Erigon

Erigon - Successor to OpenEthereum, Erigon is an implementation of Ethereum (aka "Ethereum client"), on the efficiency frontier, written in Go.

Overview

Official Links

Subject	Link
Releases	https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon/releases
Documentation	https://erigon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
Website	https://erigon.substack.com

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/erigon
sudo chown -R execution:execution /var/lib/erigon

Install dependencies.

sudo apt install curl libsnappy-dev libc6-dev jq libc6 unzip -y

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/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

Install the binaries.

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

Option 2 - Build from source code

Install Go dependencies. Latest version available here.

wget -O go.tar.gz https://go.dev/dl/go1.20.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go && sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go.tar.gz
echo export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin >> $HOME/.bashrc
source $HOME/.bashrc

Verify Go is properly installed by checking the version and cleanup files.

go version
rm go.tar.gz

Install build dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install build-essential git

Build the binary.

mkdir -p ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone -b stable https://github.com/ledgerwatch/erigon.git
cd erigon
make erigon

Install the binary.

sudo cp $HOME/git/erigon/build/bin/erigon /usr/local/bin

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=Erigon Execution Layer Client service for Goerli
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
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/erigon \
   --datadir /var/lib/erigon \
   --chain goerli \
   --metrics \
   --pprof \
   --prune htc \
   --prune.r.before=4367322 \
   --authrpc.jwtsecret=/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 Erigon execution client will indicate "Handling new payload". For example,

erigon[41]: [INFO] [02-04|01:36:50.362] [2/15 Headers] Waiting for Consensus Layer...
erigon[41]: [INFO] [02-04|01:37:00.273] [2/15 Headers] Handling new payload      height=14001 hash=0x1b2476a50d976536c2846a907ceb4f88cff4d0129ad.

Stop

sudo systemctl stop execution

Start

sudo systemctl start execution

View Status

sudo systemctl status execution

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.