How to fast start without previous history

Goal

This procedure records the current chain state and future history, without previous historical data on the local chain.

Before you begin

• Make sure Antelope is installed.
• Learn about Using Nodeos.
• Get familiar with state_history_plugin.

Steps

1. Get the following:

   • A portable snapshot (data/snapshots/snapshot-xxxxxxx.bin)
   • Optional: a block log which includes the block the snapshot was taken at

2. Make sure data/state does not exist

3. Start nodeos with the --snapshot option, and the options listed in the state_history_plugin.

4. Look for Placing initial state in block n in the log, where n is the start block number.

5. If using a database filler, start the filler with --fpg-create (if PostgreSQL), --fill-skip-to n, and --fill-trim. Replace n with the value above.

6. Do not stop nodeos until it has received at least 1 block from the network, or it won't be able to restart.

Remarks

If nodeos fails to receive blocks from the network, then try the above using net_api_plugin. Use cleos net disconnect and cleos net connect to reconnect nodes which timed out.

[[caution | Caution when using net_api_plugin]] | Either use a firewall to block access to your http-server-address, or change it to localhost:8888 to disable remote access.

[[info]] | If you run a database filler after this point, use the --fill-trim option when restarting. Only use --fpg-create and --fill-skip-to the first time.

[[info]] | On large chains, this procedure creates a delta record that is too large for javascript processes to handle. 64-bit C++ processes can handle the large record. If using a database filler, fill-pg and fill-lmdb break up the large record into smaller records when filling databases.