2.0 KiB
Validator Manager
Introduction
The lighthouse validator-manager tool provides utilities for managing validators on a running
Lighthouse Validator Client. The validator manager performs operations via the HTTP API of the
validator client (VC). Due to limitations of the
keymanager-APIs, only Lighthouse VCs are fully
supported by this command.
The validator manager tool is similar to the lighthouse account-manager tool, except the latter
creates files that will be read by the VC next time it starts rather than making instant changes to
a live VC. The validator manager is generally superior to the account manager for the following
(non-exhaustive) reasons:
- The validator manager generates deposit files compatible with the Ethereum Launchpad.
- Changes made with the validator manager do not require downtime for the VC.
- The "key cache" is preserved whenever a validator is added with the validator manager, this prevents long waits at start up when a new validator is added.
Commands
Create Validators
The lighthouse validator-manager validators create command accepts a mnemonic and produces a JSON
file containing validator keystores that can be imported with the Import
Validators command.
For users that want to add validators to a VC from an existing mnemonic, this is the first half the process which generates a validator specifications JSON file for the new validators. The second half of the process is to upload those validator specifications to a VC (see Import Validators. The command is split into two steps so that security-conscious validators can generate the validator specifications on an "air-gapped" computer which is not connected to the Internet. Then, the validator specifications file can be transferred to a VC for import. This means that the VC never has access to the mnemonic, just the keystores with which it is concerned.