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lemmih
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add markdown docs for archival snapshots
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---
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title: Archival Snapshots
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sidebar_position: 2
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---
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# Archival Snapshots
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ChainSafe hosts two kinds of snapshots: hourly snapshots (guaranteed to be no
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more than a few hours old) and archival snapshots (similar to the regular
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snapshots, but with less duplicate data). Archival snapshots come as 'lite'
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snapshots, which include the entire block header history back to genesis, and
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'diff' snapshots, which only contain the new data since the previous diff
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snapshot.
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Archival snapshots are publicly available here:
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- Mainnet lites: https://forest-archive.chainsafe.dev/list/mainnet/lite
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- Mainnet diffs: https://forest-archive.chainsafe.dev/list/mainnet/diff
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- Calibnet lites: https://forest-archive.chainsafe.dev/list/calibnet/lite
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- Calibnet diffs: https://forest-archive.chainsafe.dev/list/calibnet/diff
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## Merging snapshots
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Since 'diff' snapshots only contain the new data since the previous diff
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snapshot, they need to be merged with the previous 'lite' snapshot to form a
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complete snapshot. This can be done with the `forest-tool archive merge`
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command.
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```shell
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forest-tool archive merge --output-file <output-file> <lite-snapshot> <diff-snapshots>
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```
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As an example, to get a snapshot that covers epoch 30_000 to epoch 36_000, you
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merge `forest_snapshot_mainnet_2020-09-04_height_30000.forest.car.zst` with
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`forest_diff_mainnet_2020-09-04_height_30000+3000.forest.car.zst` and
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`forest_diff_mainnet_2020-09-05_height_33000+3000.forest.car.zst`.
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## Generating archival snapshots
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New archival snapshots can be generated either manually with `forest-tool
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archive export` or automatically with `forest-tool archive sync-bucket`. Both
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commands require a large snapshot file as input.
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To generate archival snapshots manually, use these settings:
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- one lite snapshot every 30_000 epochs,
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- one diff snapshot every 3_000 epochs,
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- a depth of 900 epochs for the diff snapshots,
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- a depth of 900 for the lite snapshots.
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Manual generation of archival snapshots should be a last resort. The
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`forest-tool archive sync-bucket` command is recommended for generating
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archival snapshots.

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