Nimbus

Note: Nimbus is configured to run both validator client and beacon chain client in one process.

The following command will import your validator keys.

Enter your keystore password to import accounts.

sudo /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node deposits import \
  --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus $HOME/staking-deposit-cli/validator_keys

WARNING: Do not import your validator keys into multiple validator clients and run them at the same time, or you might get slashed. If moving validators to a new setup or different validator client, ensure deletion of the previous validator keys before continuing.

Now you can verify the accounts were imported successfully by doing a directory listing.

sudo ls -l /var/lib/nimbus/validators

You should see a folder named for each of your validator's pubkey.

Setup ownership permissions, including hardening the access to this directory.

sudo chown -R consensus:consensus /var/lib/nimbus
sudo chmod -R 700 /var/lib/nimbus

Finally, restart Nimbus to use the new validators.

sudo systemctl restart consensus

Check your logs to confirm that the validators are up and functioning.

sudo journalctl -fu consensus | ccze

For example when using 2 validators, logs will show the following:

Loading validators             topics="beacval" validatorsDir=/var/lib/nimbus/validators keystore_cache_available=true
Local validator attached       topics="val_pool" pubkey=95d39860a0d6ea3b92cba78069d21f3a validator=95d39860 initial_fee_recipient=81ba8d5c4ae850
Local validator attached       topics="val_pool" pubkey=82b225f66476962b161ed015786df00f validator=82b225f6 initial_fee_recipient=81ba8d5c4ae850

Press Ctrl + C to exit the logs.

Example of Synced Nimbus Validator Client Logs

  • Once the validator is active and proceeded through the validator activation queue, attestation messages will appear indicating successful attestations.

  • Notice the key words "Attestation sent".

nimbus_beacon_node[292966]: INF 2023-02-05 01:25:26.263+00:00 Attestation sent      attestation="(aggregation_bits: 0b00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000, data: (slot: 31235, index: 3, beacon_block_root: \"ca3213f1\", source: \"1901:9deza1289\", target: \"1901:6ab1fafff\"), signature: \"32173064\")" delay=46ms543us294ns subnet_id=20
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