asmainfeed / flashbots-mevboost-systemd

Run flashbots/mev-boost as a systemd service

Setup - Updating mev-boost - Uninstall - CL Client Config Resources

Note

• This does not cover Consensus Client configurations necessary to use mev-boost as a builder

Setup

flashbots/mev-boost systemd service (Mainnet)

1. Install go 1.18+

# using gobrew
curl -sLk https://git.io/gobrew | sh -

# add gobrew to path
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.gobrew/current/bin:$HOME/.gobrew/bin:$PATH"' >> $HOME/.bashrc

# add go packages to path
echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:`go env GOPATH`/bin' >> $HOME/.bashrc

# set/install go version
gobrew use 1.18@latest

# reload .bashrc
. $HOME/.bashrc

2. Install flashbots/mev-boost

go install github.com/flashbots/mev-boost@latest

# sym link mev-boost to /usr/local/bin
cd /usr/local/bin && sudo ln -s $HOME/go/bin/mev-boost . && cd $HOME

3. Create mevb user

sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /bin/false mevb

4. Create mev-boost relay config directory

sudo mkdir /etc/mev-boost

5. Create relay-config.env environment variables in relay config directory (/etc/mev-boost)

sudo tee /etc/mev-boost/relay-config.env > /dev/null <<EOF
FLASHBOTS="https://0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0d[e-mail]"
BLOXROUTE_ETHICAL="https://0xad0a8bb54565c2211cee576363f3a347[e-mail]"
BLOXROUTE_MAXPROFIT="https://0x8b5d2e73e2a3a55c6c87b8b6eb92e014[e-mail]"
BLOCKNATIVE="https://0x9000009807ed12c1f08bf4e81c6da3ba[e-mail]"
EDEN="https://0xb3ee7afcf27f1f1259ac1787876318c6[e-mail]"
MANIFOLD="https://0x98650451ba02064f7b000f5768cf0cf4[e-mail]"
ULTRASOUND="https://0xa1559ace749633b997cb3fdacffb890a[e-mail]"
AGNOSTIC="https://0xa7ab7a996c8584251c8f925da3170bdf[e-mail]"
EOF

6. Set recursive ownership of /etc/mev-boost to mevb user

sudo chown -R mevb:mevb /etc/mev-boost/

7. Create mevb.service systemd service

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/mevb.service > /dev/null <<EOF
# /etc/systemd/system/mevb.service 

[Unit]
Description=MEV-Boost Mainnet
After=network.target
Wants=network.target

[Service]
User=mevb
Group=mevb
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
EnvironmentFile=/etc/mev-boost/relay-config.env
ExecStart=mev-boost -mainnet -relay-check -relays \${FLASHBOTS},\${BLOXROUTE_ETHICAL},\${BLOXROUTE_MAXPROFIT},\${BLOCKNATIVE},\${EDEN},\${MANIFOLD},\${ULTRASOUND},\${AGNOSTIC}

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

8. Start and enable service

sudo systemctl start mevb.service
sudo systemctl enable mevb.service

9. Check the logs

journalctl -fu mevb.service

# You should see something like:

# <timestamp> <youruser> systemd[1]: Started MEV-Boost Mainnet.
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="mev-boost v0.8.2" module=cli
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="Using genesis fork version: 0x00000000" module=cli
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="using 2 relays" module=cli relays="[{0xad0a8bb54565c2211cee576363f3a347089d2f07cf72679d16911d740262694cadb62d7fd7483f27afd714ca0f1b9118 https://0xad0a8bb54565c2211cee576363f3a347[e-mail]} {0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0dab71fdd5ebea22a16c0205200f2f8e2e3ad3b71d3499c54ad14d6c21b41a37ae https://0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0d[e-mail]}]"
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="Checking relay" module=service relay="https://0xad0a8bb54565c2211cee576363f3a347[e-mail]"
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="Checking relay" module=service relay="https://0xac6e77dfe25ecd6110b8e780608cce0d[e-mail]"
# <timestamp> <youruser> mev-boost[21499]: time="<timestamp>" level=info msg="listening on localhost:18550" module=cli

Updating mev-boost

1. Update mev-boost binary

go install github.com/flashbots/mev-boost@latest

2. Check your version

mev-boost --version
# mev-boost v0.8.2

2. Restart mevb.service

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart mevb.service

Uninstall

• Note: if you are using mev-boost as your builder for your consensus client, make sure to update your configs for those clients before removing mev-boost

1. Disable and stop mevb.service

sudo systemctl disable mevb.service
sudo systemctl stop mevb.service

2. Remove /etc/mev-boost directory

sudo rm -rf /etc/mev-boost

3. Remove /etc/systemd/system/mevb.service unit file

sudo rm -r /etc/systemd/system/mevb.service

4. Remove mevb user

sudo userdel mevb

5. (Optional) Remove gobrew and $HOME/go dir

rm -rf $HOME/.gobrew
rm -rf $HOME/go

6. Remove mev-boost symlink from /usr/local/bin

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/mev-boost

7. Remove gobrew entries from $HOME/.bashrc

vim $HOME/.bashrc
# remove these lines from the bottom of .bashrc
# export PATH="$HOME/.gobrew/current/bin:$HOME/.gobrew/bin:$PATH"
# export PATH=${PATH}:`go env GOPATH`/bin

# source your .bashrc
. $HOME/.bashrc

Consensus Layer Client Config Resources

• lighthouse
• teku
• prysm
• nimbus