[Action Required] Flow Testnet: Update Your Testnet Access Node

Node Operations
1

Hello Testnet Access Node Operators,

To reduce the operational burden on node operators and ensure minimal changes during the upcoming mainnet network upgrade, we’ve updated the node software. As part of this, the pebble-dir command line argument has been fully deprecated to avoid configuration issues that could result in needing to resync.

Upgrade Instructions

Please upgrade your Testnet Access Node as follows:

  1. Stop the node.

  2. If you have explicitly specified the `pebble-dir` argument:

    • Note the location that pebble-dir points to.

    • Remove the pebble-dir argument.

    • Add the datadir argument pointing to the same location.

  3. If you have not explicitly specified pebble-dir:

    • By default, it points to /data/protocol-pebble.

    • Rename <your OS path>/data/protocol-pebble to whatever you provided for `datadir`. By default `datadir` is set to /data/protocol.
      e.g

sudo mv /var/flow/data/protocol-pebble /var/flow/data/protocol

  1. Update the Docker tag to v0.43.1-rc.1 and restart your node.

  2. Download the latest util to /var/flow/bootstrap/util

gsutil cp gs://flow-genesis-bootstrap/tools/v0.43.1-rc.1/util.tar .
tar -xzf util.tar

Why This Change?

After the recent Testnet network upgrade, the access node was using the directory defined by pebble-dir to store its database. For operators running nodes in Docker without mounting /data, this setup caused node data loss on restart (see earlier announcement).

To prevent such issues and simplify the configuration going forward, we’ve deprecated pebble-dir entirely in favor of the existing datadir argument. This ensures a smoother path to mainnet without disruptive configuration changes.

Thank you,

Flow Team