Updating to the latest Bitcoin Core Release (v29.0)

[Felicity_Tide]

Good day everyone.
A quick question please.
I recently resumed running my Bitcoin node after a few weeks. I've been experiencing one major issue, which is poor connection, or should I say: poor service from my ISP.

I just saw on the landing page of the forum that a new version of Bitcoin Core has been released (v29.0).
Is there any way I can update to the latest version without affecting my current progress?.

I believe I'm currently using v27.0

[Accardo]

The update release you saw on the forum is basically a softfork, which is backward compatible, it won't take you out of the network completely if you use an old version. So, it's better not to upgrade if you don't care too much about the new changes in the recent update.

However, it's unlikely that a new version of the Bitcoin core network would solve the issue of your ISP.

[promise444c5]

It shouldn't affect but you can still copy your current block data after you exit your Bitcoin core, save it somewhere else  then installl  the newer version.
 It should pick up from where it stops,it’s backward compatible.

I've been experiencing one major issue, which is poor connection, or should I say: poor service from my ISP.
 

We are from same country and yeah it could be but what's your device specifications?

[Ambatman]

You can copy all of the files, but most are not needed for the average user. bitcoind and bitcoin-qt are the main binaries. They are each self contained and do not rely on each other or any other files in the release.

/bin has all of the executables. Besides bitcoind and bitcoin-qt, bitcoin-cli is the only binary that might have meaningful changes between releases that you'd want to also copy it over. But generally, it's fairly version agnostic. The other executables in /bin are just utilities and the unit tests which are really only interesting to a very small set of people who probably aren't asking this question.

/include and /lib contain files for libbitcoinconsensus. If you don't know what that is, you don't need those files.

/share has manpages and a script for generating rpc credentials, most people don't need these either, unless you like using man instead of -help.

The easiest way to install is to just copy the folders into /usr, and do the same for every upgrade. That will copy every binary over, and also overwrite any existing binaries with the new version when you upgrade.

You can follow the above steps if you feel you need the current version of the core.

In simple terms just back up your wallet and configuration and a copy to a safe storage.
Close your Bitcoin core application to prevent it from running during installation
And then install the current version.

which is poor connection, or should I say: poor service from my ISP.

It is. Since you are from Nigeria, I think you might be using Glo.

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

However, it's unlikely that a new version of the Bitcoin core network would solve the issue of your ISP.

Yeah, I understand that the issue of ISP is completely different, and I've started making arrangements to switch to my last option because the others are very terrible.

It shouldn't affect but you can still copy your current block data after you exit your Bitcoin core, save it somewhere else  then installl  the newer version.
 It should pick up from where it stops,it’s backward compatible.

I just finished downloading the latest version but haven't installed it yet.
Kind of novious because i'm not certain of what might happen.
If I'm not convinced enough, I will just move on with my current version till download completion, before updating to the newly released version.

You can copy all of the files, but most are not needed for the average user. bitcoind and bitcoin-qt are the main binaries. They are each self contained and do not rely on each other or any other files in the release.

Yeah, thanks for sharing this.
How about I just copy the folder that houses the entire file.
I can't bare to miss something while attempting to perform the update.

[BADERO]

Good day everyone.
A quick question please.
I recently resumed running my Bitcoin node after a few weeks. I've been experiencing one major issue, which is poor connection, or should I say: poor service from my ISP.

I just saw on the landing page of the forum that a new version of Bitcoin Core has been released (v29.0).
Is there any way I can update to the latest version without affecting my current progress?.

I believe I'm currently using v27.0

It's  safe to upgrade your Bitcoin Core node from version 27 to version 29.0 without erasing your existing blockchain progress. Run bitcoin-cli stop from the command line to first gracefully shut down your node :

 

 next, download operating system version 29.0. Installing it over your current version won't affect your wallet or blockchain data make a backup of your wallet (wallet.dat or by selecting "File > Backup Wallet") as a precaution when you start Bitcoin Core v29.0 after installation, it will continue where you left off, updating databases if needed the blockchain doesn't need to be resynchronized
 I did the same thing when I switched to v28

[promise444c5]

I just finished downloading the latest version but haven't installed it yet.
Kind of novious because i'm not certain of what might happen.
If I'm not convinced enough, I will just move on with my current version till download completion, before updating to the newly released version.

It won't affect  anything so far done the right way.. just backup your block data incase , by default it should be in the "~\Appdata\local\bitcoin" not sure because i did change my block directory  to desktop (by default)  while installing, I did used the bitcoin-qt too.

You can continue with the sync ,  then do the update later when it's done, if you're still concerned..

Btw you can always check the release note markdown file   it contains how you can upgrade, not that much of a hassle though
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-29.0.md --- for the current version

~snip

However, it's unlikely that a new version of the Bitcoin core network would solve the issue of your ISP.

