Besu

Overview

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.

Official Links

Subject	Link
Releases	https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases
Documentation	https://besu.hyperledger.org
Website	https://www.hyperledger.org/use/besu

1. Initial configuration

Create a service user for the execution service, create data directory and assign ownership.

sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --group execution
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/besu
sudo chown -R execution:execution /var/lib/besu

Install dependencies.

sudo apt install -y openjdk-21-jdk libjemalloc-dev jq

2. Install Binaries

• Downloading binaries is often faster and more convenient.

• Building from source code can offer better compatibility and is more aligned with the spirit of FOSS (free open source software).

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 $HOME/besu-${TAG} besu

Install the binaries.

sudo mv $HOME/besu /usr/local/bin/besu

Option 2 - Build from source code

Build the binaries.

mkdir -p ~/git
cd ~/git
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/hyperledger/besu.git
cd 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

Install the binaries.

sudo cp -a $HOME/git/besu/build/install/besu /usr/local/bin/besu

3. Setup and configure systemd

Create a systemd unit file to define your execution.service configuration.

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

Paste the following configuration into the file.

[Unit]
Description=Besu Execution Layer Client service for Mainnet
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Documentation=https://www.coincashew.com

[Service]
Type=simple
User=execution
Group=execution
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=900
Environment="JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx5g"
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/besu/bin/besu \
  --network=mainnet \
  --p2p-port=30303 \
  --rpc-http-port=8545 \
  --engine-rpc-port=8551 \
  --max-peers=25 \
  --metrics-enabled=true \
  --metrics-port=6060 \
  --rpc-http-enabled=true \
  --sync-mode=SNAP \
  --data-storage-format=BONSAI \
  --data-path="/var/lib/besu" \
  --engine-jwt-secret=/secrets/jwtsecret
  
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

To exit and save, press Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter.

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

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable execution

Finally, start your execution layer client and check it's status.

sudo systemctl start execution
sudo systemctl status execution

Press Ctrl + C to exit the status.

4. Helpful execution client commands

View Logs

sudo journalctl -fu execution | ccze

A properly functioning Besu execution client will indicate "Fork-Choice-Updates". For example,

2022-03-19 04:09:36.315+00:00 | vert.x-worker-thread-0 | INFO  | EngineForkchoiceUpdated | Consensus fork-choice-update: head: 0xcd2a_8b32..., finalized: 0xfa22_1142...
2022-03-19 04:09:48.328+00:00 | vert.x-worker-thread-0 | INFO  | EngineForkchoiceUpdated | Consensus fork-choice-update: head: 0xff1a_f12a..., finalized: 0xfa22_1142...

Stop

sudo systemctl stop execution

Start

sudo systemctl start execution

View Status

sudo systemctl status execution

Reset Database

Common reasons to reset the database can include:

• Recovering from a corrupted database due to power outage or hardware failure

• Re-syncing to reduce disk space usage

• Upgrading to a new storage format

sudo systemctl stop execution
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/besu/*
sudo systemctl restart execution

Time to re-sync the execution client can take a few hours up to a day.

Now that your execution client is configured and started, proceed to the next step on setting up your consensus client.

If you're checking the logs and see any warnings or errors, please be patient as these will normally resolve once both your execution and consensus clients are fully synced to the Ethereum network.