Nimbus update: v1.1.0 release
Hi everyone,
We're excited to announce that we pushed our v1.1.0 release over the weekend. This is a big one for us :)
There are many highlights in this release. In particular, v1.1.0 contains substantial performance improvements to our database (we have a new schema), and paves the way for an improved pause-free doppelganger detection (reserved for a future release).
We've also added official docker images for ARM and ARM64, as well as support for fallback web3-url providers -- which means you can now specify a backup eth1 node (e.g. infura) in case your primary one goes down.
Additionally, those of you using Docker will be pleased to hear that we now have metrics support compiled by default – which means you'll finally be able to use Grafana with Nimbus with precompiled Nimbus binaries!
Please be aware that, while we are committed to maintaining backwards compatibility between releases, this release does not support seamlessly downgrading back to any previous 1.0.x release. While you shouldn't need to downgrade, if for some reason you do, please make sure you get in touch with us before.
Backing up your database
Even though we've tested this release extensively, as an extra safety precaution we advise you to backup your Nimbus database – nbc.sqlite3 -- before upgrading.
The best way to do this is to simply copy it over to somewhere safe: you'll find it either in build/data/shared_mainnet_0/db/ (if you're running Pyrmont, shared_pyrmont_0) or the directory you supplied to the --data-dir argument when you launched Nimbus).
A brief (but important) note on checksums
One thing to bring attention to here is that we've added checksums to the end of the release notes (a practice we will be continuing from now on). Please make sure you get into the habit of verifying these 🙏
For those of you who are unfamiliar, a checksum is a special type of hash used to verify the integrity of a file. Verifying a checksum ensures there was no corruption or manipulation during the download and that the file was downloaded completely and correctly. For a short and simple guide on how to do so, see here.
In this case, the v1.1.0 SHA512 checksums are:
# Linux AMD64
8d553ea5422645b5f06001e7f47051706ae5cffd8d88c45e4669939f3abb6caf41a2477431fce3e647265cdb4f8671fa360d392f423ac68ffb9459607eaab462 nimbus_beacon_node
# Linux ARM64
93ffd03a0ce67f7d035e3dc45e97de3c2c9a05a8dd0c6d5f45402ddb04404dc3cf15b80fee972f34152ef171ce97c40f794448bc779ca056081c945f71f19788 nimbus_beacon_node
# Linux ARM
f2e75f3fae2aea0a9f8d45861d52b0e2546c3990f453b509fab538692d18c64e65f58441c5492064fc371e0bc77de6bab970e05394cfd124417601b55cb4a825 nimbus_beacon_node
# Windows AMD64
fd68c8792ea60c2c72e9c2201745f9698bfd1dae4af4fa9e1683f082109045efebd1d80267f13cafeb1cd7414dc0f589a8a73f12161ac2758779369289d5a832 nimbus_beacon_node
Adding a backup web3 provider
This is a feature several of you have been asking for a while now, and we've finally added it. You can now specify a backup web3 provider by simply repeating the --web3-url parameter.
For example, if your primary eth1 node is a local Geth, but you want to use Infura as a backup you would run:
./run-mainnet-beacon-node.sh --web3-url="ws://127.0.0.1:8546" --web3-url="wss://mainnet.infura.io/ws/v3/..."
Note that as it stands, when you run this command, you'll be prompted once again for a web3url again -- please enter your primary one. This is a UX bug and we've pushed a fix that will be integrated into our next release.
While there are plenty of other improvements we could mention here, in the interests of time, I refer you to the release notes for the rest of the highlights (please do check them out!).
P.S. the best way to stay abreast of new updates is to subscribe to our mailing list at: https://subscribe.nimbus.guide/. And don't forget to join our discord if you'd like to ask any Nimbus related questions or take part in discussions with the Team! Looking forward to seeing you there 💛