Solana 1.9.x Release Overview For Validators

The new 1.9.x release will be landing in mainnet soon. Here are some important new features to be aware of for validators:

1. Incremental snapshots

Snapshot size has become very large (On the order of 20 to 30GB to get a validator up and running). This change creates smaller incremental snapshots. Important: Once a validator starts using incremental snapshots, it cannot go back to version 1.8.

Recommended Upgrade Procedure:

1. Run version 1.9 of the validator.
2. Veryify for some period of time that your validator is running properly and that you're happy with the 1.9 release.
3. Once you're confident that you will not downgrade to 1.8, add the --incremental-snapshots flag to the solana-validator startup command.

More information on the change can be found here. It includes a more nuanced discussion of what happens when the known validator you are pulling from does not have the same range of slots in their incremental snapshot as you do.

2. Validator identity transitions (easier fallback to a running, non voting validator)

This feature allows validators to more easily switch to a backup validator while your primary validator is down for any reason. Details on how to test the feature can be found here

3. --minimal-rpc-api is being deprecated, a minimal api is now the default

As of 1.9.6, if you are running an RPC node, you must now explicity request a full rpc api if that is your intent. By default, the RPC node will run with a minimal api.

TLDR:

• If you want the full rpc api, add the --full-rpc-api flag to the solana-validator command.
• If you want the minimal rpc api, you can safely remove the --minimal-rpc-api flag as of 1.9.6. The minimal rpc will be the default going forward.