Snapshot

	Chain	Database	Format	Blockheight	Size	Full	Creation date
direct link	ksmcc3	rocksdb	pruned	17213542	197G	229G	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:22
direct link	ksmcc3	paritydb	pruned	17213652	169G	177G	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:33
direct link	polkadot	rocksdb	pruned	14820596	131G	137G	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:41
direct link	polkadot	paritydb	pruned	14820669	132G	136G	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:48
	ksmcc3	paritydb	archive	17213872		1.4T	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:55
	polkadot	paritydb	archive	14820736		925G	Mon 27 Mar @ 02:55

info

Snapshots are compressed backups of the database directory of a polkadot or kusama node. If you start a node for the first time it will start building the database from scratch, which will take a few days, depending on network speed. If you download an up to date database snapshot your node will be up and running quicker; under an hour or a few hours, depending on network speed.

In principle building from scratch is the safest and cleanest; if there is an error in the snapshot database, this will propagate to the nodes who download the database. Also the database size increases with extended usage. Stakeworld checks for errors and periodically rebuilds its databases to ensure error free databases with minimum disk usage.

The snapshots are available for kusama --chain ksmcc3 and polkadot --chain polkadot in the paritydb --database paritydb and the rocksdb --database rocksdb database format. They are pruned with --state-pruning 1000, which is sufficient for a validator node.

Database size

Below a overview of database sizes, you can also view only pruned or archive database size.

Automatic install

The following script can restore a snapshot for a quickstart. If you want you can first review it on github. You can choose "snapinstall" for a snapshot restore or "nodeinstall" to install a complete node. The script will ask some questions and create an install or restore script which you can review before executing.

The script is for ubuntu/debian flavoured servers.

curl -o- -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stakeworld/stakeworld-scripts/master/node-install.sh | bash

Manual install

Setup a validator node

Setting up a validator node is covered here. The default apt install creates an user polkadot with a home directory /home/polkadot and a default service script /usr/lib/systemd/system/polkadot.service.

Install the database

Database location: By default the polkadot binary runs as user polkadot and creates .local/share/polkadot in the users homedirectory. So for user polkadot (the default when installing from apt) that is /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot.

This can be changed with --base-path so for example --base-path /home/polkadot or --base-path /home/polkadot/myvalidator or whatever you prefer.

To delete the old database, restore a new kusama paritydb database snapshot for your node with a default install:

su - polkadot -s /bin/bash
rm -fr /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3
mkdir -p /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3
curl -o - -L http://snapshot.stakeworld.io/paritydb-ksmcc3.lz4 | lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3

You can check the startup by running the binary as user polkadot and see if it accepts the database or throws any errors:

su - polkadot -s /bin/bash
polkadot --chain kusama --database paritydb 

Edit the systemctl startup script

Edit the default service script and add for example --database paritydb --chain kusama:

su -
vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/polkadot.service"
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl retart polkadot
systemctl enable polkadot

Or create a new script by copying the default service script:

su -
cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/polkadot.service /etc/systemd/system/validator.service
vi /etc/systemd/system/validator.service

You can edit settings at wish, changing ports and settings at will.

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/polkadot --chain kusama --name validator --validator --state-pruning 1000 --prometheus-external --base-path /home/polkadot --database paritydb --telemetry-url 'wss://telemetry.polkadot.io/submit/ 1' 

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start validator
systemctl enable validator

caution

If you installed as root you will get an error "failed to create a test file: Permission denied". You can solve this by running chown -R polkadot:polkadot DBDIR

Different databases:

Below restore commands for different databases to the default directory. Best run them as user polkadot (su - polkadot -s /bin/bash) or when running as root do a chown polkadot:polkadot <dbdir>) or when running as root do a chown polkadot:polkadot <dbdir>. Of course change the part after -C when installing to another location.

Paritydb kusama

curl -o - -L http://snapshot.stakeworld.io/paritydb-ksmcc3.lz4 | lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3

Paritydb polkadot

curl -o - -L http://snapshot.stakeworld.io/paritydb-polkadot.lz4 | lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot

Rocksdb kusama

curl -o - -L http://snapshot.stakeworld.io/rocksdb-ksmcc3.lz4 | lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/ksmcc3

Rocksdb polkadot

curl -o - -L http://snapshot.stakeworld.io/rocksdb-polkadot.lz4 | lz4 -c -d - | tar -x -C /home/polkadot/.local/share/polkadot/chains/polkadot