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Redundancy

There are three places in Lighthouse where redundancy is notable:

  1. ✅ GOOD: Using a redundant beacon node in lighthouse vc --beacon-nodes
  2. ❌ NOT SUPPORTED: Using a redundant execution node in lighthouse bn --execution-endpoint
  3. ☠️ BAD: Running redundant lighthouse vc instances with overlapping keypairs.

We mention (3) since it is unsafe and should not be confused with the other two uses of redundancy. Running the same validator keypair in more than one validator client (Lighthouse, or otherwise) will eventually lead to slashing. See Slashing Protection for more information.

From this paragraph, this document will only refer to the first two items (1, 2). We never recommend that users implement redundancy for validator keypairs.

Redundant Beacon Nodes

The Lighthouse validator client can be configured to use multiple redundant beacon nodes.

The lighthouse vc --beacon-nodes flag allows one or more comma-separated values:

  1. lighthouse vc --beacon-nodes http://localhost:5052
  2. lighthouse vc --beacon-nodes http://localhost:5052,http://192.168.1.1:5052

In the first example, the validator client will attempt to contact http://localhost:5052 to perform duties. If that node is not contactable, not synced or unable to serve the request then the validator client may fail to perform some duty (e.g. produce a block or attest).

However, in the second example, any failure on http://localhost:5052 will be followed by a second attempt using http://192.168.1.1:5052. This achieves redundancy, allowing the validator client to continue to perform its duties as long as at least one of the beacon nodes is available.

There are a few interesting properties about the list of --beacon-nodes:

  • Ordering matters: the validator client prefers a beacon node that is earlier in the list.
  • Synced is preferred: the validator client prefers a synced beacon node over one that is still syncing.

Note: When supplying multiple beacon nodes the http://localhost:5052 address must be explicitly provided (if it is desired). It will only be used as default if no --beacon-nodes flag is provided at all.

Configuring a redundant Beacon Node

In our previous example, we listed http://192.168.1.1:5052 as a redundant node. Apart from having sufficient resources, the backup node should have the following flags:

  • --http: starts the HTTP API server.
  • --http-address local_IP: where local_IP is the private IP address of the computer running the beacon node. This is only required if your backup beacon node is on a different host.

Note: You could also use --http-address 0.0.0.0, but this allows any external IP address to access the HTTP server. As such, a firewall should be configured to deny unauthorized access to port 5052.

For example one could use the following command to provide a backup beacon node:

lighthouse bn \
  --http \
  --http-address local_IP \
  --execution-endpoint http://localhost:8551 \
  --execution-jwt /secrets/jwt.hex

Prior to v3.2.0 fallback beacon nodes also required the --subscribe-all-subnets and --import-all-attestations flags. These flags are no longer required as the validator client will now broadcast subscriptions to all connected beacon nodes by default. This broadcast behaviour can be disabled using the --broadcast none flag for lighthouse vc.

Fallback Health

Since v6.0.0, the validator client will be more aggressive in switching to a fallback node. To do this, it uses the concept of "Health". Every slot, the validator client checks each connected beacon node to determine which node is the "Healthiest". In general, the validator client will prefer nodes which are synced, have synced execution layers and which are not currently optimistically syncing.

Sync distance is separated out into 4 tiers: "Synced", "Small", "Medium", "Large". Nodes are then sorted into tiers based onto sync distance and execution layer status. You can use the --beacon-nodes-sync-tolerances to change how many slots wide each tier is. In the case where multiple nodes fall into the same tier, user order is used to tie-break.

To see health information for each connected node, you can use the /lighthouse/beacon/health API endpoint.

Broadcast modes

Since v4.6.0, the Lighthouse VC can be configured to broadcast messages to all configured beacon nodes rather than just the first available.

The flag to control this behaviour is --broadcast, which takes multiple comma-separated values from this list:

  • subscriptions: Send subnet subscriptions & other control messages which keep the beacon nodes primed and ready to process messages. It is recommended to leave this enabled.
  • attestations: Send attestations & aggregates to all beacon nodes. This can improve propagation of attestations throughout the network, at the cost of increased load on the beacon nodes and increased bandwidth between the VC and the BNs.
  • blocks: Send proposed blocks to all beacon nodes. This can improve propagation of blocks throughout the network, at the cost of slightly increased load on the beacon nodes and increased bandwidth between the VC and the BNs. If you are looking to improve performance in a multi-BN setup this is the first option we would recommend enabling.
  • sync-committee: Send sync committee signatures & aggregates to all beacon nodes. This can improve propagation of sync committee messages with similar tradeoffs to broadcasting attestations, although occurring less often due to the infrequency of sync committee duties.
  • none: Disable all broadcasting. This option only has an effect when provided alone, otherwise it is ignored. Not recommended except for expert tweakers.

The default is --broadcast subscriptions. To also broadcast blocks for example, use --broadcast subscriptions,blocks.

Redundant execution nodes

Lighthouse previously supported redundant execution nodes for fetching data from the deposit contract. On merged networks this is no longer supported. Each Lighthouse beacon node must be configured in a 1:1 relationship with an execution node. For more information on the rationale behind this decision please see the Merge Migration documentation.

To achieve redundancy we recommend configuring Redundant beacon nodes where each has its own execution engine.