Upcoming mandatory service node upgrade

There will be a mandatory service node upgrade released in the coming weeks. Note that this is not a hardfork, but that all service node operators must upgrade. 

The new binaries have been released as of January 26, 2023. This marks the beginning of the upgrade period. The changes will be enforced on February 9, 2023, and the deregistration process will begin for any nodes which have not upgraded. 

What is contained in the update?

There are a few key changes contained within the update, mostly to the Oxen Storage Server relating to upcoming Session capabilities. Among the changes included: 

• Increase maximum allowable TTL to 30 days for configuration data

• Endpoint tuning allowing for message TTL to be lengthened or shortened to improve expiring message synchronization

• New endpoint to retrieve message expiries 

What is the purpose of the changes?

Increasing the allowable TTL to 30 days pertains to new configuration data storage. This increase will make for easier, smoother account restoration for devices which have been offline for longer periods of time and will allow for longer storage of closed group information in upcoming Group changes. 

The endpoint changes are important for the rollout of our improved disappearing messages system and for better synchronization of closed group data in our upcoming Group overhaul. 

Each of these changes offer important functionality for Session and require network-level changes. 

How do I upgrade? 

Upgrading via your CLI is simple, simply input the following commands: 

Syncing your repositories: 

sudo apt update

Then installing updates using: 

sudo apt upgrade

Please note: this will install both updated Oxen packages and any available system updates. 

During the upgrade, the running instance of oxend will be restarted to ensure that the updated oxend is active. 

If you have any questions feel free to contact us on the Service Nodes channel or the Oxen Community.