account validator list --network mainnet

WARNING: DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL KEYSTORES TO VALIDATE WITH ANOTHER CLIENT, OR YOU WILL GET SLASHED.

🏂 4.4. Start the beacon chain and validator

Run the beacon chain automatically with systemd.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your beacon chain

1. Auto-start your beacon chain when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed beacon chain processes.

3. Maximize your beacon chain up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
WorkingDirectory= $(echo $HOME)/git/lodestar
ExecStart       = yarn run cli beacon --network mainnet --eth1.providerUrl http://localhost:8545 --metrics.serverPort 8008
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your beacon node service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beacon-chain
sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

Nice work. Your beacon chain is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the beacon chain is active

sudo systemctl is-active beacon-chain

🔎 View the status of the beacon chain

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔄 Restarting the beacon chain

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

🛑 Stopping the beacon chain

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=beacon-chain --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

🧬 4.5. Start the validator

🚀 Setup Graffiti and POAP

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn a POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

Run the validator automatically with systemd.

🍰 Benefits of using systemd for your validator

1. Auto-start your validator when the computer reboots due to maintenance, power outage, etc.

2. Automatically restart crashed validator processes.

3. Maximize your validator up-time and performance.

🛠 Setup Instructions

Run the following to create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
WorkingDirectory= $(echo $HOME)/git/lodestar
ExecStart       = yarn run cli validator run --network mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}"
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Run the following to enable auto-start at boot time and then start your validator.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable validator
sudo systemctl start validator

Nice work. Your validator is now managed by the reliability and robustness of systemd. Below are some commands for using systemd.

🛠 Some helpful systemd commands

✅ Check whether the validator is active

sudo systemctl is-active validator

🔎 View the status of the validator

sudo systemctl status validator

🔄 Restarting the validator

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart validator

🛑 Stopping the validator

sudo systemctl stop validator

🗄 Viewing and filtering logs

#view and follow the log
journalctl --unit=validator -f
#view log since yesterday
journalctl --unit=validator --since=yesterday
#view log since today
journalctl --unit=validator --since=today
#view log between a date
journalctl --unit=validator --since='2020-12-01 00:00:00' --until='2020-12-02 12:00:00'

Validator client - Responsible for producing new blocks and attestations in the beacon chain and shard chains.

Beacon chain client - Responsible for managing the state of the beacon chain, validator shuffling, and more.

Remember, Teku and Nimbus combines both clients into one process.

Congratulations. Once your beacon chain is sync'd, validator up and running, you just wait for activation. This process can take 24+ hours. Only 900 new validators can join per day. When you're assigned, your validator will begin creating and voting on blocks while earning staking rewards.

Use https://beaconcha.in/ to create alerts and track your validator's performance.

🕒5. Time Synchronization

Because beacon chain relies on accurate times to perform attestations and produce blocks, your computer's time must be accurate to real NTP or NTS time within 0.5 seconds.

Setup Chrony with this guide.

chrony is an implementation of the Network Time Protocol and helps to keep your computer's time synchronized with NTP.

🔎6. Monitoring your validator with Grafana and Prometheus

Prometheus is a monitoring platform that collects metrics from monitored targets by scraping metrics HTTP endpoints on these targets. Official documentation is available here. Grafana is a dashboard used to visualize the collected data.

🐣 6.1 Installation

Install prometheus and prometheus node exporter.

sudo apt-get install -y prometheus prometheus-node-exporter

Install grafana.

wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main" > grafana.list
sudo mv grafana.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y grafana

Enable services so they start automatically.

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server.service prometheus.service prometheus-node-exporter.service

Create the prometheus.yml config file. Choose the tab for your eth2 client. Simply copy and paste.

Lighthouse

cat > $HOME/prometheus.yml << EOF
global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # By default, scrape targets every 15 seconds.

  # Attach these labels to any time series or alerts when communicating with
  # external systems (federation, remote storage, Alertmanager).
  external_labels:
    monitor: 'codelab-monitor'

# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
   - job_name: 'node_exporter'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:9100']
   - job_name: 'nodes'
     metrics_path: /metrics
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:5054']
   - job_name: 'validators'
     metrics_path: /metrics
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:5064']
EOF

Nimbus

cat > $HOME/prometheus.yml << EOF
global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # By default, scrape targets every 15 seconds.

