To all validators: let's prepare for multiview bft-v1

[annie]

Hi validators,

As some of you might already know, we successfully deployed the multi-view solution for pbft-v1 on all the fixed nodes on mainnet last week. We have been monitoring the network over the weekend and it’s stable.

What this means for validators

This multi-view solution will make your Node sync at least 10 times faster. Previously it took up to 3 days for a newly set up Node to finish syncing. With the new multiview, time taken will be reduced to only 6-12 hours. Your Node will soon be able to start producing blocks and get earning much more quickly.

This multiview solution also lays the ground for Dynamic Committee and Dynamic Sharding which is expected to go live in 2021.

What you need to do

We are planning to push the new code to all nodes in the network. All validators will need to upgrade their node and update to the new database.

This is scheduled to happen on Sep 4th, 3:00 AM ET. Only vNode validators need to perform the upgrade. Here are detailed instructions: Important: Update your vNode for faster syncing

Read more about A Multi-View Solution for PBFT Protocol

[wolf]

Will pNode require hardware upgrade?

[annie]

No need @wolf. The pNode will be taken care from our side. We will push a ‘silent’ update to Node firmware, so you dont need to do anything.

[doc]

@annie Will the instructions go out before Sept 4th so we can review and make sure there are no questions prior to doing it live, when support may not be as readily available due to time zone differences?

[Gold]

Also, what if we have a vnode that is unstaking during the change Sept 4th? Will there be any impact on those unstaking nodes? Should they be upgraded, too?

[sid]

Hi @annie,

Thank you for the heads up!

If the update from Incognito is scheduled to happen on Sept 4th, does that allow for a time window for all vNode operators to perform the upgrade? And if the upgrade isn’t done after Sept 4th, does that constitute to the fact that the vnode won’t earn rewards?

I think if there is anything you could share that lets vnode operators prepare for this upgrade ahead of time, it will help minimize the impact and downtime. If the upgrade is going to be rather seamless and kind of automated in a way that there is no downtime (unstaking/staking) required, simple commands/script that performs the upgrade without any impact - then we should be good.

[doc]

@annie Something to also consider for future updates, you might not consider doing upgrades/updates/releases on Friday afternoon right before weekend… I have found in my experience that if you do them closer to start of week, it is much less stressful on the developers and community…

Developers can be more responsive to bugs/issues that come up, as it is during normal working time… and community members are able to get support for problems they have as their is staff more readily available to handle any comments/questions.

Maybe you have had different experiences than me when releasing/rolling out new features, but that would be my suggestion.

[Mike_Wagner]

@doc

you might not consider doing upgrades/updates/releases on Friday

Read-only Friday … it’s a thing.

[annie]

@doc

@annie Will the instructions go out before Sept 4th so we can review and make sure there are no questions prior to doing it live, when support may not be as readily available due to time zone differences?

The instructions will go out today (Sept 3rd) so there is 1 day for review and q&a. However when we put it out, we will be available on forum to support.

@Gold

Also, what if we have a vnode that is unstaking during the change Sept 4th? Will there be any impact on those unstaking nodes? Should they be upgraded, too?

Unstaking nodes are fine, there will be no impact on the unstaking nodes/ processes in general.

[annie]

@sid

If the update from Incognito is scheduled to happen on Sept 4th, does that allow for a time window for all vNode operators to perform the upgrade? And if the upgrade isn’t done after Sept 4th, does that constitute to the fact that the vnode won’t earn rewards?

I think if there is anything you could share that lets vnode operators prepare for this upgrade ahead of time, it will help minimize the impact and downtime. If the upgrade is going to be rather seamless and kind of automated in a way that there is no downtime (unstaking/staking) required, simple commands/script that performs the upgrade without any impact - then we should be good.

I would say the upgrade is very seamless and automated, we just need you to stop docker, remove the data folder and finally rerun the run.sh file. Depending on whether you have set up the auto update function on your Node, this upgrade will cause different consequences. For the node without auto update, it will still function as normal but will be incompatible in the long run. For the node with auto update, it requires the upgrade to continue working, in this case they need to upgrade to fix it.

[annie]

Thank you @doc for the suggestion. We will consider this for the future updates. The advice from our dev team is that this is a pretty simple upgrade that will hardly go wrong. However, we will still arrange support over the weekend just in case.

[fitz_fiat]

It’s 09/03 where are the instructions to update?? Will you publish them here?
Giving 1 day notice for a major update is not a great idea. Maybe provide the instructions to those that it will impact most.

Like Doc said, stop updating code over the weekend since the incog team doesn’t do 24x7 support to respond and process when these update start crashing systems.

[annie]

Please check the tutorial here: Important: Update your vNode for faster syncing

For this upgrade, we have deployed it to the fixed nodes and monitored it for about one week, it is working stably and now we will push it to other validator nodes.

So regarding the stability of the network, it’s safe to say this upgrade will be fine. Validator-wise, we will be working this weekend to support if something comes up.

Next time, we will plan better.