Run Reth in a private testnet using Kurtosis
For those who need a private testnet to validate functionality or scale with Reth.
Using Docker locally
This guide uses Kurtosis' ethereum-package and assumes you have Kurtosis and Docker installed and have Docker already running on your machine.
The ethereum-package is a package for a general purpose Ethereum testnet definition used for instantiating private testnets at any scale over Docker or Kubernetes, locally or in the cloud. This guide will go through how to spin up a local private testnet with Reth various CL clients locally. Specifically, you will instantiate a 2-node network over Docker with Reth/Lighthouse and Reth/Teku client combinations.
To see all possible configurations and flags you can use, including metrics and observability tools (e.g. Grafana, Prometheus, etc), go here.
Genesis data will be generated using this genesis-generator to be used to bootstrap the EL and CL clients for each node. The end result will be a private testnet with nodes deployed as Docker containers in an ephemeral, isolated environment on your machine called an enclave. Read more about how the ethereum-package works by going here.
Step 1: Define the parameters and shape of your private network
First, in your home directory, create a file with the name network_params.json with the following contents:
{
"participants": [
{
"el_type": "reth",
"el_image": "ghcr.io/paradigmxyz/reth",
"cl_type": "lighthouse",
"cl_image": "sigp/lighthouse:latest",
"count": 1
},
{
"el_type": "reth",
"el_image": "ghcr.io/paradigmxyz/reth",
"cl_type": "teku",
"cl_image": "consensys/teku:latest",
"count": 1
}
],
"launch_additional_services": false
}
Step 2: Spin up your network
Next, run the following command from your command line:
kurtosis run github.com/kurtosis-tech/ethereum-package --args-file ~/network_params.json
Kurtosis will spin up an enclave (i.e an ephemeral, isolated environment) and begin to configure and instantiate the nodes in your network. In the end, Kurtosis will print the services running in your enclave that form your private testnet alongside all the container ports and files that were generated & used to start up the private testnet. Here is a sample output:
INFO[2023-08-21T18:22:18-04:00] ====================================================
INFO[2023-08-21T18:22:18-04:00] || Created enclave: silky-swamp ||
INFO[2023-08-21T18:22:18-04:00] ====================================================
Name: silky-swamp
UUID: 3df730c66123
Status: RUNNING
Creation Time: Mon, 21 Aug 2023 18:21:32 EDT
========================================= Files Artifacts =========================================
UUID Name
c168ec4468f6 1-lighthouse-reth-0-63
61f821e2cfd5 2-teku-reth-64-127
e6f94fdac1b8 cl-genesis-data
e6b57828d099 el-genesis-data
1fb632573a2e genesis-generation-config-cl
b8917e497980 genesis-generation-config-el
6fd8c5be336a geth-prefunded-keys
6ab83723b4bd prysm-password
========================================== User Services ==========================================
UUID Name Ports Status
95386198d3f9 cl-1-lighthouse-reth http: 4000/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:64947 RUNNING
metrics: 5054/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:64948
tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64949
udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:60303
5f5cc4cf639a cl-1-lighthouse-reth-validator http: 5042/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64950 RUNNING
metrics: 5064/tcp -> http://127.0.0.1:64951
27e1cfaddc72 cl-2-teku-reth http: 4000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64954 RUNNING
metrics: 8008/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64952
tcp-discovery: 9000/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64953
udp-discovery: 9000/udp -> 127.0.0.1:53749
b454497fbec8 el-1-reth-lighthouse engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64941 RUNNING
metrics: 9001/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64937
rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64939
tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64938
udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:55861
ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64940
03a2ef13c99b el-2-reth-teku engine-rpc: 8551/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64945 RUNNING
metrics: 9001/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64946
rpc: 8545/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64943
tcp-discovery: 30303/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64942
udp-discovery: 30303/udp -> 127.0.0.1:64186
ws: 8546/tcp -> 127.0.0.1:64944
5c199b334236 prelaunch-data-generator-cl-genesis-data <none> RUNNING
46829c4bd8b0 prelaunch-data-generator-el-genesis-data <none> RUNNING
Great! You now have a private network with 2 full Ethereum nodes on your local machine over Docker - one that is a Reth/Lighthouse pair and another that is Reth/Teku. Check out the Kurtosis docs to learn about the various ways you can interact with and inspect your network.
Using Kurtosis on Kubernetes
Kurtosis packages are portable and reproducible, meaning they will work the same way over Docker or Kubernetes, locally or on remote infrastructure. For use cases that require a larger scale, Kurtosis can be deployed on Kubernetes by following these docs here.
Running the network with additional services
The ethereum-package comes with many optional flags and arguments you can enable for your private network. Some include:
- A Grafana + Prometheus instance
- A transaction spammer called
tx-fuzz - A network metrics collector
- Flashbot's
mev-boostimplementation of PBS (to test/simulate MEV workflows)
Questions?
Please reach out to the Kurtosis discord should you have any questions about how to use the ethereum-package for your private testnet needs. Thanks!