Sylo Node Update 1.2.2 to be released September 7

New version adds security updates and preparation for incentivised services.

Update

Sylo Node Version 1.2.2 is now available through the Sylo Docker Hub image repository.

Read on below for more information on this update.

—

Incentivisation of the Sylo Network has been progressing quickly. The rollout of the incentivisation will include many changes to the Sylo Nodes and the deployment of the necessary smart contracts to orchestrate the flow of micropayments across the network. In a first step in this process, we will soon be releasing the next version of the Sylo Node.

The new version of the Sylo Node is 1.2.2 and it replaces the current version, 1.1.4. This new version will be available to the public on September 7 2021 through the Sylo Docker Hub image repository.

Since it includes security updates, we recommend that all Sylo Node operators update to the new version. That being said, this is not a mandatory update and the 1.1.4 version should continue to work just fine.

What changed?

Quite a few changes made it into the Sylo Node for this release. At this stage, most of the improvements are behind the scenes, but I’ll try to highlight the main points.

Added support for the Noise security transport protocol

This is probably the most important change, since it relates to security.

Noise is a protocol for encrypting connections between peers. The Sylo Network always uses encrypted connections but supports multiple protocols. This ensures applications on the network can still communicate securely, even if a vulnerability is discovered, by using another protocol.

With the addition of Noise, we are removing support for SECIO, as its use is no longer encouraged. The Sylo Network will continue using TLS encryption as its fallback security protocol.

This change should have no impact and any known Sylo Network applications, but if you maintain your own Sylo Network dApp, you should ensure it supports either Noise or TLS security transport.

Improvements to the command line RPC

The primary method for managing a Sylo Node is through the web interface hosted by the RPC. Alternatively, some node operators use the RPC command line interface. If you use the CLI, you’ll see some changes in the 1.2.2 release.

The changes to the CLI offer a bit of a sneak peak of what’s to come in the web interface (although a lot of the new stuff is still hidden). Specifically, we wanted to start getting ready for a time when you’ll need to stake Sylo to your node and manage your incentivised services. Many more feature additions will be coming to the web/CLI management interfaces in the near future.

Stay tuned.

Many more internal improvements

The remaining changes will be mostly internal or relate to development. Some dependency versions were updated and there may be some minor changes to Sylo Node logs.

We also turned off a service (known internally as the “deposit” service) which was used in the early days of migrating users of the Sylo Smart Wallet. This service is still available (for now) and can be turned on by passing an argument to the Sylo Node at startup. However, since there are not any applications using this service it would be kind of pointless to have it running.

How do I update my Sylo Node?

If you are operating a Sylo Node, you should update to 1.2.2. This should be an easy process, but I’ll try to go over the key steps.

If you aren’t operating a node and would like to know more about it, please see our setup documents here.

Backup your Sylo Node data

It is good practice to backup your Sylo Node data before performing an update. The Sylo Network is resilient and will recover if you ever lose your node data, but it could still be an inconvenience for you to set up again.

The location of your data will depend on your docker configuration, but the default location is a directory named .sylo-node in your home directory. Make a copy of this directory and store the copy somewhere safe until you complete the update.

Pull the new docker hub image

The latest image is tagged 1.2.2 and is available on docker hub. You should pull the new image before you start updating your node.

$ docker pull dn3010/sylo-node:1.2.2

This will download the image to your computer. If it doesn’t work for some reason, please check the docker hub page for the most recent version of the Sylo Node.

Update the docker compose file

Your Sylo Node configuration is likely in a docker-compose.yaml file. You should update this file to point to the new Sylo Node image.

Within the file, look for this section:

services:
  sylo-node:
    image: dn3010/sylo-node:1.1.4

Update the image to dn3010/sylo-node:1.2.2

Restart your node

You are now ready to restart the Sylo Node with the new image.

To stop the Sylo Node:

$ docker-compose down

Then start it up again:

$ docker-compose up -d

Check the logs to ensure everything is running properly:

$ docker-compose logs --follow

If everything looks good in the logs, you should be ready to go. If you have connected your Sylo Smart Wallet to your node, it should continue to work as normal.

That’s it!

Thanks for supporting the Sylo Network by operating a Sylo Node. You can expect more updates in the near future as incentivisation gets closer. If you ran into trouble updating to 1.2.2, reach out to us on Telegram or send us an email at support@sylo.io

—

Experience the Sylo Smart Wallet now by downloading from the Google Play or Apple App stores.

For further announcements, follow Sylo on Twitter, Telegram or visit www.sylo.io