Restarting Node
Hands-on exercise: Restart your Docker validator so the allowlist re-activation upgrades take effect.
Objectives
By the end of this exercise, you will be able to:
- Restart your validator container to load the new upgrade entries.
- Validate in logs that the node parsed your appended
precompileUpgrades. - Recover from common startup failures (past timestamps / modified old entries).
Prerequisites
Before starting this exercise, ensure you have:
- Appended the re-activation entries to
upgrade.json(previous lesson). - Access to run Docker commands on the host machine.
Instructions
Step 1: Restart the validator container
Restart the container:
docker restart <YOUR_CONTAINER_NAME_OR_ID>Step 2: Follow logs and confirm the upgrade config is present
Stream logs while it comes up:
docker logs -f <YOUR_CONTAINER_NAME_OR_ID>You’re looking for startup output that includes the UpgradeConfig and shows your precompileUpgrades list (now containing both disables and enables).
Step 3: Wait for activation timestamps to pass
These upgrades apply when the chain accepts a block after the specified timestamps. If you set the timestamps to “now + 10 minutes”, you may need to wait a few minutes before the precompiles appear active again.
If the node fails to start, the two most common causes are:
- a
blockTimestampthat is in the past, or - modifying/removing previously activated upgrades (not append-only).
Expected Output
Your container is running, and logs show the node parsed the upgrade config with your appended enable entries.
... Initialised chain configuration ... UpgradeConfig: {"precompileUpgrades":[ ... ]}Verification
To verify you've completed this exercise successfully:
- The validator container is healthy and producing blocks.
- The log output includes your upgrade list with the new enable entries.
Troubleshooting
Issue: The node fails on startup
Problem: Startup errors after editing upgrade.json.
Solution:
- Ensure the newest timestamps are still in the future relative to the chain head.
- Ensure you did not change older entries after they activated (treat the list as append-only).
Next Steps
Next, you’ll verify re-activation in the Builder Console and test that you can manage the allowlists again.
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