Solana Validator Switch (SVS) - Ultra-Fast Hot Swap & Failover Tool

Solana Validator Switch (SVS) is a professional CLI tool for instant hot swap and failover operations, enabling validator switching in just 1-3 seconds. Built in Rust for maximum performance, SVS provides automated failover capabilities, seamless hot swapping between active/standby nodes, and works with Firedancer, Agave, Solana, and Jito validators. Trusted by production validators for zero-downtime hot swaps and emergency failover scenarios to maintain 99.9%+ uptime.

Features • Installation • Usage • Configuration • Performance • FAQ

Built by validators, for validators - Stop losing sleep over manual switches. Get the fastest switch possible.

🎥 Demo

🚀 Why Solana Validator Switch?

SVS is the industry-leading Solana validator hot swap and failover solution, trusted by professional validators to maintain 99.9%+ uptime. Whether you're running Firedancer, Agave, Solana, or Jito validators, SVS provides the fastest, most reliable hot swapping and failover capabilities:

• ⚡ Lightning-fast hot swap: 1-3 seconds total switch time
• 🔄 Automated failover: Zero-downtime automatic failover on validator failure
• 🔥 Instant hot swapping: Seamless hot swap between active/standby validators
• 📊 Real-time monitoring: Live dashboard tracks both nodes for failover readiness
• 🔔 Failover alerts: Telegram notifications for automatic failover events
• 🛡️ Production-ready: Battle-tested hot swap operations by Huisky Labs
• 🔧 Universal compatibility: Hot swap support for all major Solana clients

Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

# Auto-detects your platform and installs the latest version
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/huiskylabs/solana-validator-switch/main/install.sh | bash

# After installation, 'svs' is available immediately
svs

Alternative installation methods (requires Rust and Cargo)

Clone and Run

git clone https://github.com/huiskylabs/solana-validator-switch
cd solana-validator-switch
cargo run --release

Install with Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/huiskylabs/solana-validator-switch

# Add to PATH if not already there
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"
svs

Usage

Interactive Mode (Recommended)

svs           # Opens interactive menu
svs -c /path/to/custom/config.yaml  # Use custom config file

Command Line Mode

svs status                    # Check validator status
svs status --validator 0      # Check specific validator by index
svs switch                    # Perform validator switch
svs switch --dry-run          # Preview switch without executing
svs switch --validator 1      # Switch specific validator by index
svs test-alert                # Test Telegram alert configuration
svs --config /path/to/config  # Use custom config file for any command
svs --version                 # Show version
svs --help                    # Show help

Configuration

Default Configuration

mkdir -p ~/.solana-validator-switch
cp config.example.yaml ~/.solana-validator-switch/config.yaml
nano ~/.solana-validator-switch/config.yaml

Multiple Configurations

You can manage multiple validator setups using custom config files:

# Create different configs for different validator pairs
cp config.example.yaml ~/configs/mainnet-validators.yaml
cp config.example.yaml ~/configs/testnet-validators.yaml

# Use specific config
svs --config ~/configs/mainnet-validators.yaml status
svs -c ~/configs/testnet-validators.yaml switch

This is useful for:

• Managing multiple validator pairs
• Separating mainnet/testnet configurations
• Testing configurations before deployment

See config.example.yaml for the full configuration template.

Telegram Alerts Setup (Optional)

To enable Telegram notifications:

1. Create a Telegram Bot:

   • Message @BotFather on Telegram
   • Send /newbot and follow the prompts
   • Save the bot token (looks like 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11)

2. Get Your Chat ID:

   • Add the bot to a group or start a private chat with it
   • Send a message to the bot
   • Visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates
   • Find your chat ID in the response (negative for groups, positive for private chats)

3. Configure in config.yaml:

   alert_config:
     enabled: true
     delinquency_threshold_seconds: 30 # Alert after 30 seconds without voting
     telegram:
       bot_token: "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
       chat_id: "YOUR_CHAT_ID"

4. Test Your Configuration:

   svs test-alert

You'll receive notifications for:

