Troubleshooting
Note
The commands on this page refer to mainnet.
If you're running on holesky or another testnet, replace mainnet accordingly.
We are continuously making improvements to both stability and resource usage. If you run into any problem with Nimbus and are not running the latest version, chances are they have already been fixed. See the update guide for instructions of how to upgrade.
If you can't find a solution to your problem here, get in touch with us on our discord.
Note
When installing Nimbus, you will typically be using the latest stable release.
However, the latest changes happen in the unstable branch.
If you're looking to test the changes coming to the next Nimbus release, consider building Nimbus from source using the unstable branch.
Networking
A correctly configured network is key to getting good performance: the networking guide details everything you need to know!
Low peer count
If you see a message that looks like the following in your logs:
Your node is finding it hard to find peers.
It's possible that you may be behind a firewall.
Try restarting your client and passing --nat:extip:$EXT_IP_ADDRESS as an option to ./run-mainnet-beacon-node.sh, where $EXT_IP_ADDRESS is your real IP. For example, if your real IP address is 1.2.3.4, you'd run:
If this doesn't improve things, you may need to set enr-auto-update and/or set up port forwarding.
No peers for topic
If you see a message that looks like the following in your logs:
This means you've missed an attestation because either your peer count is too low, or the quality of your peers is lacking.
There can be several reasons behind why this is the case.
The first thing to check is that your max peer count (--max-peers) hasn't been set too low.
In order to ensure your attestations are published correctly, --max-peers should be set to 70, at the very least.
Note
Nimbus manages peers slightly differently to other clients (we automatically connect to more peers than we actually use, in order not to have to do costly reconnects).
As such, --max-peers is set to 160 by default.
If this doesn't fix the problem, please double check your node is able to receive incoming connections.
Misc
Console hanging for too long on update
To update and restart, run git pull, make update, followed by make nimbus_beacon_node:
cd nimbus-eth2
git pull
make update # Update dependencies
make nimbus_beacon_node # Rebuild beacon node
./run-mainnet-beacon-node.sh # Restart using same keys as last run
If you find that make update causes the console to hang for too long, try running make update V=1 or make update V=2 instead (these will print a more verbose output to the console which may make it easier to diagnose the problem).
Note
Rest assured that when you restart the beacon node, the software will resume from where it left off, using the validator keys you have already imported.
Starting over after importing wrong keys
Your keys and secrets are stored in the data directory (usually build/data/shared_mainnet_0).
If you imported the wrong keys, simply remove them from validators and secrets found in the data directory.
Sync problems
If you’re experiencing sync problems, make sure that your network is healthy and that you have a recent version installed.
In rare cases, such as after an unclean shutdown, it may happen that the database has been corrupted and you need to restart the sync.
To do so, remove the db folder from the data directory and restart the node.
You can get re-synced faster using trusted node sync.
noCommand does not accept arguments
If, on start, you see The command 'noCommand' does not accept arguments.
Double check to see if your command line flags are in the correct format, e.g. --foo=bar, --baz, or --foo-bar=qux.
Tip
All options accepting values need a = between the option name and the value!
Address already in use error
If you're seeing an error that looks like:
It means that you're running another node that is using the same port as the one you're trying to start or that you're trying to start a second instance of the same node.
To change the base port, run:
You can replace 9100 with a port of your choosing.
Catching up on validator duties
If you're being flooded with Catching up on validator duties messages, your CPU is probably too slow to run Nimbus.
Please check that your setup matches our system requirements.
Eth1 chain monitor failure
If you see an error that looks like the following:
{"lvl":"ERR","ts":"2021-05-11 09:05:53.547+00:00","msg":"Eth1 chain monitoring failure, restarting","topics":"eth1","tid":1,"err":"Trying to access value with err: Failed to setup web3 connection"}
It is because your node can't connect to the web3 provider you have specified. Please double check that you've correctly specified your provider.
If you haven't done so already, we recommend allowing multiple execution clients.
Discovered new external address warning log
WRN 2021-03-11 13:26:25.943-08:00
Discovered new external address but ENR auto update is off
topics="discv5" tid=77655 file=protocol.nim:940 majority=Some("myIPaddressHere":9000) previous=None[Address]
This message is displayed regularly when Nimbus cannot detect your correct IP address. It may be a sign that you have a dynamic IP address that keeps changing. Or that Nimbus is unable to get your IP from the UPnP.
The first step is to try relaunching the beacon node with the --enr-auto-update option.
If that doesn't fix the problem, double check that your ports are open and that you have port forwarding enabled on your gateway (assuming that you are behind a NAT).
See our page on monitoring the health of your node for more.
Raspberry Pi
Trouble transferring data to/from USB3.0 SSDs
We have seen reports of degraded performance when using several types of USB3.0 to SSD adapters or when using native USB3.0 disk drives. This post on RPi forums details why there is a difference in behaviour from models prior to Pi 4 and the recommended workaround.