florolf1 / florolf-eth-staking-guide

Guide on how to setup a Ethereum nodes

** DEPRECATED **

Code was written before the merge. To be compatible for the merge, changes must be made.

Guide to Staking on Ethereum 2.0 (Ubuntu, Prysm)

Overview

Here’s a super-simplified diagram to help you conceptualize what we are going to do. The yellow boxes are the parts this guide mostly covers.

The conceptual flow is:

• Set up a Eth1 node and sync it with the Eth1 Göerli testnet (Or use third party provider)
• Configure Beacon Node and sync it with the Eth1 Node
• Generate and activate validator keys
• Configure the Validator Client
• The Beacon Node makes the magic happen (blocks, attestations, slashings) with the help of the validator (signing).

Testnet (Pyrmont)

This is a step-by-step guide to staking on Ethereum 2.0 via the Pyrmont multi-client testnet. It is based on the following technologies

• Ubuntu v20.04 (LTS) x64 server
• Go Ethereum Node (code branch)
• Prysmatic Labs Ethereum 2.0 client — Prysm (code branch)
• Official multi-client testnet public network, Pyrmont
• MetaMask crypto wallet browser extension
• Prometheus metrics
• Grafana dashboard

This guide includes instructions on how to:

• Configure a newly running Ubuntu server instance
• Configure and run an Ethereum 1.0 node as a service
• Generate a Prysm wallet and import Pyrmont validator account keys
• Compile and configure the Prysmatic Labs beacon chain and validator client software for Ethereum 2.0,Phase 0 (Pyrmont testnet) and run them as a service
• Install and configure Prometheus metrics and set up a Grafana dashboard

Prerequisites

This guide assumes some knowledge of Ethereum, ETH, staking, Linux, and MetaMask. This guide also requires the following are installed and running before getting started:

• Ubuntu server v20.04 (LTS) amd64 or newer, installed and running on a local computer on your network or in the cloud (AWS, Digital Ocean, Microsoft Azure, etc.). A local computer is recommended for greater decentralization — if the cloud provider goes down then all nodes hosted with that provider go down.
• MetaMask crypto wallet browser extension, installed and configured. A computer with a desktop (Mac, Windows, Linux) and a browser (Safari, Brave, FireFox, etc.) is required.

Requirements

• Ubuntu server instance. I used v20.04 (LTS) amd64 server VM.
• MetaMask crypto wallet browser extension, installed and configured.
• Hardware recommended requirements to run Prysm software:
  • Processor: Intel Core i7–4770 or AMD FX-8310 or better
  • Memory: 16GB RAM
  • Storage: 100GB available space SSD (Prysm client only)

NOTE: Hardware requirements are a broad topic. In general a relatively modern CPU, 16GB RAM, a SSD of at least 1TB, and a stable internet connection with sufficient download speed and monthly data allowance are likely required for good staking performanc

Minimum specifications Prysm These specifications must be met in order to successfully run the Prysm client.

• Operating System: 64-bit Linux, Mac OS X 10.14+, Windows 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5–760 or AMD FX-8100 or better
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Storage: 20GB available space SSD
• Internet: Broadband connection

Recommended specifications These hardware specifications are recommended, but not required to run the Prysm client.

• Processor: Intel Core i7–4770 or AMD FX-8310 or better
• Memory: 16GB RAM
• Storage: 100GB available space SSD
• Internet: Broadband connection

Step 0 — Connect to the Server

Using a SSH client, connect to your Ubuntu server.

[email protected] -p 10001 -i /Users/florolf/Desktop/ETH-Node/eth-node-01/privateKey

Step 1 — Update the Server

Make sure your system is up to date with the latest software and security updates.

apt update && sudo apt upgrade
apt dist-upgrade && sudo apt autoremove

Step 2 — Secure the Server

Configure the firewall

Ubuntu 20.04 servers can use the default UFW firewall to restrict inbound traffic to the server. Before we enable it we need to allow inbound traffic for SSH, Go Ethereum, Grafana, and Prysm.

Allow SSH

Allows connection to the server over SSH. For security reasons we are going to modify the default port of 22 because it is a common attack vector.

