Troubleshooting

There is a #validator-support Discord channel available to reach other testnet participants, https://solana.com/discord

Useful Links & Discussion

• Network Explorer
• Testnet Metrics Dashboard
• Validator Discord channels
  • #validator-support -- General support channel for any Validator related queries.
  • #testnet-announcements -- The single source of truth for critical information relating Testnet
• Core software repo

Blockstore

The validator blockstore rocksdb database can be inspected using the ldb tool. ldb is part of the rocksdb code base and is also available in the rocksdb-tools package.

RocksDB Administration and Data Access Tool

Upgrade

If a new software version introduces a new column family to the blockstore, that new (empty) column will be automatically created. This is the same logic that allows a validator to start fresh without the blockstore directory.

Downgrade

If a new column family has been introduced to the validator blockstore, a subsequent downgrade of the validator to a version that predates the new column family will cause the validator to fail while opening the blockstore during startup.

List column families:

ldb --db=<validator ledger path>/rocksdb/ list_column_families

Warning: Please seek guidance on discord before modifying the validator blockstore.

Drop a column family:

ldb --db=<validator ledger path>/rocksdb drop_column_family <column family name>