  # Attach these labels to any time series or alerts when communicating with
  # external systems (federation, remote storage, Alertmanager).
  external_labels:
    monitor: 'codelab-monitor'

# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
   - job_name: 'node_exporter'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:9100']
   - job_name: 'nodes'
     metrics_path: /metrics
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:8008']
EOF

Teku

cat > $HOME/prometheus.yml << EOF
global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # By default, scrape targets every 15 seconds.

  # Attach these labels to any time series or alerts when communicating with
  # external systems (federation, remote storage, Alertmanager).
  external_labels:
    monitor: 'codelab-monitor'

# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
   - job_name: 'node_exporter'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:9100']
   - job_name: 'nodes'
     metrics_path: /metrics
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:8008']
EOF

Prysm

cat > $HOME/prometheus.yml << EOF
global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # By default, scrape targets every 15 seconds.

  # Attach these labels to any time series or alerts when communicating with
  # external systems (federation, remote storage, Alertmanager).
  external_labels:
    monitor: 'codelab-monitor'

# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'node_exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9100']
  - job_name: 'validator'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8081']
  - job_name: 'beacon node'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8080']
  - job_name: 'slasher'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8082']
EOF

Lodestar

cat > $HOME/prometheus.yml << EOF
scrape_configs:
   - job_name: 'node_exporter'
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:9100']
   - job_name: 'Lodestar'
     metrics_path: /metrics
     static_configs:
       - targets: ['localhost:8008']
EOF

Setup prometheus for your eth1 node. Start by editing prometheus.yml

nano $HOME/prometheus.yml

Append the applicable job snippet for your eth1 node to the end of prometheus.yml. Save the file.

Geth

   - job_name: 'geth'
     scrape_interval: 15s
     scrape_timeout: 10s
     metrics_path: /debug/metrics/prometheus
     scheme: http
     static_configs:
     - targets: ['localhost:6060']

Besu

  - job_name: 'besu'
    scrape_interval: 15s
    scrape_timeout: 10s
    metrics_path: /metrics
    scheme: http
    static_configs:
    - targets:
      - localhost:9545

Nethermind

   - job_name: 'nethermind'
    scrape_interval: 15s
    scrape_timeout: 10s
    honor_labels: true
    static_configs:
    - targets: ['localhost:9091']

Nethermind monitoring requires Prometheus Pushgateway. Install with the following command.

sudo apt-get install -y prometheus-pushgateway

Pushgateway listens for data from Nethermind on port 9091.

OpenEthereum

Work in progress

Move it to /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

sudo mv $HOME/prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Finally, restart the services.

sudo systemctl restart grafana-server.service prometheus.service prometheus-node-exporter.service

Verify that the services are running properly:

sudo systemctl status grafana-server.service prometheus.service prometheus-node-exporter.service

💡 Reminder: Ensure port 3000 is open on the firewall and/or port forwarded if you intend to view monitoring info from a different machine.

📶 6.2 Setting up Grafana Dashboards

1. Open http://localhost:3000 or http://<your validator's ip address>:3000 in your local browser.
2. Login with admin / admin

3. Change password

4. Click the configuration gear icon, then Add data Source

5. Select Prometheus

6. Set Name to "Prometheus"

7. Set URL to http://localhost:9090
8. Click Save & Test

9. Download and save your ETH2 Client's json file. [ Lighthouse BC | Lighthouse VC | Teku | Nimbus | Prysm | Prysm > 10 Validators | Lodestar ]
10. Download and save your ETH1 Client's json file [ Geth | Besu | Nethermind | OpenEthereum ]
11. Click Create + icon > Import

12. Add the ETH2 client dashboard via Upload JSON file

13. If needed, select Prometheus as Data Source.

14. Click the Import button.

15. Repeat steps 11-14 for the ETH1 client dashboard.

****🔥 Troubleshooting common Grafana issues:

The dashboards do not display eth1 node data.

• In the eth1 unit file under located at /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service, make sure your eth1 node/geth is started with the correct parameters so that reporting metrics and pprof http server are enabled.

  • Example:ExecStartPre = /usr/bin/geth --http --metrics --pprof

Example of Grafana Dashboards for each ETH2 client.

