Access Node operators - please update to v0.51.1 (graceful shutdown fix)

Hello Flow Access Node Operators,

Recently an issue was identified where Access Nodes would hang during shutdown and only exit when force-killed by the container supervisor: Access node hangs when shutting down · Issue #8666 · onflow/flow-go · GitHub. The root cause was that long-lived streaming subscriptions (e.g. block/event streams) would keep grpc.Server.GracefulStop() blocked indefinitely, preventing the AN process from exiting cleanly.

A fix has been implemented and validated end-to-end on the foundation testnet and mainnet Access Nodes:

Who this affects: Access Node operators only. Consensus, Collection, Execution, and Verification nodes are unaffected.

This is not urgent. Please update at your convenience.

Docker images available:

  • v0.51.1

  • v0.51.1-without-adx

  • v0.51.1-without-netgo-without-adx

  • v0.51.1-arm

Important notes:

  • No changes to the flags
  • Do NOT delete your data folder
  • No coordination with other operators required (this is not a height-coordinated upgrade)
  • For operators running multiple Access Nodes, you can stagger updates however you like there’s no strict ordering required.