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Updating 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.

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

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

Step 1: Select your consensus client.

Lighthouse

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/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 consensus validator

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

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/lighthouse
sudo mv $HOME/lighthouse /usr/local/bin/lighthouse
sudo systemctl start consensus validator
Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binaries.

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

💡Tip: Improve some Lighthouse benchmarks by around 20% at the expense of increased compile time? Use maxperf profile.

  • To compile with maxperf, replace the above make command with

PROFILE=maxperf make

In case of compilation errors, run the following sequence.

rustup update
cargo clean
make

Verify lighthouse was built properly by checking the version number.

lighthouse --version

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus validator

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

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/lighthouse
sudo cp $HOME/.cargo/bin/lighthouse /usr/local/bin/lighthouse
sudo systemctl start consensus validator

Lodestar

Option 1 - Build from source code

Pull the latest source and build Lodestar.

cd ~/git/lodestar
git checkout stable && git pull
yarn install
yarn run build

Verify Lodestar was installed properly by displaying the version.

./lodestar --version

Sample output of a compatible version.

🌟 Lodestar: TypeScript Implementation of the Ethereum Consensus Beacon Chain.
  * Version: v1.8.0/stable/a4b29cf
  * by ChainSafe Systems, 2018-2022

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus validator

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

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/lodestar
sudo cp -a $HOME/git/lodestar /usr/local/bin/lodestar
sudo systemctl start consensus validator

Teku

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/ConsenSys/teku/releases/latest"
LATEST_TAG="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".tag_name")"
BINARIES_URL="https://artifacts.consensys.net/public/teku/raw/names/teku.tar.gz/versions/${LATEST_TAG}/teku-${LATEST_TAG}.tar.gz"
echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
# Download
wget -O teku.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
# Untar
tar -xzvf teku.tar.gz -C $HOME
# Rename folder
mv teku-* teku
# Cleanup
rm teku.tar.gz

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus

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

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/teku
sudo mv $HOME/teku /usr/local/bin/teku
sudo systemctl start consensus
Option 2 - Build from source code

Fetch the latest tags and build the binaries.

cd ~/git/teku
# Get new tags
git fetch --tags
RELEASETAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/ConsenSys/teku/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
git checkout tags/$RELEASETAG
./gradlew distTar installDist

Verify Teku was built properly by displaying the version.

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

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus

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

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

Nimbus

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/status-im/nimbus-eth2/releases/latest"
BINARIES_URL="$(curl -s $RELEASE_URL | jq -r ".assets[] | select(.name) | .browser_download_url" | grep _Linux_amd64.*.tar.gz$)"

echo Downloading URL: $BINARIES_URL

cd $HOME
# Remove previous version
rm -r nimbus
# Download
wget -O nimbus.tar.gz $BINARIES_URL
# Untar
tar -xzvf nimbus.tar.gz -C $HOME
# Rename folder
mv nimbus-eth2_Linux_amd64_* nimbus
# Cleanup
rm nimbus.tar.gz

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus

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

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node
sudo mv nimbus/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node
sudo systemctl start consensus
Option 2 - Build from source code

Pull the latest source code and build the binary.

cd ~/git/nimbus-eth2
git checkout stable && git pull
make -j$(nproc) update
make -j$(nproc) nimbus_beacon_node

Verify Nimbus was built properly by displaying the version.

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

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus

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

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node
sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start consensus

Prysm

Option 1 - Download binaries

Run the following to automatically download the latest binaries.

cd $HOME
prysm_version=$(curl -f -s https://prysmaticlabs.com/releases/latest)
file_beacon=beacon-chain-${prysm_version}-linux-amd64
file_validator=validator-${prysm_version}-linux-amd64
curl -f -L "https://prysmaticlabs.com/releases/${file_beacon}" -o beacon-chain
curl -f -L "https://prysmaticlabs.com/releases/${file_validator}" -o validator
chmod +x beacon-chain validator

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus validator

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

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/beacon-chain
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/validator
sudo mv beacon-chain validator /usr/local/bin
sudo systemctl start consensus validator
Option 2 - Build from source code

Install Bazel

wget -O bazel https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/download/v1.16.0/bazelisk-linux-amd64
chmod +x bazel
sudo mv bazel /usr/local/bin

Pull the latest source code and build the binaries.

cd $HOME/git/prysm
git fetch --tags
RELEASETAG=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/prysmaticlabs/prysm/releases/latest | jq -r .tag_name)
git checkout tags/$RELEASETAG
bazel build //cmd/beacon-chain:beacon-chain --config=release
bazel build //cmd/validator:validator --config=release

Verify Prysm was built properly by displaying the help menu.

bazel run //beacon-chain -- --help

Stop the services.

sudo systemctl stop consensus validator

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

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/prysm
sudo cp -a $HOME/git/prysm /usr/local/bin/prysm
sudo systemctl start consensus validator

Step 2: Verify services and logs are working properly

# Verify services status
sudo systemctl status consensus validator
# Check logs
sudo journalctl -fu consensus
sudo journalctl -fu validator

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

1) Visit https://goerli.beaconcha.in/

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

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