Lighthouse

Beacon Chain dashboard by sigp

Validator Client dashboard by sigp

Credits: https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse-metrics/

Nimbus

Dashboard by status-im

Credits: https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2/

Teku

Teku by PegaSys Engineering

Credits: https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/13457

Prysm

Prysm dashboard by GuillaumeMiralles

Credits: https://github.com/GuillaumeMiralles/prysm-grafana-dashboard

Example of Grafana Dashboards for each ETH1 node.

Geth

Dashboard by karalabe

Credits: https://gist.github.com/karalabe/e7ca79abdec54755ceae09c08bd090cd

Besu

Credits: https://grafana.com/dashboards/10273

Nethermind

Credits: https://github.com/NethermindEth/metrics-infrastructure

⚠ 6.3 Setup Alert Notifications

Setup alerts to get notified if your validators go offline.

Get notified of problems with your validators. Choose between email, telegram, discord or slack.

Email Notifications

1. Visit https://beaconcha.in/
2. Sign up for an account.

3. Verify your email

4. Search for your validator's public address

5. Add validators to your watchlist by clicking the bookmark symbol.

Telegram Notifications

1. On the menu of Grafana, select Notification channels under the bell icon.

2. Click on Add channel.

3. Give the notification channel a name.

4. Select Telegram from the Type list.

5. To complete the Telegram API settings, a Telegram channel and bot are required. For instructions on setting up a bot with @Botfather, see this section of the Telegram documentation. You need to create a BOT API token.
6. Create a new telegram group.

7. Invite the bot to your new group.

8. Type at least 1 message into the group to initialize it.

9. Visit https://api.telegram.org/botXXX:YYY/getUpdates where XXX:YYY is your BOT API Token.
10. In the JSON response, find and copy the Chat ID. Find it between chat and title. Example of Chat ID: -1123123123

    "chat":{"id":-123123123,"title":

11. Paste the Chat ID into the corresponding field in Grafana.

12. Save and test the notification channel for your alerts.

13. Now you can create custom alerts from your dashboards. Visit here to learn how to create alerts.

Discord Notifications

1. On the menu of Grafana, select Notification channels under the bell icon.

2. Click on Add channel.

3. Add a name to the notification channel.

4. Select Discord from the Type list.

5. To complete the set up, a Discord server (and a text channel available) as well as a Webhook URL are required. For instructions on setting up a Discord's Webhooks, see this section of their documentation.
6. Enter the Webhook URL in the Discord notification settings panel.

7. Click Send Test, which will push a confirmation message to the Discord channel.

Slack Notifications

1. On the menu of Grafana, select Notification channels under the bell icon.

2. Click on Add channel.

3. Add a name to the notification channel.

4. Select Slack from the Type list.

5. For instructions on setting up a Slack's Incoming Webhooks, see this section of their documentation.
6. Enter the Slack Incoming Webhook URL in the URL field.

7. Click Send Test, which will push a confirmation message to the Slack channel.

🌊 6.4 Monitoring with Uptime Check by Google Cloud

Who watches the watcher? With an external 3rd party tool like Uptime Check, you can have greater reassurance your validator is functioning in case of disasters such as power failure, hardware failure or internet outage. In these scenarios, the previously mentioned monitoring by Prometheus and Grafana would likely cease to function as well.

Credits to Mohamed Mansour for inspiring this how-to guide.

Here's how to setup a no-cost monitoring service called Uptime Check by Google.

For a video demo, watch MohamedMansour's eth2 education videos.

1. Visit cloud.google.com
2. Search for Monitoring in the search field.

3. Click Select a Project to Start Monitoring.

4. Click New Project.

5. Name your project and click Create.

6. From the notifications menu, select your new project.

7. On the right column, there's a Monitoring Card. Click Go to Monitoring.

8. On the left menu, click Uptime checks and then CREATE UPTIME CHECK.

9. Type in a title i.e. Geth node

10. Select protocol as TCP

11. Enter your public IP address and port number. i.e. ip=7.55.6.3 and port=30303

12. Select your desired frequency to check i.e. 5 minutes.

13. Choose the region closest to you to check from. Click Next.

14. Create a Notification Channel. Click Manage Notification Channels.

15. Choose your desired settings. Pick from any or all of Slack, Webhook, Email or SMS.

16. Go back to Create Uptime Check window.

17. Within the notifications field, click the refresh button to load your new notification channels.

18. Select desired notifications.

19. Click TEST to verify your notifications are setup correctly.

20. Click CREATE to finish.

🎉Congrats on setting up your validator! You're good to go on eth2.0.

