The v0.17.0 release brings several major advancements across backfill, publisher, and simulator components. Most notably, backfill functionality now supports on-demand backfilling, alongside improvements to metrics, logging, and configuration, making it easier to monitor and operate both in Docker Compose and Helm deployments. The simulator has also been enhanced with support for ResendBlock and SkipBlock messages, broadening test coverage and enabling more realistic scenario simulations. Publishers now feature improved robustness, including the ability to respond with BAD_BLOCK_PROOF if verification fails and proper handling of EndStream messages, ensuring better reliability in distributed environments.
This release also resolves several critical issues, such as fixing the incorrect shutdown of shared executor services in the stream subscriber plugin and stabilizing on-demand backfill tests. Extensive end-to-end testing was added for both on-demand and autonomous backfilling paths, increasing confidence in the system’s resilience. Documentation around backfill design, metrics, and configuration has been updated to reflect these changes, ensuring users have clear guidance. Finally, dependency upgrades and refactoring—such as adopting the PBJ gRPC Client for backfill—deliver performance improvements and modernization across the stack.
Overall, v0.17.0 represents a significant step toward a more resilient, testable, and observable block node, providing operators and developers with stronger tools for debugging, scaling, and maintaining their networks.
What's Changed
⭐ New Features
- feat(helm): Add ConfigMap filename to volume and mappings for Backfill BN Sources by @AlfredoG87 in #1494
🚀 Enhancements
- feat: Simulator add publisher support for ResendBlock message by @mustafauzunn in #1464
- feat: Multi-Publisher Responds with
BAD_BLOCK_PROOFif Verification Fails by @ata-nas in #1465 - feat(backfill): On-Demand Backfilling and other improvements by @AlfredoG87 in #1444
- feat: Add Support to Stream-Publisher for Handling
EndStreamMessages by @ata-nas in #1497
🐛 Bug Fixes
- fix: Change the incorrect shutdown of a possibly shared executor service in the stream subscriber plugin. by @jsync-swirlds in #1469
- fix: Failing
testBackfillOnDemandAfter Publisher Correctly Closes Handler Connection by @ata-nas in #1515 - chore: Update CN proto to 0.65.0-rc1 (#1408) by @AlfredoG87 in #1530
- chore: cherry-pick 1531 into release/0.17 by @AlfredoG87 in #1533
🔨 Tests
- test(messaging): Fix broken test on main by @AlfredoG87 in #1471
- test: e2e scenario for On-Demand Happy path flow by @mustafauzunn in #1495
- test: E2E Happy path test for Autonomous Backfilling by @mustafauzunn in #1496
📝 Documentation
- docs(backfill): Update Design, Metrics and Config Documentation regarding (mostly) Backfill by @AlfredoG87 in #1512
🔧 Improvements
- feat: Simulator add publisher support for SkipBlock message by @mustafauzunn in #1473
- refactor(backfill): Use of PBJ gRPC Client Helidon instead of Vanilla Helidon. by @AlfredoG87 in #1499
- chore(1416): Publisher cleanup items by @jsync-swirlds in #1490
- feat(backfill): Adding Metrics Dashboards, improving logs by default and making backfill configuration easy on docker-compose stack by @AlfredoG87 in #1518
⬆️ Dependency Upgrades
- build(deps): bump docker/login-action from 3.4.0 to 3.5.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1458
- build(deps): bump gradle/actions from 4.4.1 to 4.4.2 by @dependabot[bot] in #1463
- build(deps): bump actions/cache from 4.2.3 to 4.2.4 by @dependabot[bot] in #1472
- build(deps): bump io.netty:netty-bom from 4.2.2.Final to 4.2.3.Final in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1482
- build(deps): bump org.assertj:assertj-core from 3.27.3 to 3.27.4 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1484
- build(deps): bump com.squareup.okio:okio-jvm from 3.15.0 to 3.16.0 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1483
- build(deps): bump step-security/semver-utils from 4.3.0 to 4.3.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #1491
- build(deps): bump actions/checkout from 4.2.2 to 5.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1487
- build(deps): bump google-github-actions/setup-gcloud from 2.1.5 to 2.2.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1481
- build(deps): bump mockitoVersion from 5.18.0 to 5.19.0 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1511
- build(deps): bump io.netty:netty-bom from 4.2.3.Final to 4.2.4.Final in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1510
Full Changelog: v0.16.1...v0.17.0