Allow Go Ethereum

Allows incoming requests from Go Ethereum peers (port 30303/TPC and 30303/UDP). If you’d rather use a node hosted by a 3rd party (Infura, etc.) then skip this step.

sudo ufw allow 30303

Allow Prysm

Allows P2P connections with peers for actions on the beacon node. Ports 13000/TCP and 12000/UDP are listed as defaults by Prysmatic Labs.

Note: If you are hosting your Ubuntu instance locally your internet router and/or firewall will need to be configured to allow incoming traffic on these ports as well.

 ufw allow 13000/tcp
 ufw allow 12000/udp

Allow Grafana

Allows incoming requests to the Grafana web server (port 3000/TCP).

ufw allow 3000/tcp

Allow Prometheus (Optional)

If you want direct access to the Prometheus data service you can open up port 9090/TCP as well. This is not necessary if you are solely using Grafana to view the data. I did not open this port.

ufw allow 9090/tcp

Enable the firewall and check to verify the rules have been correctly configured.

ufw enable
ufw status numbered

Output should look something like this:

Set up an Ethereum (Eth1) Node An Ethereum node is required for staking.

https://infura.io/

Testnet Endpoint: https://goerli.infura.io/v3/abdecbed7270438cbfe704cdc26424cc

Step 3: Set up an Ethereum (Eth2) Client Prysm

Open a terminal in the desired directory for Prysm. Then create a working directory and enter it:

mkdir prysm && cd prysm

Fetch the prysm.sh script from Github and make it executable:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/prysmaticlabs/prysm/master/prysm.sh --output prysm.sh && chmod +x prysm.sh

Configure the Prysm Beacon Node

configure and run the beacon node as a service so if the system restarts the process will automatically start back up again.

Loading config via .yaml file In your Prysm working directory, create a .yaml file and open it in a text editor.

touch beacon_config.yaml

Add the following lines to the file before closing and saving

datadir: '/eth/prysm/data/beacon'
http-web3provider: 'https://goerli.infura.io/v3/abdecbed7270438cbfe704cdc26424cc'
accept-terms-of-use: true
log-file: '/eth/prysm/log/beacon.log'
genesis-state: '/eth/prysm/data/genesis/genesis.ssz'

Fix error:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eth2-clients/eth2-networks/master/shared/pyrmont/genesis.ssz --output genesis.ssz

Create and Configure the Service

Create a systemd service config file to configure the service.

nano /etc/systemd/system/prysmbeacon.service

Paste the following into the file

[Unit]
Description=Prysm Eth2 Client Beacon Node
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/eth/prysm/prysm.sh beacon-chain --config-file=/eth/prysm/beacon_config.yaml --pyrmont
User=root
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to reflect the changes.

systemctl daemon-reload

Start the service and check to make sure it’s running correctly.

systemctl start prysmbeacon
systemctl status prysmbeacon

Enable the service to automatically start on reboot.

systemctl enable prysmbeacon

follow the progress or check for errors

journalctl -fu prysmbeacon.service

Step 4: Complete the Pyrmont On-boarding Process

The steps to sign-up are:

• Get Göerli ETH
• Generate the validator keys. Each key is a validator account
• Fund the validator account(s) with 32 Göerli ETH per account
• Wait for your validator account(s) to become active

Get Test ETH

https://faucet.goerli.mudit.blog/

Generate Validator Keys

Go here to get the “Latest release” of the deposit command line interface app

curl -LO https://github.com/ethereum/eth2.0-deposit-cli/releases/download/v1.2.0/eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Unpack the tar archive

tar xvf eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64.tar.gz
cd eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64

Clean up by removing the downloaded tar archive file.

rm -rf eth2deposit-cli-ed5a6d3-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Run the application to generate the validator keys.

./deposit new-mnemonic --num_validators 1 --mnemonic_language=english --chain pyrmont

It will ask you to create a wallet password. We will use this to load the validator keys into your client’s validator wallet. Back it up somewhere safe.

Backup seed phrase and validator keystore password

The newly created validator keys and deposit data file are created at the specified location.

The deposit_data-[timestamp].json file contains the public keys for the validators and information about the deposit. This file will be used to complete the deposit process in the next step. Since we are on a server we don’t have a web browser so secure FTP (SFTP) the file over to a computer running MetaMask.

sftp -P 10001 [email protected]:/eth/prysm/eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64/validator_keys/deposit_data-1631529067.json /Users/florolf/Desktop

The keystore-m...json files contain the encrypted signing key. There is one keystore-m per validator. These will be used to create the client validator wallet.

