Migrate Autonity

How to migrate an Autonity node to a new instance in your own environment

Prerequisites

Maintaining node identity

To migrate a node to a new instance the node identity must be preserved. This is done by simply using the existing P2P node keys: autonityKeys and the node’s host ip address for the new node instance. By doing this the new node instance will have the same node identifier address and enode url as the old instance.

Additional checks if you are migrating a registered validator node
  1. Make sure that your validator is not an active member of the consensus committee during the migration. It is recommended that your validator is in a paused state before beginning the migration.
  2. Verify the node’s new IP/Port address is the same as that in your registered enode URL. You can check this by calling aut validator info --validator to view the registered enode URL.

If you are operating a validator node it is possible to change your IP/Port address as described in the guide Migrating validator node to a new IP/Port address.

Migrating an Autonity Go Client

To migrate, reinstall the node and migrate your node’s autonitykeys.

Step 1: Preserve node identity

Copy the P2P node keys: autonityKeys file to a safe location. Ensure the new hosting environment maintains your existing IP address.

Step 2: Install node software to new environment

Install the node as described in the install autonity guide

Step 3: Migrate node autonityKeys keyfile

Migrate the autonitykeys saved in Step 1 above before running the node:

  • Copy your original autonitykeys to the directory location you will use to hold the key when running the node.

    Default location for AGC’s node and consensus private keys file autonitykeys

    On starting, by default AGC will automatically generate an autonitykeys file containing your node key and consensus key within the autonity subfolder of the --datadir specified when running the node. If you choose not to store your key in the default location, then specify the path to where you are keeping your autonitykeys file using the --autonitykeys option in the run command.

Step 4: Start the node preserving IP/Port configuration

Start the node as described in the guide Run Autonity, maintaining the original IP address values for:

  • --nat extip:<IP_ADDRESS>.
  • (Optional) --consensus-nat extip:<IP_ADDRESS> if you are not using AGC’s default settings for the consensus gossiping channel and have set extip.

Autonity will detect and use the original autonitykeys. The new node installation will have the same identity as the original.

Be sure to fully decommission the original validator node installation environment!

Additional Step if you are migrating a registered validator node

You will need to transition your validator back to an active state so it is once again considered by protocol for consensus committee selection.

To do this re-activate the validator instance after migration completes.

If you need help, you can chat to us on Autonity Discord Server!