Node operation modes
Without configuration changes, nodes will start by using the default settings. However, there are several ways to configure the node, depending on the desired operation mode.
Instead of manually (or programmatically via seds for example) editing the toml files, you can use the --operation-mode CLI flag described below to specify a custom
operation mode that will result in config changes.
Introduction
Starting with v1.4.x release, a new CLI flag has been introduced to the node. It is --operation-mode and its purpose
is to override some configuration values that will allow the node to act differently, depending on the use-case.
List of available operation modes
Below you can find a list of operation modes that are supported:
Full archive
Usage:
./node --operation-mode full-archive
The full-archive operation mode will change the node's configuration in order to make it able to sync from genesis and also
be able to serve historical requests.
Syncing a node from genesis might take some time since there aren't that many full archive peers to sync from.
Db Lookup Extension
Usage:
./node --operation-mode db-lookup-extension
The db-lookup-extension operation mode will change the node's configuration in order to support extended databases that are
able to store more data that is to be used in further Rest API requests, such as logs, links between blocks and epoch, and so on.
For example, the proxy's hyperblock endpoint relies on the fact that its observers have this setting enabled. Other examples
are /network/esdt/supply/:tokenID or /transaction/:txhash?withResults=true.
Historical balances
Usage:
./node --operation-mode historical-balances
The historical-balances operation mode will change the node's configuration in order to support historical balances queries.
By setting this mode, the node won't perform the usual trie pruning, resulting in a more disk usage, but also in
the ability to query the balance or the nonce of an address at blocks that were proposed long time ago.
Snapshotless observers
Usage:
./node --operation-mode snapshotless-observer
The snapshotless-observer operation mode will change the node's configuration in order to make it efficient for real-time requests
by disabling the trie snapshotting mechanism and making sure that older data is removed.
A use-case for such an observer would be serving live balances requests, or broadcasting transactions, eliminating the costly operations of the trie snapshotting.