Yeah, I understand that the issue of ISP is completely different, and I've started making arrangements to switch to my last option because the others are very terrible.

ISP is one thing, but you can try upgrading your RAM to 16GB or more, with more Ram you can increase your db-cache.

 Also, if your hard drive is not an SSD, you can upgrade to an SSD, but with that, you will have to reinstall a new Windows OS. Unless there's an extra slot for the hard drive, then if you're using the extra slot, you'll still need to make a couple of changes, like moving your block data to the SSD drive and then linking it through the conf file using the new block data directory.
These changes will increase the Read and Write process and make the sync faster .

You can copy all of the files, but most are not needed for the average user. bitcoind and bitcoin-qt are the main binaries. They are each self contained and do not rely on each other or any other files in the release.

Yeah, thanks for sharing this.
How about I just copy the folder that houses the entire file.
I can't bare to miss something while attempting to perform the update.

That’s not your case though, but still another approach to updating your bitcoin core.
From https://bitcoincore.org/bin ~ you can see the list of all releases,
You need the  https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-29.0/  the win64.zip to be precise.
Downlod, unzip qnd run bitcoin-qt... That’s all , you can decide to keep the two , one or remove the old by   replace . Don't forget to backup.

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

Let me see what I can do.
But if I may ask, what are your device specification, because I think I might want to do some upgrading if required.

Can you share your RAM and SSD size, and also the DB cache size you used.

[BADERO]

~snip

Let me see what I can do.
But if I may ask, what are your device specification, because I think I might want to do some upgrading if required.

Can you share your RAM and SSD size, and also the DB cache size you used.

It's French just in case, and if you need anything else just let me know

DB cache size:



RAM and SSD size:

[satscraper]

~

The size of dbcache is barely visible on the picture you posted. I guess it is too small. Try to increase it to at least 1/4 or 1/2 RAM. ^{It depends on your system}. Also you may accelerate a bit the sync by putting the following entry into bitcoin.conf file:

Code:

blocksonly=1

[nc50lc]

If I'm not convinced enough, I will just move on with my current version till download completion, before updating to the newly released version.

Here's a convincing reproduction...

I've restored a 1-month-old Bitcoin datadir backup and pointed Bitcoin Core v27.0 to it;
After a few minutes, I closed it before it fully sync:

After it gracefully shutdown, I opened v29.0 using the same datadir:
And as you can see, it just continued syncing without any issue.

I just finished downloading the latest version but haven't installed it yet.

AFAIK, the most notable changes between those versions are related to "bind" setting if you have it in your bitcoin.conf file or command line arg.
As well as the change in default datadir in Windows, but it will still prioritize the old datadir if it can find it there.
Custom datadir isn't affected by that default datadir change.

[promise444c5]

~snip

.....
Can you share your RAM and SSD size, and also the DB cache size you used.

Depending on your ram but the nMaxDbCache=16384 i.e the max dbcache=16GB..
If you have a RAM of 16GB  you can set it to 5~6GB  (but calculated in mb) considering other computer process too.
E.g

Code:

dbcache=5120

For SSD, you can get a 256 ~512GB, i believe you're runnig a prune mode , unless you want to run a full node , not sure the  total sixe but you might be needing    1TB+, your pc also need extra free space.

[satscraper]

Code:

dbcache=5120

5120 seems to be reasonable size as ^firstly it is divisible by 1024 ^{otherwise RAM might be used inefficiently} and ^secondly it is slightly more than 1/4 RAM which left the space for other OS operation.However, if the system isn't heavily used for other tasks it's safe to allocate more memory to dbcache. In such cases, increasing it to 1/2 ^{dbcache = 8192} or even 3/4 ^{dbcache = 12288} of RAM might improve performance. User should test what is the best option for him.

[Cricktor]

Depending on your ram but the nMaxDbCache=16384 i.e the max dbcache=16GB..
If you have a RAM of 16GB  you can set it to 5~6GB  (but calculated in mb) considering other computer process too.

IIRC from the release notes of Bitcoin Core v29.0 the limit of max. 16GiB for dbcache has been lifted or rather removed. If you have enough RAM you could set more than 16GiB with the latest version of Core.

Depending on what your device is used for where your node runs, choose a reasonable value for dbcache, i.e. leave some RAM for OS and other processes and don't force your OS into constant paging to swap as this will grind down your device's performance to a halt. Nobody will be happy with a lot of paging to swap space.

For SSD, you can get a 256 ~512GB, i believe you're runnig a prune mode , unless you want to run a full node , not sure the  total sixe but you might be needing    1TB+, your pc also need extra free space.