• Validator Delinquency (CRITICAL): When your validator stops voting for more than 30 seconds
  • Only triggers when SSH and RPC are both working (no false alarms)
  • Includes SSH and RPC connection status in the alert
• SSH Connection Failures (LOW PRIORITY): When SSH connections fail repeatedly
  • Triggers after 100 consecutive failures or 30 minutes of failures
  • Very loose thresholds to avoid noise
• RPC Connection Failures (LOW PRIORITY): When RPC calls fail due to throttling or network issues
  • Triggers after 100 consecutive failures or 30 minutes of failures
  • Very loose thresholds to avoid noise
• Switch Results: Success/failure notifications with timing details

Key Features

• Ultra-Fast Hot Swap: Instant 1-3 second hot swap operations with optimized streaming
• Automated Failover: Automatic failover when primary validator goes down
• Runtime Status Detection: Continuous monitoring for failover readiness
• SSH Connection Pooling: Persistent connections enable instant hot swap execution
• Optimized Tower Transfer: Lightning-fast tower hot swap via streaming operations
• Universal Hot Swap Support: Works with Firedancer, Agave, Solana, and Jito validators
• Interactive Dashboard: Real-time monitoring for hot swap and failover operations
  • Hot swap controls - (S)witch for manual hot swap, auto-failover on detection
  • Multi-validator support - Tab key to monitor multiple hot swap pairs
  • Failover readiness indicators for both nodes
  • Manual hot swap trigger with (S) key
  • SSH connectivity monitoring for failover reliability
  • RPC health checks ensure safe hot swapping
  • Real-time hot swap status and countdown timers
• Failover Alerts: Telegram notifications for critical events
  • Automatic failover trigger notifications
  • Hot swap completion confirmations
  • Validator delinquency alerts (triggers failover)
  • Failover failure alerts for manual intervention
• Hot Swap Status Display: Live monitoring during operations
  • Active/standby validator status for hot swap readiness
  • Current validator identity for hot swap verification
  • Version compatibility checks for safe hot swapping
  • SSH and RPC health for reliable failover

Security

• No credential storage: SSH private keys never leave your ~/.ssh/ directory
• Path-only configuration: Only file paths and hostnames stored in config files
• No network exposure: Tool operates through SSH connections only
• Local execution: All operations run locally, no external services

Why SVS?

Built by Huisky Labs validator team who needed reliable switching tools for our own operations. After countless manual switches and near-misses, we built what we wished existed.

• Battle-tested: Used in production by Huisky Labs validators
• Community-driven: We actively use and improve this tool daily
• Open source: Transparency and security through open development

Support Development

If SVS saves you time and SOL, consider:

• ⭐ Starring this repo to help other validators find it
• 🗳️ Delegating to Huisky Labs validators
• 🐛 Reporting issues or contributing improvements

Roadmap

✅ Completed

• Ultra-fast switching - Sub-second identity switches with optimized streaming operations

• Universal validator support - Works with Firedancer, Agave, Solana, and Jito

• Interactive CLI - User-friendly menu system with guided workflows

• Dry-run mode - Test switches without executing for safety

• SSH connection pooling - Persistent connections with multiplexing for instant commands

• Auto-detect active/standby - Runtime detection of validator states

• Optimized tower transfer - Streaming base64 decode + dd for minimal latency

• Interactive dashboard - Real-time monitoring with Ratatui-based terminal UI

• Modern async architecture - Tokio-based async runtime with Arc efficiency

• Telegram notifications - Real-time alerts for validator health and switch events

• Continuous monitoring - Real-time validator health monitoring with delinquency alerts

• Multi-validator support - Manage multiple validator pairs with Tab key switching

• Ultra-responsive UI - Dedicated keyboard thread prevents blocking, action-based processing

• Auto-switch on failure - Automatic failover when primary validator goes down

Have ideas? Open an issue or contribute!

License

MIT License

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Built with ❤️ by Huisky Labs • GitHub • Twitter