Updating your execution client

Scenario: In discord, you see an alert that your execution client just announced a new release. How best to update?

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⏩ Quick steps guide

The following steps align with our mainnet guide. You may need to adjust file names and directory locations where appropriate. The core concepts remain the same.

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

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

0.1 Update your operating system and ensure it's on the latest long term (LTS) support version.

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

1. Stop your execution client process.

# This can take a few minutes.
sudo systemctl stop eth1

2. Update the execution client package or binaries.

Geth

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

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
rm geth.tar.gz
sudo mv $HOME/geth-* geth

# Stop the services.
sudo systemctl stop eth1

# Remove old binaries, install new binaries and restart the services.
sudo rm -rf /usr/bin/geth
sudo mv $HOME/geth/geth /usr/bin/geth
sudo systemctl start eth1
rm -r $HOME/geth

Option 2: Update with apt update command from Personal Package Archive (PPA)

# Already handled by previous commands.
# sudo apt update
# sudo apt upgrade -y

Besu

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

As of Feb 17, 2023, Besu requires minimum Java 17 and up to build and run.

Run the following to update to Java 17.

#Install Java 17
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre

#Verify Java 17 is installed
java -version

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 $HOME
# backup previous besu version in case of rollback
mv besu besu_backup_$(date +"%Y%d%m-%H%M%S")
# download latest besu
wget -O besu.tar.gz "$BINARIES_URL"
# 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-x64  | xargs wget -q --show-progress
# unzip
unzip -o nethermind*.zip
# cleanup
rm nethermind*linux*.zip

Erigon

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

cd $HOME/erigon
git checkout stable && git pull
make erigon

3. Start your execution client process.

sudo systemctl start eth1

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

Lighthouse | Prysm | Lodestar

sudo systemctl status eth1 beacon-chain validator

Nimbus | Teku

sudo systemctl status eth1 beacon-chain

5. 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.