Edit

As of 2026-01-23 testnet is back online. The instructions below are no longer relevant. Nodes that haven't yet joined the cluster will need to update their shred version, download a snapshot, and start normally:

--expected-shred-version 27350 \

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This testnet restart is NOT urgent. Follow these instructions when you have time, but don't skip sleep or disrupt other plans for this.

Summary

Attribute	Value
Ledger tool version	v3.1.7
Validator version	Agave: v3.1.7 Frankendancer: v0.809.30106
Snapshot slot	383520371
Restart slot	383520372
Shred version	27350
Expected bank hash	3zk4WMwk6wCTVJXu9UAk2dYWMedCKooDs15XL5u6FkvE

Step 1. Stop the validator process if you haven't already

Step 2: Install the correct version of agave-ledger-tool

This is necessary to create the correct snapshot in step 3.

Build Agave v3.1.7. Build instructions are available here: https://docs.anza.xyz/cli/install#build-from-source

Confirm that agave-ledger-tool --version shows version v3.1.7

Step 3. Create snapshot

This command creates a snapshot but removes some activated feature gate accounts.

agave-ledger-tool --ledger <ledger-path> create-snapshot \
--snapshots <snapshot-path> \
--hard-fork 383520372 \
--deactivate-feature-gate \
    H6iVbVaDZgDphcPbcZwc5LoznMPWQfnJ1AM7L1xzqvt5 \
    fixfecLZYMfkGzwq6NJA11Yw6KYztzXiK9QcL3K78in \
    64ixypL1HPu8WtJhNSMb9mSgfFaJvsANuRkTbHyuLfnx \
    poUdAqRXXsNmfqAZ6UqpjbeYgwBygbfQLEvWSqVhSnb \
    bnYzodLwmybj7e1HAe98yZrdJTd7we69eMMLgCXqKZm \
--enable-capitalization-change \
--  383520371 <snapshot-path>

The output should include this at (or near) the end:

    Successfully created snapshot for slot 383520372, hash 3zk4WMwk6wCTVJXu9UAk2dYWMedCKooDs15XL5u6FkvE: /home/sol/ledger-snapshots/snapshot-383520372-8ioheTv1WSo6227nvqG8bqLFtcdVbo6GRQENZdH97n1V.tar.zst
    Capitalization change: -4767600 lamports
    Shred version: 27350

The capitalization change is expected because we deactivated a feature gate.

Note that

• the bank hash should be 3zk4WMwk6wCTVJXu9UAk2dYWMedCKooDs15XL5u6FkvE
• the slot number should be 383520372
• the shred version should be 27350

Once you have created a snapshot, move all the other snapshots to a backup directory, so your snapshot directory contains one full snapshot.

snapshot-383520372-8ioheTv1WSo6227nvqG8bqLFtcdVbo6GRQENZdH97n1V.tar.zst

If you fail to create a snapshot, see the appendix for possible fixes.

Step 4: Verify Installed Version

This is the version we want to use to restart the cluster.

Agave: v3.1.7

Frankendancer: v0.809.30106

Step 5: Update startup config and start your validator

Agave

Add these arguments to your validator startup script:

--wait-for-supermajority 383520372 \
--expected-shred-version 27350 \
--expected-bank-hash 3zk4WMwk6wCTVJXu9UAk2dYWMedCKooDs15XL5u6FkvE \

Frankendancer

Add these paramethers into [consensus] section of the configuration file:

    expected_shred_version = 27350
    wait_for_supermajority_at_slot = 383520372
    expected_bank_hash = "3zk4WMwk6wCTVJXu9UAk2dYWMedCKooDs15XL5u6FkvE"

Common

As it starts, the validator will load the snapshot for slot 383520372 and wait for 80% of the stake to come online before producing/validating new blocks.

To confirm your restarted validator is correctly waiting for 80% stake, look for this periodic log message to confirm it is waiting:

INFO  solana_core::validator] Waiting for 80% of activated stake at slot 383520372 to be in gossip...

And if you have RPC enabled, ask it for the current slot:

solana --url http://127.0.0.1:8899 slot

Any number other than 383520372 means you did not complete the steps correctly.

Once started, you should see log entries for “active stake” visible in gossip and “waiting for 80% of stake” to be visible. You can track these to see how the stake progresses.

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Appendix (use this only if step 3 failed)

If you get an error like this:

Error: Slot 383520371 is not available

Or this:

Unable to process blockstore from starting slot <slot> to 383520371; the ending slot is less than the starting slot. The starting slot will be the latest snapshot slot, or genesis if the --no-snapshot flag is specified or if no snapshots are found.

Your snapshots directory contains a snapshot that is for a slot >383520371. If you also have a snapshot for slot <=383520371 then move snapshots for slots >383520371 to a backup directory and run the agave-ledger-tool command again. If you do not have a snapshot for slot <=383520371 then you will need to download a snapshot

If you successfully created a snapshot, resume the instructions above starting at Step 4. If you are unable to create a snapshot, follow the instructions below on downloading a snapshot.

If you could not produce your snapshot locally, follow these appendix steps

Step 1: Download a snapshot from a known validator

If you are unable to generate a snapshot locally for slot 383520372 you will need to download one from a known validator. Add these lines to your startup script.

--known-validator 5D1fNXzvv5NjV1ysLjirC4WY92RNsVH18vjmcszZd8on \
--expected-shred-version 27350 \

Remove the flag --no-snapshot-fetch in your startup script if it is present.

Step 2: After download, restart

Verify that you have a new snapshot in your snapshot directory. If the snapshot is done downloading, stop your validator process.

Add the flag --no-snapshot-fetch to your startup script

Resume the instructions above starting at Step 4.