🧙♂7. Update a ETH2 client

When a new release is cut, you will want to update to the latest stable release. The following shows you how to update your eth2 beacon chain and validator.

Always review the git logs with commandgit log or release notes before updating. There may be changes requiring your attention.

Select your ETH2 client.

Lighthouse

Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.

https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases

Pull the latest source and build it.

cd $HOME/git/lighthouse
git fetch --all && git checkout stable && git pull
make

Verify the build completed by checking the new version number.

lighthouse --version

Restart beacon chain and validator as per normal operating procedures.

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain validator

Nimbus

Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.

https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2/releases

Pull the latest source and build it.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2
git pull && make update
make NIMFLAGS="-d:insecure" nimbus_beacon_node

Verify the build completed by checking the new version number.

cd $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build
./nimbus_beacon_node --version

Stop, copy new binary, and restart beacon chain and validator as per normal operating procedures.

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain
sudo rm /usr/bin/nimbus_beacon_node
sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/bin
sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

Teku

Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.

https://github.com/ConsenSys/teku/releases

Pull the latest source and build it.

cd $HOME/git/teku
git pull
./gradlew distTar installDist

Verify the build completed by checking the new version number.

cd $HOME/git/teku/build/install/teku/bin
./teku --version

Restart beacon chain and validator as per normal operating procedures.

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain
sudo rm -rf /usr/bin/teku
sudo cp -r $HOME/git/teku/build/install/teku /usr/bin/teku
sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain

Prysm

Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features. https://github.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/releases

#Simply restart the processes
sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain validator

Lodestar

Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.

https://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/releases

Pull the latest source and build it.

cd $HOME/git/lodestar
git pull
yarn install
yarn run build

Verify the build completed by checking the new version number.

yarn run cli --version

Restart beacon chain and validator as per normal operating procedures.

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart beacon-chain validator

Check the logs to verify the services are working properly and ensure there are no errors.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

🔥8. Additional Useful Tips

🛑 8.1 Voluntary exit a validator

Use this command to signal your intentions to stop validating with your validator. This means you no longer want to stake with your validator and want to turn off your node.

• Voluntary exiting takes a minimum of 2048 epochs (or ~9days). There is a queue to exit and a delay before your validator is finally exited.

• Once a validator is exited in phase 0, this is non-reversible and you can no longer restart validating again.

• Your funds will not be available for withdrawal until phase 1.5 or later.

• After your validator leaves the exit queue and is truely exited, it is safe to turn off your beacon node and validator.

Lighthouse

lighthouse account validator exit \
--keystore $HOME/.lighthouse/mainnet/validators \
--beacon-node http://localhost:5052

Teku

teku voluntary-exit \
--epoch=<epoch number to exit> \
--beacon-node-api-endpoint=http://127.0.0.1:5051 \
--validator-keys=<path to keystore.json>:<path to password.txt file>

Nimbus

build/nimbus_beacon_node deposits exit --validator=<VALIDATOR_PUBLIC_KEY> --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus

Prysm

$HOME/prysm/prysm.sh validator accounts voluntary-exit

🗝 8.2 Verify your mnemonic phrase

Using the eth2deposit-cli tool, ensure you can regenerate the same eth2 key pairs by restoring your validator_keys

cd $HOME/eth2deposit-cli
./deposit.sh existing-mnemonic --chain mainnet

When the pubkey in both keystore files are identical, this means your mnemonic phrase is veritably correct. Other fields will be different because of salting.

🤖8.3 Add additional validators

Using the eth2deposit-cli tool, you can add more validators by creating a new deposit data file and validator_keys

First, backup and move your existing validator_key directory and append the date to the end.

cd $HOME/eth2deposit-cli
mv validator_key validator_key_$(date +"%Y%d%m-%H%M%S")

For example, in case we originally created 3 validators but now wish to add 5 more validators, we could use the following command.

cd $HOME/eth2deposit-cli
./deposit.sh existing-mnemonic --validator_start_index 3 --num_validators 5 --chain mainnet

Complete the steps of uploading the deposit_data-#########.json to the launch pad site and making your corresponding 32 ETH deposit transactions.

Finish by stopping your validator, importing the new validator key(s), restarting your validator and verifying the logs ensuring everything still works without error.

