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Bootstrap from a Snapshot

This document describes how to bootstrap an Aptos node quickly using a snapshot. This can be done on all node types, including validators, VFNs and PFNs.

Although you can bootstrap a new node using state sync, this might not be the fastest approach after the network has been running for a while; it can either take too much time, or it won't be able to fetch all the required data since other nodes may have already pruned their ledger history. To avoid this, you can bootstrap your node using an existing snapshot, which is simply a copy of the storage data of an existing node.

Mainnet snapshots

It is not recommended to use snapshots for bootstrapping nodes in mainnet. This is because snapshots are not verified by the Aptos software. As a result, the snapshot may be invalid or contain incorrect data. To prevent security concerns, we recommend using snapshots only in test environments, e.g., devnet and testnet.

If you must bootstrap a node using a mainnet snapshot, you should either generate the snapshot yourself or obtain it from a trusted source. You should also verify the snapshot's integrity and authenticity before using it (e.g., via cryptographic signatures and checksums).

Find an existing snapshot​

There are a number of snapshots that can be downloaded from different Aptos community members. These include:

Questions about snapshot data

Depending on how the snapshot is constructed and compressed, the snapshot files may be different sizes. If you have any questions about the snapshot data, or run into any issues, please reach out to the Aptos community members directly via the #node-support channel in Aptos Discord.

Use a snapshot​

To use a snapshot, simply download and copy the files to the location of the storage database for your node. This location can be found and updated in the fullnode yaml configuration file under data_dir. See the example tutorial (Run a PFN) for how to configure the data directory.