Fund the Validator Keys

This step involves depositing the required amount of Göerli ETH to the Pyrmont testnet staking contract. This is done on the Eth2.0 Lauchpad website.

Go here: https://pyrmont.launchpad.ethereum.org/

You will be asked to upload the deposit_data-[timestamp].json file. This should have been copied over in the previous step. Browse or drag the file and click continue.

Connect your wallet. Choose MetaMask, log in, select the Göerli Test Network and click Continue.

A summary shows the number of validators and total amount of Göerli ETH required. Tick the boxes if you agree and click continue.

Check the Status of Your Validators

Newly added validators can take a while (hours to days) to activate. You can check the status of your keys with these steps:

• Copy your Göerli Test Network wallet address
• Go here: https://pyrmont.beaconcha.in/
• Search your wallet address. Your keys will be shown. Click on a key to see the Estimated Activation information.

Step 5: Create the Validator Wallet

./prysm.sh validator accounts import --keys-dir=/eth/prysm/eth2deposit-cli-256ea21-linux-amd64/validator_keys --pyrmont

Enter new wallet directory

/eth/prysm/data/validator

You will be asked to provide a new wallet password. Make sure you keep it safe! We will need this later when configuring the validator.

Backup wallet password

Next you will need to enter the password you used to create the validator keys on the Eth2 Launch Pad site. If you enter it correctly the accounts will be imported into the new wallet.

Confirm the validator accounts have been created.

./prysm.sh validator -- accounts list --pyrmont --wallet-dir /eth/prysm/data/validator --accept-terms-of-use

Create a file to store the wallet password so the validator can access the wallet without having to manually supply the password. The file will be named password.txt.

cd data/validator/
touch password.txt
nano password.txt

Add your new wallet password to the file. Save and exit.

Step 6: Configure the Validator

Loading config via .yaml file

1. In your Prysm working directory, create a .yaml file and open it in a text editor.

touch validator_config.yaml

2. Add the following lines to the file before closing and saving

datadir: '/eth/prysm/data/validator'
wallet-dir: '/eth/prysm/data/validator'
wallet-password-file: '/eth/prysm/data/validator/password.txt'
graffiti: ’florolf'
accept-terms-of-use: true
log-file: '/eth/prysm/log/validator.log'

Create a systemd service file to store the service config.

nano /etc/systemd/system/prysm-validator.service

Paste the following into the file

[Unit]
Description=Prysm Eth2 Client Validator Node
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/eth/prysm/prysm.sh validator --config-file=/eth/prysm/validator_config.yaml --pyrmont
User=root
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to reflect the changes.

systemctl daemon-reload

Start the service and check to make sure it’s running correctly.

systemctl start prysm-validator
systemctl status prysm-validator

Enable the service to automatically start on reboot.

systemctl enable prysm-validator

follow the progress or check for errors

journalctl -fu prysm-validator.service

It can take hours or days for the beacon chain to sync with your Eth1 node. It can take hours or days to activate the validation accounts(s) once the beacon chain has actually synced. The output from the validator process indicates the status.

You can check the status of your validator(s) via beaconcha.in. Simply do a search for your validator public key(s) or search using your MetaMask wallet address. It may be a while before they appear on the site.

Monitoring

Step 7: Install Prometheus

Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit. It runs as a service on your Ubuntu server and its job is to capture metrics. More information here. We are going to use Prometheus to expose runtime data from the beacon-chain and validator as well as instance specific metrics.

Create Directories

mkdir /eth/prometheus

Download Prometheus software

curl -LO https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/releases/download/v2.22.0/prometheus-2.22.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Unpack the archive. It contains two binaries and some content files.

tar xvf prometheus-2.22.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
cp -a /eth/prometheus/prometheus-2.22.0.linux-amd64/. /eth/prometheus/

Remove the downloaded archive.

rm -rf prometheus-2.22.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Edit the Configuration File

nano /eth/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Paste the following into the file taking care not to make any additional edits and exit and save the file.

