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Upgrading the Node

The chainspec.toml contains a section to indicate from which era the given casper-node version should start running.

[protocol]
# This protocol version becomes active at the start of this era.
activation_point = 100

At every block finalization, the casper-node looks for newly configured versions. When a new version is configured, the running node will look at future era_id in the chainspec.toml file. This will be the era before where the current casper-node will cleanly shut down.

The casper-node-launcher will detect a clean exit 0 condition and start the next version of the casper-node.

Upgrading Protocol Versions​

All Casper Mainnet participants are requested to stage the upgrade of their nodes to a new version of casper-node immediately. Staging an upgrade is a process in which you tell your node to download the upgrade files and prepare them so that they can automatically be applied at the pre-defined activation point.

Do not restart the node, only run the commands provided. The upgrade will automatically occur at the activation point.

Upgrade Staging Instructions​

The process to upgrade your node is very straightforward. Log in to your node, and execute the following command:

sudo -u casper /etc/casper/node_util.py stage_protocols casper.conf

Note: To only view the list of staged and unstaged protocols, use this command: sudo -u casper /etc/casper/node_util.py check_protocols casper.conf

Verifying Successful Staging​

After you have successfully executed the above commands, wait a few minutes for a new block to be issued before checking that your node is correctly staged with the upgrade. After a few minutes, take a look at your status end-point, as follows:

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8888/status | jq .next_upgrade

You should expect this output if properly staged, prior to upgrading:

$ curl -s localhost:8888/status | jq .next_upgrade
{
  "activation_point": 4968,
  "protocol_version": "1.4.6"
}

Note: The protocol version in the above output will change as per the next upgrade available.

If you see null after waiting for a few minutes, then your upgrade staging was not executed successfully.