Join the network using Snapshots

Before you resync a node using snapshots, make sure that in case of a successful resync that you under no circumstance double sign blocks at previous heights with your validator. Failure to do so will cause tombstoning of your validator.

Follow this guide to join the Paxeer network through snapshot sync. To quickly spin up a fresh full node and join the network, it's recommended to restore from a snapshot instead of replaying all historical blocks.

Snapshot Sync

Snapshot sync allows a new node to join a network by downloading a recent, compressed copy of the entire application state and extracting it directly into the data directory. This reduces the initial sync time from days to minutes.

Snapshot Providers

You can select from various providers for downloading snapshots. Check the Paxeer community channels for current snapshot availability.

Clean Up & Preparation

If you are not starting a node from fresh, perform the following backups and clean-ups first.

Note: This step is not needed for fresh nodes.

Stop the service
```
sudo systemctl stop paxd
```

Backup Validator State (Critical for Validators) Assuming your Paxeer home directory is $HOME/.paxeer, back up priv_validator_key.json and priv_validator_state.json:

cp $HOME/.paxeer/data/priv_validator_state.json $HOME/priv_validator_state.json
cp $HOME/.paxeer/config/priv_validator_key.json $HOME/priv_validator_key.json

Reset the State

paxd tendermint unsafe-reset-all --home $HOME/.paxeer

Remove Data
```
rm -rf $HOME/.paxeer/data
```

Download & Restore

The following commands are generic examples. Please verify the SNAPSHOT_URL and extraction command from your chosen provider.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the necessary tools installed (e.g., lz4, aria2, pv, wget).

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl lz4 wget aria2 pv -y

Download and Extract

Set the Snapshot URL Replace <SNAPSHOT_URL> with the link from your chosen provider.
```
SNAPSHOT_URL="<PASTE_SNAPSHOT_URL_HERE>"
```

Download and Extract The following command streams the download and extracts it into $HOME/.paxeer.

curl -L $SNAPSHOT_URL | lz4 -c -d | tar -x -C $HOME/.paxeer

Alternative: Parallel Download with aria2

# Download with 16 parallel connections
aria2c -x 16 -s 16 -o snapshot.tar.lz4 $SNAPSHOT_URL

# Extract after download completes
lz4 -c -d snapshot.tar.lz4 | tar -x -C $HOME/.paxeer

# Clean up the downloaded file
rm snapshot.tar.lz4

Restore Validator State

cp $HOME/priv_validator_state.json $HOME/.paxeer/data/priv_validator_state.json

Enable State Commit Make sure to enable state-commit in your config if it's not already enabled:

sed -i.bak -E "/^\[state-commit\]/,/^\[.*\]/ s|^(sc-enable[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1true| ; /^\[state-store\]/,/^\[.*\]/ s|^(ss-enable[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*).*$|\1true|" $HOME/.paxeer/config/app.toml

Restart the Node
```
sudo systemctl start paxd
```
Monitor Logs
```
sudo journalctl -fu paxd
```

Troubleshooting

Q: I can't download a snapshot. A: Try another time later as these snapshots are refreshed regularly.

Q: The snapshot finishes, but I immediately get AppHash errors upon regular block syncing. A: Make sure that you use the latest version of the node software. This usually means the snapshot version doesn't match your node version, or the snapshot is corrupted.

Q: "No space left on device" A: Snapshots require significant disk space to download and extract. Ensure you have enough free space (check with df -h).