Ethshadow: Discrete-event Ethereum network simulator

Ethshadow is a tool to easily configure and run simulated Ethereum networks. Under the hood, it uses Shadow, a discrete-event network simulator that enables us to run simulations with actual Ethereum clients instead of specifically written simulation code.

The advantages of using Ethshadow are as follows.

1. It already includes everything in the simulation (e.g. libp2p, discv5, etc).
2. It uses the same software as the mainnet and the public testnets.
3. If there is any upgades in lighthouse, we can integrate those upgrades easily in the simulation.

If you want to simulate a new Ethereum protocol, what you need to do is just to implement it in lighthouse or geth or any other supported EL and CL clients and run it using this simulator.

Quickstart

We assume that you already have Go, Rust, and Docker installed.

Install Lighthouse and Geth.

# Lighthouse
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git gcc g++ make cmake pkg-config llvm-dev libclang-dev clang
git clone https://github.com/sigp/lighthouse.git
cd lighthouse
git checkout v5.3.0 # The latest tested version
make
make install-lcli

# Geth
git clone https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum.git
cd go-ethereum
git checkout v1.14.11 # The latest tested version
make all
sudo cp build/bin/geth /usr/local/bin/geth # Make it globally accessible
sudo cp build/bin/bootnode /usr/local/bin/bootnode # Make it globally accessible

Install Shadow

sudo apt-get install -y cmake findutils libclang-dev libc-dbg libglib2.0-0 libglib2.0-dev make netbase python3 python3-networkx xz-utils util-linux gcc g++
git clone https://github.com/shadow/shadow.git
cd shadow
./setup build --clean
./setup install
echo 'export PATH="${PATH}:/home/${USER}/.local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Install Ethshadow.

cargo install --path .

Save the following file to a config file myfirstsim.yaml.

general:
  # How much time should we simulate?
  stop_time: 10 min
  # Display a progress indicator?
  progress: true

ethereum:
  # Distribute this many validators evenly across all nodes
  validators: 30
  # Create this many nodes with Geth, Lighthouse and a Validator client.
  # Additionally, a host with one boot node for CL and EL each is added.
  nodes: 10

Run the simulation.

ethshadow myfirstsim.yaml

Check out ./data/shadow/hosts which contais the stdout and stderr of every process (including geth and lighthouse) of every node.

Supported clients

✅ = Available, works out-of-the-box with latest release

🚧 = Available, works with modifications (see subpage for details)

❌ = Unavailable, does not currently work

❔ = Unavailable, not yet tested

A client is considered to work if it can follow the chain and perform the necessary duties for validating. Other features might not work.

Execution Layer

Name	Node	Boot Node	Latest tested version
Besu	❔	❔
Erigon	❔	❔
EthereumJS	❔	❔
Geth	✅	✅	v1.14.11
Nethermind	❔	❔
Reth	🚧	❔

Consensus Layer

Name	Node	Boot Node	Validator Client	Latest tested version
Grandine	❔	❔	❔
Lighthouse	✅	✅	✅	v5.3.0
Lodestar	❔	❔	❔
Nimbus	❔	❔	❔
Prysm	❔	❔	❔
Teku	❔	❔	❔

More Information

See https://ethereum.github.io/ethshadow for the documentation