Validator Node Snapshot

Validator Node Snapshot

First of all, you can get a snapshot copy for RocksDB type on the following website based on region. This included Kusama, Polkadot and Testnet Westend.

https://www.1kvnode.com/snapshot

1 - What is a snapshot?

As validators’ node can crush and affected the APY of the Staking, it is very important to validator to restore the node as soon as possible. Else, you will be losing your nominators.

The main purpose of the snapshot is to allow specific restoration of the validator’s infrastructure from taking 10-11 days to sync (it was 4 days when I started validation) complete the chain in Kusama or Polkadot. The restoration will allow the team to reduce the gap of the sync from 11 days to nearly somewhere 2 - 6 hours of waiting time.

Isn’t that like GREAT ???

2 - Is this for me?

This works only for RocksDB, as parityDB is still under experimented, even on the latest 0.9.25 release, the paritydb stream have more problems than the rocksdb. This is pruned-1000 DB for validators only. If you are a new validator, I will suggest to use RocksDB.

1Kvnode team will have ParityDB available shortly.

Validated Environment:

• Ubuntu 22.x

• Docker 20.10.17

If you think that this is for you, then please assure that you did the following installation on your node.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd -y
sudo snap install lz4

2 - Next question, what do I need to know to restore?

At this moment, either you are using a physical node, virtual node or a container node. Your data is sitting on a specific path that varies depending on your node configuration. As example:

• /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot

• /root/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot

• /home/data/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot

• /home/lucasyoda/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot

As a validator, you are supposedly to know where the path is, but as a beginner, you may have difficulties to find it, when you start your node.

Ubuntu 
jounrnalctl -f -u polkadot.service  
Docker 
docker compose logs | grep container_name  

You should be able to see the path of your db.

This chain folder will be the following

• POLKADOT- /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot/db/full

• KUSAMA- /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3/db/full

• WESTEND- /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/westend2/db/full

3 - Next Restoration time !!

Manual deployment

Download the zip file from the site based on the download page from your SSH session.

In this particular case, based on your region, please download the necessary zip file. Right Click on the downloadbutton and save the link.

wget https://as01.1kvnode.site/polkadot_RocksDB_11064926.tar.lz4

The download will take a while depending on your internet and region that you pick (Asia, North America, Europ).

You can then decompress the file to your DB location. This is assuming that you know your path.

The Zip Files contains the /db/full/_ALL_THE_NECESSARY_FILE full path. With the following example path

• POLKADOT- /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot/db/full

lz4 -c -d polkadot_RocksDB_11064926.tar.lz4 | tar -x -C /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot/

This unzipping will take a good 40 minutes. Once that it’s completed, you will need to rm the file to save space.

rm -v polkadot_RocksDB_11064926.tar.lz4 

You will need to know your path on where you downland the file.

Advanced deployment - or the lazy way

You can do this to save some space on your disk.

curl -o - -L https://as01.1kvnode.site/polkadot_RocksDB_11064926.tar.lz4| lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /your_path/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot/

The above process will take around 30 - 40 minutes depending on your location. You will need to start the service if you already setup, else, please follow the validator Setup Guide.

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I’m Lucas Yoda, a Jedi of the Crypto Community, enjoying Polkadot and all the parachains. Also a Validator within the Community to support the core infrastructure.

My Discord Channel: lucasyoda#6714
My Element Channel: @lucasyoda:matrix.org
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