On Saturday, February 25, 2023, the Solana blockchain experienced a technical glitch known as a “large forking event” that caused transaction failures for some users. Solana’s incident report referred to it as “cluster instability” and indicated that a coordinated restart was launched to accelerate block finalization.
The Solana Status update website referred to the issue as “cluster instability” and indicated that Solana engineers were investigating slow root production on mainnet beta and that a coordinated restart was launched “to resolve an issue during the upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14 that caused a significant slowdown in block finalization.”
The Solana Status page includes a document link that provides validators with instructions on how to proceed with the restart. Validators were required to take a snapshot at slot 179526408, modify validator command-lines, install the previous version 1.13.6, and then restart the validator.
Solana’s recent issues are reminiscent of the problems the blockchain encountered last year, including multiple block production outages. This technical glitch has caused some users to question the reliability of the Solana blockchain.
It is important to note that the Solana team is actively working to resolve the issue and that the network is still operational. The team is also taking steps to ensure that similar issues do not occur in the future.
The Solana blockchain is still relatively new and is still in the process of maturing. As the network continues to grow and develop, it is likely that similar issues will arise. It is important for users to remain vigilant and to be aware of the risks associated with using the Solana blockchain.