global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # Set the scrape interval to every 15 seconds. Default is every 1 minute.
  evaluation_interval: 15s # Evaluate rules every 15 seconds. The default is every 1 minute.
  # scrape_timeout is set to the global default (10s).
# Alertmanager configuration
alerting:
  alertmanagers:
  - static_configs:
    - targets:
      # - alertmanager:9093
# Load rules once and periodically evaluate them according to the global 'evaluation_interval'.
rule_files:
  # - "first_rules.yml"
  # - "second_rules.yml"
# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'validator'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8081']
  - job_name: 'beacon node'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:8080']
  - job_name: 'node_exporter'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9100']

The scrape_configs define the output target for the different job names. We have 3 job names: validator, beacon node, and node_exporter. The first two are obvious, the last one is for metrics related to the server instance itself (memory, CPU, disk, network etc.). We will install and configure node_exporter below.

Run service

./prometheus --config.file /eth/prometheus/prometheus.yml \ --storage.tsdb.path /eth/prometheus/data --web.console.templates=/eth/prometheus/consoles --web.console.libraries=/eth/prometheus/console_libraries

Set Prometheus to Auto-Start as a Service

nano /etc/systemd/system/prometheus.service

Paste the following into the file. Exit and save.

[Unit]
Description=Prometheus
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/eth/prometheus/prometheus --config.file /eth/prometheus/prometheus.yml --storage.tsdb.path /eth/prometheus/data --web.console.templates=/eth/prometheus/consoles --web.console.libraries=/eth/prometheus/console_libraries
User=root
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to reflect the changes.

systemctl daemon-reload

And then start the service with the following command and check the status to make sure it’s running correctly.

systemctl start prometheus
systemctl status prometheus

Lastly, enable Prometheus to start on boot.

systemctl enable prometheus

Step 8: Install Node Exporter

Prometheus will provide metrics about the beacon chain and validators. If we want metrics about our Ubuntu instance, we’ll need an extension called Node_Exporter. You can find the latest stable version here if you want to specify a different version below. Rpi users remember to get the ARM binary.

curl -LO https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.2.2/node_exporter-1.2.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Unpack the downloaded software.

tar xvf node_exporter-1.2.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Remove the downloaded archive.

cp -a /eth/nodeexporter/node_exporter-1.2.2.linux-amd64/. /eth/nodeexporter/
rm -rf node_exporter-1.2.2.linux-amd64 node_exporter-1.2.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Set Node Exporter to Auto-Start as a Service

nano /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service

Paste the following into the file. Exit and save.

[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/eth/nodeexporter/node_exporter
User=root
Type=simple

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to reflect the changes.

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start node_exporter
systemctl status node_exporter
systemctl enable node_exporter

Step 8: Install Grafana

While Prometheus is our data source, Grafana is going provide our reporting dashboard capability.

Download the Grafana GPG key with wget, then pipe the output to apt-key. This will add the key to your APT installation’s list of trusted keys.

wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

Add the Grafana repository to the APT source

add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main"

Refresh the apt cache.

apt update

Make sure Grafana is installed from the repository.

apt-cache policy grafana

Verify the version at the top matches the latest version shown here. Then proceed with the installation.

apt install grafana

Start the Grafana server and check the status to make sure it’s running correctly.

Configure Grafana Login

go to

http://195.201.108.158:3000/

in a browser and the Grafana login screen should come up.

Configure the Grafana Data Source

Click on Add Data Source and then choose Prometheus. Enter http://localhost:9090 for the URL then click on Save and Test.

Now let’s import a dashboard. Move your mouse over the + icon on the left menu bar. A menu will pop-up - choose Import. Paste the JSON from here (or here if you have more than 10 validators) and click Load then Import. You should be able to view the dashboard. At first you may not have sufficient data, but after the testnet starts and validators are activated for a while you will see some metrics and alerts.

systemctl start grafana-server
systemctl status grafana-server
systemctl enable grafana-server

Monitor mobile via beaconchain

login in https://pyrmont.beaconcha.in/user/settings#app and follow docs

nano /etc/systemd/system/beaconchain.service
systemctl start beaconchain.service
systemctl status beaconchain.service
systemctl enable beaconchain.service

realated to: https://someresat.medium.com/guide-to-staking-on-ethereum-2-0-ubuntu-pyrmont-prysm-a10b5129c7e3

Mainnet

comming soon