Updating your consensus client
Scenario: In discord, you see an alert that your consensus client just announced a new release. How best to update?
⏩ Quick steps guide
When a new release is cut, you will want to update to the latest stable release. The following shows you how to update your beacon chain and validator.
🔥 Pro tip: Plan your update to overlap with the longest attestation gap. Learn how here.
Select your consensus client.
Review release notes and check for breaking changes/features.
https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse/releases
Option 1: Download binaries
RELEASE_URL="https://api.github.com/repos/sigp/lighthouse/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz$)"
echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL
cd $HOME
# Download
wget -O lighthouse.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
# Untar
tar -xzvf lighthouse.tar.gz -C $HOME
# Cleanup
rm lighthouse.tar.gz
# Stop the services.
sudo systemctl stop beacon-chain validator
# Remove old binaries, install new binaries, display version and restart the services.
sudo rm -r $HOME/.cargo/bin/lighthouse
sudo mv $HOME/lighthouse $HOME/.cargo/bin
$HOME/.cargo/bin/lighthouse --version
sudo systemctl restart beacon-chain validator
Option 2: Build from source
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
2. Check the logs to verify the services are working properly and ensure there are no errors.
sudo systemctl status beacon-chain validator
3. Finally, verify your validator's attestations are working with public block explorer such as
https://beaconcha.in/ or https://beaconscan.com/
Enter your validator's pubkey to view its status.
Last updated