💸 8.4 Switch / migrate Eth2 clients with slash protection

The key takeaway in this process is to avoid running two eth2 clients simultaneously. You want to avoid being punished by a slashing penalty, which causes a loss of ether.

🛑 8.4.1 Stop old beacon chain and old validator.

In order to export the slashing database, the validator needs to be stopped.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain

💽 8.4.2 Export slashing database (Optional)

EIP-3076 implements a standard to safety migrate validator keys between eth2 clients. This is the exported contents of the slashing database.

Update the export .json file location and name.

Lighthouse

lighthouse account validator slashing-protection export <lighthouse_interchange.json>

Teku

teku slashing-protection export --to=<FILE>

🚧 8.4.3 Setup and install new validator / beacon chain

Now you need to setup/install your new validator but do not start running the systemd processes. Be sure to thoroughly follow your new validator's Section 4. Configure a ETH2 beacon chain and validator. You will need to build/install the client, configure port forwarding/firewalls, and new systemd unit files.

****✨ Pro Tip: During the process of re-importing validator keys, wait at least 13 minutes or two epochs to prevent slashing penalties. You must avoid running two eth2 clients with same validator keys at the same time.

🛑 Critical Step: Do not start any systemd processes until either you have imported the slashing database or you have waited at least 13 minutes or two epochs.

📂 8.4.4 Import slashing database (Optional)

Using your new eth2 client, run the following command and update the relevant path to import your slashing database from 2 steps ago.

Lighthouse

lighthouse account validator slashing-protection import <my_interchange.json>

Teku

teku slashing-protection import --from=<FILE>

🌠 8.4.5 Start new validator and new beacon chain

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl start beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl start beacon-chain

🔥 8.4.6 Verify functionality

Check the logs to verify the services are working properly and ensure there are no errors.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl status beacon-chain

Finally, verify your validator's attestations are working with public block explorer such as

https://beaconcha.in/

Enter your validator's pubkey to view its status.

🧯 8.4.7 Update Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

Review section 6 and change your prometheus.yml. Ensure prometheus is connected to your new eth2 client's metrics port. You will also want to import your new eth2 client's dashboard.

🖥 8.5 Use all available LVM disk space

During installation of Ubuntu Server, a common issue arises where your hard drive's space is not fully available for use.

# View your disk drives
df

# Change the logical volume filesystem path if required
lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv

exit
# Resize file system to use the new available space in the logical volume
resize2fs /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv

## Verify new available space
df -h

Source reference:

Ubuntu Server 18.04 LVM out of space with improper default partitioningAsk Ubuntu

🚦 8.6 Reduce network bandwidth usage

Hosting your own ETH1 node can consume hundreds of gigabytes of data per day. Because data plans can be limited or costly, you might desire to slow down data usage but still maintain good connectivity to the network.

Edit your eth1.service unit file.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Add the following flag to limit the number of peers on the ExecStart line.

Geth

--maxpeers 10
# Example
# ExecStart       = /usr/bin/geth --maxpeers 10 --http --ws

OpenEthereum (Parity)

--max-peers 10
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/openethereum/openethereum --max-peers 10

Besu

--max-peers 10
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/besu/bin/besu --max-peers 10 --rpc-http-enabled

Nethermind

--ActivePeersMaxCount 10
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/nethermind/Nethermind.Runner --ActivePeersMaxCount 10 --JsonRpc.Enabled true

Finally, reload the new unit file and restart the eth1 node.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart eth1

📂 8.7 Important directory locations

In case you need to locate your validator keys, database directories or other important files.

Eth2 Client files and locations

Lighthouse

# Validator Keys
~/.lighthouse/mainnet/validators

# Beacon Chain Data
~/.lighthouse/mainnet/beacon

# List of all validators and passwords
~/.lighthouse/mainnet/validators/validator_definitions.yml

#Slash protection db
~/.lighthouse/mainnet/validators/slashing_protection.sqlite

Nimbus

# Validator Keys
/var/lib/nimbus/validators

# Beacon Chain Data
/var/lib/nimbus/db

#Slash protection db
/var/lib/nimbus/validators/slashing_protection.sqlite3

#Logs
/var/lib/nimbus/beacon.log

Teku

# Validator Keys
/var/lib/teku

# Beacon Chain Data
~/tekudata/beacon

#Slash protection db
~/tekudata/validator/slashprotection

Prysm

# Validator Keys
~/.eth2validators/prysm-wallet-v2/direct

# Beacon Chain Data
~/.eth2/beaconchaindata

Eth1 node files and locations

Geth

# database location
$HOME/.ethereum

OpenEthereum (Parity)

