Hosting Execution client on a Different Machine

Hosting your own execution client on a different machine than where your beacon-chain and validator resides, can allow some extra modularity and flexibility.

On the execution client machine, edit your eth1.service unit file.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/eth1.service

Add the following flag to allow remote incoming http and or websocket api requests on the ExecStart line.

If not using websockets, there's no need to include ws parameters. Only Nimbus requires websockets.

Geth

--http.addr 0.0.0.0 --ws.addr 0.0.0.0
# Example
# ExecStart       = /usr/bin/geth --http.addr 0.0.0.0 --ws.addr 0.0.0.0 --http --ws

OpenEthereum (Parity)

--jsonrpc-interface=all --ws-interface=all
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/openethereum/openethereum --jsonrpc-interface=all --ws-interface=all

Besu

--rpc-http-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-ws-enabled --rpc-ws-host=0.0.0.0
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/besu/bin/besu --rpc-http-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-ws-enabled --rpc-ws-host=0.0.0.0 --rpc-http-enabled

Nethermind

--JsonRpc.Host 0.0.0.0 --WebSocketsEnabled
# Example
# ExecStart       = <home directory>/nethermind/Nethermind.Runner --JsonRpc.Host 0.0.0.0 --WebSocketsEnabled --JsonRpc.Enabled true

Reload the new unit file and restart the execution client.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart eth1

On the separate machine hosting the beacon-chain, update the beacon-chain unit file with the execution client's IP address.

Lighthouse

# edit beacon-chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# add the --eth1-endpoints parameter
# example
# --eth1-endpoints=http://192.168.10.22

Nimbus

# edit beacon chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# modify the --web-url parameter
# example
# --web3-url=ws://192.168.10.22

Teku

# edit teku.yaml
nano /etc/teku/teku.yaml
# change the eth1-endpoint
# example
# eth1-endpoint: "http://192.168.10.20:8545"

Prysm

# edit beacon-chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# add the --http-web3provider parameter
# example
# --http-web3provider=http://192.168.10.20:8545

Lodestar

# edit beacon-chain unit file
nano /etc/systemd/system/beacon-chain.service
# add the --eth1.providerUrl parameter
# example
# --eth1.providerUrl http://192.168.10.20:8545

Reload the updated unit file and restart the beacon-chain.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart beacon-chain