I’ll referr to a situation a user has reported and that I have also experienced:
Audits can only complete successfully if a satellite can store data on a node. If a node is full, no data can be stored. When a new satellite comes up a full node cannot commence being audited.
The SNO would have to increase storage space to make room for new data but he does not have control over which satellites will use the increased space. If unlucky Storj starts a new round of testing, the additional storage could be filled with existing satellites data and non or almost non from a new satellite.
So my suggestion would be to create an (optional) process that makes sure that even a full node can receive data from a satellite it is not fully vetted on yet.
While I cannot suggest details how such a process must be designed, my idea would some kind of vetting space on a node that gets reserved for a new satellite once it appears online and the node appears to be not yet fully vetted on that satellite. For a full node it could mean that once a new satellite pops up, space gets reserved for data from this satellite like 1Gb-5Gb. This space could be on top of already allocated space or reserved when deletions happen. Until fully vetted on the new satellite, this space remains reserved to this satellite only.
I think such an implementation could be beneficial for SNOs as vetting could keep going even if a node is full of data. So once space becomes available on a node, SNO receives full amount of data without vetting restrictions much sooner.
I’m going to be a little harsh on this idea, but please know it’s not personal.
I really can’t see any reasonable scenario where this would be useful. In any scenario where you’d get enough free space for it to take a while to fill up, any active satellite on which your node is unvetted would also get the chance to store enough data on your node to get it vetted within a month. Probably less. In the mean time all other satellites are already vetted and will have no problem filling your node as well.
If you really want to do this you can do this perfectly fine with a feature already implemented. Just lower your storage allocation and raise it when a new satellite appears. Either the other satellites fill up that space before the new satellite gets vetted, in which case you clearly didn’t need it to be vetted anyway, or it’ll give the new satellite time to store enough data to eventually get vetted.
Especially when you think of a future state where traffic is likely to be more equally spread across satellites and we’ll probably have more satellites as well, not being vetted on one of them is a non-issue. In fact, having a new satellite claim less of your storage space may even be beneficial as it would still have payouts held back.
It’s basically a non-issue and I don’t think any development effort should go into it. There are much higher priorities and any upsides this feature may provide now will diminish the bigger the network gets.
I get the annoyance of seeing your node being unvetted. It feels like something is unfinished. I have 2 nodes that have yet to be vetted on stefanbenten and they’re about to be full. But the only reason they aren’t vetted yet on that satellite is because that satellite has been mostly inactive. So who cares? Those nodes are clearly not missing out on anything. So it feels like this feature request is bases on an irrational feeling of wanting everything to be 100% and not on actually missing out on anything. I could be wrong, but if you have one, please provide a real world example where this actually significantly impacted a nodes profitability, because I can’t think of anything.
Anyway, I appreciate your contributions @jammerdan, so it’s nothing against you. I’m just not a fan of this particular idea.