Current space use by my full node on an Ubuntu Linux box:

Code:

694GiB	.bitcoin/blocks
12GiB	.bitcoin/chainstate
68GiB	.bitcoin/indexes
360MiB	.bitcoin/wallets
774GiB	.bitcoin/

My SSD is 1TB and with Ubuntu, a few apps and a few bits and pieces installed and daily use (the wallets are mostly watch-only or test-wallets, I know my crypto security a bit), I have about 40GiB free space left. That feels already a bit uncomfortable. Will need to upgrade soon to 2TB or 4TB.

A full node would fit on 1TB storage (which is only ~931GiB), but all in all will feel a bit "tight". Anything less will have to be a pruned node.


Updating Bitcoin Core isn't rocket science. A clean stop (be patient!) of Bitcoin Core is important to avoid corruption of data. Depending on your OS there are instructions how to replace your outdated Bitcoin Core executables with a current version.

Edit:
Never omit the step to carefully verify your download is genuine. Only update your wallet software with checked and verified new versions of your wallet software. Verify checksums and their cryptographic signatures! Never skip this, ever!

[promise444c5]

…

IIRC from the release notes of Bitcoin Core v29.0 the limit of max. 16GiB for dbcache has been lifted or rather removed. If you have enough RAM you could set more than 16GiB with the latest version of Core.

Noted! Thanks… I did skimmed through the release note earlier for it , must have missed it..
Just wondering if 64GiB wasn’t enough for a fast IBD process.

Current space use by my full node on an Ubuntu Linux box:

Code:

694GiB	.bitcoin/blocks
12GiB	.bitcoin/chainstate
68GiB	.bitcoin/indexes
360MiB	.bitcoin/wallets
774GiB	.bitcoin/

Great! around 800GiB in total..

[Felicity_Tide]

I successfully completed the update in the early hours of this morning, and it’s working fine. At some point, I was wondering what extra benefits this latest version (v29.0) offers, until I noticed that the "progress increase per hour" shows a better percentage improvement compared to the previous version. Though, I strongly believe that my device specifications aren't high enough, and the process doesn't seem entirely efficient or smooth. I would like to know what additional benefits the latest version offers. Does it work more efficiently with the allocated dbcache, or it does something different?.

Edit: I might consider increasing my RAM if necessary, but it seems BADERO was able to achieve it with a similar setup, which makes me quite skeptical that I will be able to pull it off.

[Cricktor]

... to speed up processing if you have multiple CPU cores, use par=2 or par=3 to enable parallel validation threads, if your client permits it.

I don't think it's necessary to fiddle with this option. The default is par=0 which means Bitcoin Core allocates automatically the number of threads/cores it needs. Depending on what other tasks your node device might have, a negative value for par tells Core to leave that number of cores free for other processes than Core's.

# Set the number of script verification threads. (1 to CPU_CORES, 0 = automatic, less than 0 = leave that many cores free).
par=0

A reasonable value for dbcache without inducing memory pressure to the system has likely a better effect on performance than trying to tweak the par option.

Disclaimer: I've only played with dbcache, never touched par, so you should take my comments as an educated guess only.

[Felicity_Tide]

If your RAM permits, you should increase the size of the dbcache setting to further speed up your device with v29.0 if you have at least 4GB of RAM you should ideally set dbcache=2048 (2 GB) in your configuration file if not, it's safer to set it to about 512 MB this significantly reduces slow disc reads by allowing more of the blockchain data to remain in memory to save resources reduce resourceintensive features like indexing and background apps while syncing

Yeah, I extended it yesterday after reading your reply and I also downloaded few blocks and noticed a few changes. I haven't really checked it out today because of my busy schedule. And, I also use an SSD, but not a very large size. I will download few blocks when i'm less busy before the day runs out.

A reasonable value for dbcache without inducing memory pressure to the system has likely a better effect on performance than trying to tweak the par option.

Disclaimer: I've only played with dbcache, never touched par, so you should take my comments as an educated guess only.

I'm not sure if I have tampered with anything outside the dbcache and allocated storage. And, I am not using my PC for anything else at the moment, so I will have to observe its performance to decide whether to allocate more dbcache space or not.

[Cricktor]

An optimized dbcache value mostly helps to speed up IBD (initial blockchain download) or if your node was offline for several days or weeks and thus needs to download and digest a considerable number of blocks until it reaches chain-tip again.

Once your node is at chain-tip a good dbcache value is beneficial but far less important than while in an extensive sync process. Usually you can afford to assign e.g. dbcache=1024 or even the default of dbcache=450 when at chain-tip and it should be fine. I've no experience how much different it might be when your storage device is a conventional HDD where caching usually helps more than with a SSD which doesn't have such time penalties of HDDs by seek operations and waiting until sectors fly-by under the read/write head. I try to avoid using an HDD except for backups or rather static storage without much data movement pressure.

On my fully synced Bitcoin Core node at chain-tip with storage on SSD I reverted dbcache to default value of 450. It's running smooth as silk, but frankly I have no real comparison. I don't see excessive delays or anything to worry about.