Next week, January 13-17, 2025 - exact date TBD, the Technical Committee will push an update to the Wrapper Script. The update disables the CloudWatch function of the wrapper script by default. We are opting to disable the function rather than removing it entirely so there is the ability to enable it in the future if warranted.
Why disable CloudWatch?
In the past, the CloudWatch function was very useful to the development teams, specifically during BetaNet and in the early days of MainNet. However, it is now considered a legacy function, and if you’re not familiar with AWS S3 costs, it’s surprisingly expensive to maintain. In Q4 of 2024 alone, the xx Foundation was able to reduce the annual operational costs of the xx network project by tens of thousands of dollars by removing, reconfiguring and/or reorganizing servers and services related to its websites, MTP, etc. To get 2025 started in the right direction, we’ve made the decision to disable CloudWatch which will reduce the annual operational costs by over 15,000 USD.
What will Node Runners need to do?
Not much. Assuming Node Runners configured their node and gateway computers per the xx Network Node Handbook one will only need to restart the xx network cMixx related services after the update has been pushed. The update function of the Wrapper Script will handle the rest.
I will be posting additional information in the coming days and once the update has gone live.
Thanks for running a node! 