# database location
$HOME/.local/share/openethereum

Besu

# database location
$HOME/.besu/database

Nethermind

#database location
$HOME/.nethermind/nethermind_db/mainnet

🌏 8.8 Hosting ETH1 node on a different machine

Hosting your own ETH1 node on a different machine than where your beacon-chain and validator resides, can allow some extra modularity and flexibility.

On the eth1 node machine, edit your eth1.service unit file.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Add the following flag to allow remote incoming http and or websocket api requests on the ExecStart line.

If not using websockets, there's no need to include ws parameters. Only Nimbus requires websockets.

Geth

--http.addr 0.0.0.0 --ws.addr 0.0.0.0
# Example
# ExecStart       = /usr/bin/geth --http.addr 0.0.0.0 --ws.addr 0.0.0.0 --http --ws

OpenEthereum (Parity)

--jsonrpc-interface=all --ws-interface=all
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/openethereum/openethereum --jsonrpc-interface=all --ws-interface=all

Besu

--rpc-http-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-ws-enabled --rpc-ws-host=0.0.0.0
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/besu/bin/besu --rpc-http-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-ws-enabled --rpc-ws-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-http-enabled

Nethermind

--JsonRpc.Host 0.0.0.0 --WebSocketsEnabled
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/nethermind/Nethermind.Runner --JsonRpc.Host 0.0.0.0 --WebSocketsEnabled --JsonRpc.Enabled true

Reload the new unit file and restart the eth1 node.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart eth1

On the separate machine hosting the beacon-chain, update the beacon-chain unit file with the eth1 node's IP address.

Lighthouse

# edit beacon-chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# add the --eth1-endpoint parameter
# example
# --eth1-endpoint=http://192.168.10.22

Nimbus

# edit beacon chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# modify the --web-url parameter
# example
# --web3-url=ws://192.168.10.22

Teku

# edit teku.yaml
nano /etc/teku/teku.yaml
# change the eth1-endpoint
# example
# eth1-endpoint: "http://192.168.10.20:8545"

Prysm

# edit beacon-chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# add the --http-web3provider parameter
# example
# --http-web3provider=http://192.168.10.20:8545

Reload the updated unit file and restart the beacon-chain.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart beacon-chain

🎊 8.9 Add or change POAP graffiti flag

Setup your graffiti, a custom message included in blocks your validator successfully proposes, and earn an early beacon chain validator POAP token. Generate your POAP string by supplying an Ethereum 1.0 address here.

Run the following command to set the MY_GRAFFITI variable. Replace <my POAP string or message> between the single quotes.

MY_GRAFFITI='<my POAP string or message>'
# Examples
# MY_GRAFFITI='poapAAAAACGatUA1bLuDnL4FMD13BfoD'
# MY_GRAFFITI='eth2 rulez!'

Learn more about POAP - The Proof of Attendance token.

Lighthouse

Run the following to re-create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(which lighthouse) vc --network mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}"
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Nimbus

Run the following to re-create a unit file to define yourbeacon-chain.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/beacon-chain.service << EOF
# The eth2 beacon chain service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 beacon chain service
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
Type            = simple
User            = $(whoami)
WorkingDirectory= /var/lib/nimbus
Environment     = "ClientIP=\$(curl -s ident.me)"
ExecStart       = /bin/bash -c '/usr/bin/nimbus_beacon_node --network=mainnet --graffiti="${MY_GRAFFITI}" --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus --nat=extip:\${ClientIP} --web3-url=ws://127.0.0.1:8546 --metrics --metrics-port=8008 --rpc --rpc-port=9091 --validators-dir=/var/lib/nimbus/validators --secrets-dir=/var/lib/nimbus/secrets --log-file=/var/lib/nimbus/beacon.log --max-peers=100'
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy    = multi-user.target
EOF

Nimbus only supports websocket connections ("ws://" and "wss://") for the ETH1 node. Geth, OpenEthereum, Infura and Chainstack ETH1 nodes are verified compatible.

