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Run Beacon Node: Lodestar

Version check

This page's content is up-to-date for Lodestar v1.5.1.

Prerequisites

The Beacon Node requires an Execution client in order to operate. See Step 2: Run Execution Client for more information.

Overview​

Download Lodestar

Visit Lodestar's docs on how to download Lodestar.

https://chainsafe.github.io/lodestar/

tip

Gnosis' maintains a repo with sample Lodestar Dockerfiles and configs

https://github.com/gnosischain/lodestar-client

ContentLink
Release Pagehttps://github.com/ChainSafe/lodestar/releases/
Docker Imageshttps://hub.docker.com/r/chainsafe/lodestar/tags
General Docshttps://chainsafe.github.io/lodestar/
CLI Referencehttps://chainsafe.github.io/lodestar/reference/cli/

Checkpoint Sync​

We recommend the use of Checkpoint sync to sync your Beacon Node quickly, and avoid long range attacks.

Gnosis provides a checkpoint sync server at https://checkpoint.gnosischain.com/.

# Usage
$ lodestar beacon
  --checkpointSyncUrl https://checkpoint.gnosischain.com/
More about Checkpoint Sync

Option 1: Run as a System Process​

Refer to Guide

Option 2: Run using Docker​

Images are referenced under the following pattern chainsafe/lodestar:{image-tag} with the image-tag referring to the image available on Docker Hub.

1. Folder Structure​

Create new folders:

mkdir -p /home/$USER/gnosis/consensus/data

Including the folders from your Execution client, your folder structure should now look like:

/home/$USER/gnosis/
├── jwtsecret/
├── execution/
└── consensus/
    └── data/

2. Docker Compose​

Modify your docker-compose file with your favorite text editor and add the consensus container. The file should now look like:

/home/$USER/gnosis/docker-compose.yml
version: "3"
services:

  execution:
    # From Step 2
    # ...

  consensus:
    container_name: consensus
    image: chainsafe/lodestar:latest
    restart: always
    networks:
      - gnosis_net
    ports:
      - 9000:9000/tcp # p2p
      - 9000:9000/udp # p2p
      - 5054:5054/tcp # metrics
    expose:
      - 4000
    volumes:
      - /home/$USER/gnosis/consensus/data:/data
      - /home/$USER/gnosis/jwtsecret/jwt.hex:/jwt.hex
      - /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
    environment:
      - NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=6144
    command: |
      beacon
      --network=gnosis
      --dataDir=/data
      --preset=gnosis
      --eth1=true
      --execution.urls=http://execution:8551
      --jwt-secret=/jwt.hex
      --logFile=/data/logs/beacon.log
      --logFileLevel=info
      --port=9000
      --rest=true
      --rest.address=0.0.0.0
      --rest.port=4000
      --rest.cors=*
      --discv5=true
      --targetPeers=50
      --metrics=true
      --metrics.port=5054
      --checkpointSyncUrl=https://checkpoint.gnosischain.com/
    logging:
      driver: "local"
networks:
  gnosis_net:
    name: gnosis_net

3. Start Containers​

Start the consensus layer client listed in the compose file:

cd /home/$USER/gnosis
docker-compose up -d

4. Monitor Logs​

Check your logs for each service (execution and consensus) with:

docker logs -f --tail 500 execution

5. Updating your Node​

To update, just pull the new images, then stop and restart your docker-compose file:

cd /home/$USER/gnosis
docker-compose pull
docker-compose stop
docker-compose up -d