Channel Waiting close for ever after server migration.

[Nisaba]

Hi,

I run LND under btcpay and I had to move from a server to another.
So, I migrate the dockers and ensured that LN service was down in the new server.

About the LN network, here is what I did, not sure it was the right process :

• Backup channel states in the old server
• Stop the LN service in the old server
• Start the LN service in the new server
• Restore the channel states in the new server

So, all of my 4 channels are going to closing status ! Not sure why, but I suspect an IP conflict...
1 channel went to force closed status and I get funds back onchain.
But the 3 others channel stay in "Waiting close" status for ever...
What can I do to get funds back on chain ?

Here are the nodes:
4343a70d70e0cbd673f30e4d57e1cc29b4c8bb751bca6f0ca862f293b98b8ba3:1
9b812a05907a80b9740d2d92c02f76a7782e00c2dc8c5bfeb2006f569732cf97:1
bf9e4de0fccc260981faec263bf3b4ad321ea519a6ee268d59f3df04c89fdda8:1

Thank you !

[sputn1ck]

Hi,

did you run the restorechanbackup command? If you did, this will make lnd reach out to your peers and ask them to force close your channels, so all closures are expected (see: https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/lnd/disaster-recovery#b-static-channel-backup). As for the waiting close status, when did you run the command? A force close can take up to 2 weeks.

[Nisaba]

Hi,
I've used the RTL UI to restore backup.
I'm OK with the channel that has been force closed.
For the waiting close channels, I didn't close them myself. I found them in waiting status, I don't know why, probably initiated by the counterparty
As I speak to you, I see that I have collected onchain funds from a channel. There are now 2 left in waiting close status, we can assume that the rest will come...
But I have 2 questions:

• Why have 1 channel moved to force close and 3 other channels moved to closed status ? Who or what is behind these closures ?
• Waiting more than 2 weeks for waiting close channels is it normal ?

Thank you for your precisions !

[sputn1ck]

Why have 1 channel moved to force close and 3 other channels moved to closed status ? Who or what is behind these closures ?

If you recover from the backup you signal you peers that they close the channel. AFAIU they will try to cooperatively close first, but otherwise they will force close.

Waiting more than 2 weeks for waiting close channels is it normal ?

A force close shouldn't be much longer than 2 weeks, but channels can have different timeout lengths.

[Nisaba]

And also, the question about safe moving a LN node from a server to another is still unaswered for me...

[sputn1ck]

This is the relevant doc for migrating https://docs.lightning.engineering/lightning-network-tools/lnd/migrating-lnd