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/beacon-chain.service /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Update file permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service

Teku

Re-generate your Teku Config file. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/teku.yaml << EOF
# network
network: "mainnet"

# p2p
p2p-enabled: true
p2p-port: 9000
# validators
validator-keys: "/var/lib/teku/validator_keys:/var/lib/teku/validator_keys"
validators-graffiti: "${MY_GRAFFITI}"

# Eth 1
eth1-endpoint: "http://localhost:8545"

# metrics
metrics-enabled: true
metrics-categories: ["BEACON","LIBP2P","NETWORK"]
metrics-port: 8008

# database
data-path: "$(echo $HOME)/tekudata"
data-storage-mode: "archive"

# rest api
rest-api-port: 5051
rest-api-docs-enabled: true
rest-api-enabled: true

# logging
log-include-validator-duties-enabled: true
log-destination: CONSOLE
EOF

Move the config file to /etc/teku

sudo mv $HOME/teku.yaml /etc/teku/teku.yaml

Prysm

Re-create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
ExecStart       = $(echo $HOME)/prysm/prysm.sh validator --mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}" --accept-terms-of-use --wallet-password-file $(echo $HOME)/.eth2validators/validators-password.txt
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update its permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Lodestar

Run the following to re-create a unit file to define yourvalidator.service configuration. Simply copy and paste.

cat > $HOME/validator.service << EOF
# The eth2 validator service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

[Unit]
Description     = eth2 validator service
Wants           = network-online.target beacon-chain.service
After           = network-online.target

[Service]
User            = $(whoami)
WorkingDirectory= $(echo $HOME)/git/lodestar
ExecStart       = yarn run cli validator run --network mainnet --graffiti "${MY_GRAFFITI}"
Restart         = on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy	= multi-user.target
EOF

Move the unit file to /etc/systemd/system

sudo mv $HOME/validator.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Update its permissions.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

Reload the updated unit file and restart the validator process for your graffiti to take effect.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart validator

Teku | Nimbus

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart beacon-chain

📦 8.10 Update a ETH1 node - Geth / OpenEthereum / Besu / Nethermind

From time to time, be sure to update to the latest ETH1 releases to enjoy new improvements and features.

Stop your eth2 beacon chain, validator, and eth1 node processes.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

# This can take some time.
sudo systemctl stop validator beacon-chain eth1

Nimbus | Teku

# This can take some time.
sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain eth1

Update the eth1 node package or binaries.

Geth

Review the latest release notes at https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/releases

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

OpenEthereum (Parity)

Review the latest release at https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip, add execute permissions and cleanup.

cd $HOME
# backup previous openethereum version in case of rollback
mv openethereum openethereum_backup_$(date +"%Y%d%m-%H%M%S")
# store new version in openethreum directory
mkdir openethereum && cd openethereum
# download latest version
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/openethereum/openethereum/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux  | xargs wget -q --show-progress
# unzip
unzip openethereum*.zip
# add execute permission
chmod +x openethereum
# cleanup
rm openethereum*.zip

Besu

Review the latest release at https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases

File can be downloaded from https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo

Manually find the desired file from above repo and modify the wget command with the URL.

Example:

wget -O besu.tar.gz https://dl.bintray.com/hyperledger-org/besu-repo/besu-20.10.1.tar.gz

cd $HOME
# backup previous besu version in case of rollback
mv besu besu_backup_$(date +"%Y%d%m-%H%M%S")
# download latest besu
wget -O besu.tar.gz <https URL to latest tax.gz linux file>
# untar
tar -xvf besu.tar.gz
# cleanup
rm besu.tar.gz
# rename besu to standard folder location
mv besu* besu

Nethermind

Review the latest release at https://github.com/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases

Automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip and cleanup.

cd $HOME
# backup previous nethermind version in case of rollback
mv nethermind nethermind_backup_$(date +"%Y%d%m-%H%M%S")
# store new version in nethermind directory
mkdir nethermind && cd nethermind
# download latest version
curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases/latest | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux  | xargs wget -q --show-progress
# unzip
unzip -o nethermind*.zip
# cleanup
rm nethermind*linux*.zip

Start your eth2 beacon chain, validator, and eth1 node processes.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl start eth1 beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl start eth1 beacon-chain

Check the logs to verify the services are working properly and ensure there are no errors.

