Nimbus

Overview

Nimbus is a research project and a client implementation for Ethereum designed to perform well on embedded systems and personal mobile devices, including older smartphones with resource-restricted hardware. The Nimbus team are from Status the company best known for their messaging app/wallet/Web3 browser by the same name. Nimbus (Apache 2) is written in Nim, a language with Python-like syntax that compiles to C.

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

Official Links

Subject	Links
Releases	https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2/releases
Documentation	https://nimbus.guide
Website	https://our.status.im/tag/nimbus

1. Initial configuration

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

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

Install dependencies.

sudo apt install curl libsnappy-dev libc6-dev jq libc6 unzip ccze -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/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
# 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

Install the binaries, display version and cleanup.

sudo mv nimbus/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/local/bin
sudo mv nimbus/build/nimbus_validator_client /usr/local/bin
nimbus_beacon_node --version
rm -r nimbus

Option 2 - Build from source code

Install dependencies.

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

Build the binary.

mkdir -p ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone -b stable https://github.com/status-im/nimbus-eth2
cd nimbus-eth2
make -j$(nproc) update
make -j$(nproc) nimbus_beacon_node
make -j$(nproc) nimbus_validator_client

Verify Nimbus was built properly by displaying the version.

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

Install the binary.

sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_beacon_node /usr/local/bin
sudo cp $HOME/git/nimbus-eth2/build/nimbus_validator_client /usr/local/bin

3. Setup and configure systemd

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

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

Paste the following configuration into the file.

Standalone Beacon Node (Recommended)

[Unit]
Description=Nimbus Consensus Layer Client service for Holesky
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Documentation=https://www.coincashew.com

[Service]
Type=simple
User=consensus
Group=consensus
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=900
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node \
  --network=holesky \
  --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus \
  --tcp-port=9000 \
  --udp-port=9000 \
  --max-peers=100 \
  --rest-port=5052 \
  --enr-auto-update=true \
  --non-interactive \
  --status-bar=false \
  --in-process-validators=false \
  --web3-url=http://127.0.0.1:8551 \
  --rest \
  --metrics \
  --metrics-port=8008 \
  --jwt-secret="/secrets/jwtsecret" \
  --suggested-fee-recipient=<0x_CHANGE_THIS_TO_MY_ETH_FEE_RECIPIENT_ADDRESS>

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Combined (BN+VC)

This configuration combines the beacon chain and validator into one running service. While it is simpler to manage and run, this configuration is less flexible when it comes to running EL+CL failover nodes or in times you wish to resync your execution client and temporarily use Rocket Pool's Rescue Node.

[Unit]
Description=Nimbus Consensus Layer Client service for Holesky
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Documentation=https://www.coincashew.com

[Service]
Type=simple
User=consensus
Group=consensus
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=900
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node \
  --network=holesky \
  --data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus \
  --tcp-port=9000 \
  --udp-port=9000 \
  --max-peers=100 \
  --rest-port=5052 \
  --enr-auto-update=true \
  --web3-url=http://127.0.0.1:8551 \
  --rest \
  --metrics \
  --metrics-port=8008 \
  --jwt-secret="/secrets/jwtsecret" \
  --graffiti="🏠🥩🪙🛡️" \
  --suggested-fee-recipient=<0x_CHANGE_THIS_TO_MY_ETH_FEE_RECIPIENT_ADDRESS>

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Replace <0x_CHANGE_THIS_TO_MY_ETH_FEE_RECIPIENT_ADDRESS> with your own Ethereum address that you control. Tips are sent to this address and are immediately spendable.

• Not staking? If you only want a full node, use the Standalone Beacon Node configuration and delete the whole line beginning with

--suggested-fee-recipient

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

Run the following to quickly sync with Checkpoint Sync.

Checkpoint sync allows you to start your consensus layer within minutes instead of days.

sudo -u consensus /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node trustedNodeSync \
--network=holesky \
--trusted-node-url=https://holesky.beaconstate.ethstaker.cc \
--data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus \
--backfill=false

When the checkpoint sync is complete, you'll see the following message:

Done, your beacon node is ready to serve you! Don't forget to check that you're on the canonical chain by comparing the checkpoint root with other online sources. See https://nimbus.guide/trusted-node-sync.html for more information.

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

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable consensus

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

sudo systemctl start consensus
sudo systemctl status consensus

Press Ctrl + C to exit the status.

Check your logs to confirm that the consensus clients are up and syncing.

sudo journalctl -fu consensus | ccze

Example of Synced Consensus Client Logs

nimbus_beacon_node[292966]: INF 2023-02-05 01:20:00.000+00:00 Slot start       topics="beacnde" slot=31205 epoch=903 sync=synced peers=80 head=13a131:31204 finalized=1111:cdba33411 delay=69us850ns
nimbus_beacon_node[292966]: INF 2023-02-05 01:20:08.000+00:00 Slot end         topics="beacnde" slot=31205 nextActionWait=7m27s985ms126us530ns nextAttestationSlot=31235 nextProposalSlot=-1 syncCommitteeDuties=none head=13a131:31204

4. Helpful consensus client commands

View Logs

sudo journalctl -fu consensus | ccze

Example of Synced Nimbus Consensus Client Logs

nimbus_beacon_node[292966]: INF 2023-02-05 01:20:00.000+00:00 Slot start       topics="beacnde" slot=31205 epoch=903 sync=synced peers=80 head=13a131:31204 finalized=1111:cdba33411 delay=69us850ns
nimbus_beacon_node[292966]: INF 2023-02-05 01:20:08.000+00:00 Slot end         topics="beacnde" slot=31205 nextActionWait=7m27s985ms126us530ns nextAttestationSlot=31235 nextProposalSlot=-1 syncCommitteeDuties=none head=13a131:31204

Stop

sudo systemctl stop consensus

Start

sudo systemctl start consensus

View Status

sudo systemctl status consensus

Reset Database

Common reasons to reset the database can include:

• To reduce disk space usage

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

• To upgrade to a new storage format

sudo systemctl stop consensus
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/nimbus/db

#Perform checkpoint sync
sudo -u consensus /usr/local/bin/nimbus_beacon_node trustedNodeSync \
--network=holesky \
--trusted-node-url=https://holesky.beaconstate.ethstaker.cc \
--data-dir=/var/lib/nimbus \
--backfill=false

sudo systemctl restart consensus

With checkpoint sync, time to re-sync the consensus client should take only a minute or two.

Now that your consensus client is configured and started, you have a full node.

Proceed to the next step on setting up your validator client, which turns a full node into a staking node.

If you wanted to setup a full node, not a staking node, stop here! Congrats on running your own full node! 🎉