Updating Execution 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 execution client.

Always review the release notes before updating. There may be changes requiring your attention.

• Nethermind

• Besu

• Geth

• Erigon

🔥 Pro tip: Plan your update to overlap with the longest attestation gap. Learn how here.

Step 1: Select your execution client.

Staking setups prior to July 2023: Using eth1 as the execution client service name? Checkout our update execution guide.

Nethermind

Option 1 - Download binaries

Run the following to automatically download the latest linux release, un-zip and cleanup.

RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/NethermindEth/nethermind/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux-x64)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O nethermind.zip $BINARIES_URL
unzip -o nethermind.zip -d $HOME/nethermind
rm nethermind.zip

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/nethermind
sudo mv $HOME/nethermind /usr/local/bin/nethermind
sudo systemctl start execution

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binaries.

cd ~/git/nethermind
# Get new tags
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
# Build
dotnet publish src/Nethermind/Nethermind.Runner -c release -o nethermind

Verify Nethermind was properly built by checking the version.

./nethermind/nethermind --version

Sample output of a compatible version.

Version: 1.25.2+78c7bf5f
Commit: 78c7bf5f2c0819f23e248ee6d108c17cd053ffd3
Build Date: 2024-01-23 06:34:53Z
OS: Linux x64
Runtime: .NET 8.0.1

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/nethermind
sudo mv $HOME/git/nethermind/nethermind /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start execution

Besu

Option 1 - Download binaries

Run the following to automatically download the latest linux release, un-tar and cleanup.

RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/hyperledger/besu/releases/latest"
TAG=$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r .tag_name)
BINARIES_URL="https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases/download/$TAG/besu-$TAG.tar.gz"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O besu.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
tar -xzvf besu.tar.gz -C $HOME
rm besu.tar.gz
sudo mv $HOME/besu-* besu

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/besu
sudo mv $HOME/besu /usr/local/bin/besu
sudo systemctl start execution

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binaries.

cd ~/git/besu
# Get new tags
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
# Build
./gradlew installDist

Verify Besu was properly built by checking the version.

./build/install/besu/bin/besu --version

Sample output of a compatible version.

besu/v23.4.0/linux-x86_64/openjdk-java-17

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/besu
sudo cp -a $HOME/git/besu/build/install/besu /usr/local/bin/besu
sudo systemctl start execution

Geth

Option 1 - Download binaries

RELEASE_URL="https://geth.ethereum.org/downloads"
FILE="https://gethstore.blob.core.windows.net/builds/geth-linux-amd64[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]*.tar.gz"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | grep -Eo $FILE | head -1)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O geth.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
tar -xzvf geth.tar.gz -C $HOME --strip-components=1

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Install new binaries, restart the services and cleanup files.

sudo mv $HOME/geth /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start execution
rm geth.tar.gz COPYING

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binary.

cd $HOME/git/go-ethereum
# Get new tags
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
# Build
make geth

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/geth
sudo cp $HOME/git/go-ethereum/build/bin/geth /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start execution

Erigon

Option 1 - Download binaries

Run the following to automatically download the latest linux release, un-tar and cleanup.

RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/ledgerwatch/erigon/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep linux_amd64)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O erigon.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
tar -xzvf erigon.tar.gz -C $HOME
rm erigon.tar.gz README.md

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/erigon
sudo mv $HOME/erigon /usr/local/bin/erigon
sudo systemctl start execution

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binary.

cd $HOME/git/erigon
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
make erigon

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/erigon
sudo cp $HOME/git/erigon/build/bin/erigon /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start execution

Reth

Option 1 - Download binaries

Run the following to automatically download the latest linux release, un-tar and cleanup.

RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/paradigmxyz/reth/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name | startswith ("reth")) | .browser_download_url' | grep x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz$)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
wget -O reth.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
tar -xzvf reth.tar.gz -C $HOME
rm reth.tar.gz

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries, display the version, and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/reth
sudo mv $HOME/reth /usr/local/bin
reth --version
sudo systemctl restart execution

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binaries.

cd ~/git/reth
git fetch --tags
# Get latest tag name
latestTag=$(git describe --tags `git rev-list --tags --max-count=1`)
# Checkout latest tag
git checkout $latestTag
# Build the release
cargo build --release

Verify Reth was built properly by checking the version number.

~/git/reth/target/release/reth --version

In case of compilation errors, run the following sequence.

rustup update
cargo clean
cargo build --release --features jemalloc

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop execution

Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/reth
sudo cp ~/git/reth/target/release/reth /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl restart execution

Step 2: Verify services and logs are working properly

# Verify services status
sudo systemctl status execution

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -fu execution

Step 3: Optional - Verify your validator's attestations on public block explorer

1) Visit https://beaconcha.in/ or https://beaconscan.com/

2) Enter your validator's pubkey into the search bar and look for successful attestations.