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl status eth1 status beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl status eth1 beacon-chain

Finally, verify your validator's attestations are working with public block explorer such as

https://beaconcha.in/

Enter your validator's pubkey to view its status.

🖴 8.13 Dealing with storage issues on the Eth1 node

It is currently recommended to use a minimum 1TB hard disk.

After running the Eth1 node for a while, you will notice that it will start to fill up the hard disk. The following steps might be helpful for you.

Firstly make sure you have a fallback Eth1 node.

Manually Pruning Geth

Since Geth 1.10x version, the blockchain data can be regularly pruned to reduce it's size.

Reference: https://gist.github.com/yorickdowne/3323759b4cbf2022e191ab058a4276b2

You will need to upgrade Geth to at least 1.10x. Other prerequisites are a fully synced Eth1 node and that a snapshot has been created.

Stop your Eth1 node

sudo systemctl stop eth1

Prune the blockchain data

geth --datadir ~/.ethereum snapshot prune-state

Restart the Eth1 node

sudo systemctl start eth1

Adding new hard disks and changing the data directory

After you have installed your hard disk, you will need to properly format it and automount it. Consult the ubuntu guides on this.

I will assume that the new disk has been mounted onto /mnt/eth1-data. (The name of the mount point is up to you)

Handling file permissions.

You need to change ownership of the folder to be accessible by your eth1 service. If your folder is a different name, please change the /mnt/eth1-data accordingly.

sudo chown $whoami:$whoami /mnt/eth1-data

sudo chmod 755 /mnt/eth1-data

Stop your Eth1 node.

sudo systemctl stop eth1

Edit the system service file to point to a new data directory.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

At the end of this command starting with /usr/bin/geth --http --metrics .... add a space and the following flag --datadir "/mnt/eth1-data".

Ctrl-X to save your settings.

Refresh the system service daemon to load the new configurations.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Restart the Eth1 node.

sudo systemctl start eth1

Make sure it is up and running by viewing the running logs.

journalctl -u eth1 -f

(Optional) Delete original data directory

rm -r ~/.ethereum

🌇 9. Join the community on Discord and Reddit

📱 Discord

NodeBridge Africa

Join the NodeBridge Discord Server!Discord

Lighthouse

Join the Lighthouse (Ethereum 2.0) Discord Server!Discord

Nimbus

Join the Nimbus Discord Server!Discord

Teku

Join the ConsenSys Discord Server!Discord

Prysm

Join the Prysmatic Labs Discord Server!Discord

Lodestar

Join the ChainSafe Discord Server!Discord

CoinCashew

Join the coincashew's server Discord Server!Discord

🌍 Reddit r/ethStaker

r/ethstakerreddit

🧩10. Reference Material

Appreciate the hard work done by the fine folks at the following links which served as a foundation for creating this guide.

https://launchpad.ethereum.org/ethereum

Teku | Ethereum 2.0 Client for Institutional Staking | ConsenSysConsenSys

Build from source - Teku

Introduction - Lighthouse Book

Introduction - The Nimbus Beacon Chain Book

Ethereum 2.0 - Phase 0 TestnetPrysmatic Labs

Prysm Ethereum Client Documentation | Prysm

Installation - Lodestar documentation

🎉11. Bonus links

🧱 ETH2 Block Explorers

Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain (Phase 0) Block Chain Explorer - Index - beaconcha.in - 2022beaconcha.in

Mainnet | Beacon Chain Explorer (Phase 0) for Ethereum 2.0Etherscan Beacon Chain (Phase 0) Ethereum 2.0 Explorer

🗒 Latest Eth2 Info

https://hackmd.io/@benjaminion/eth2:news/hackmd.io

r/ethstakerreddit

Home

👨👩👧👦 Additional ETH2 Community Guides

Somer Esat – MediumMedium

GitHub - metanull-operator/eth2-ubuntu: Configuration of an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server for use as an Eth2 staking system, including setup of monitoring dashboard.GitHub

https://agstakingco.gitbook.io/eth-2-0-staking-guide-medalla/agstakingco.gitbook.io

Hardware Staking Guide https://www.reddit.com/r/ethstaker/comments/j3mlup/a_slightly_updated_look_at_hardware_for_staking/

How to stake for Ethereum 2.0 with DappNodeMedium

OverviewEthereum 2.0 Knowledge Base