diff --git a/src/controller/commit.c b/src/controller/commit.c
index ae646c6..1d718b1 100644
--- a/src/controller/commit.c
+++ b/src/controller/commit.c
@@ -181,8 +181,13 @@ static void commit_advance_locked(commit_engine_t* ce)
 #endif
 
     atomic_store(&ce->p->committed_lsn, cand);
-    TRACE("commit: committed_lsn %lu -> %lu (n_peers=%d)", cur, cand,
-          ce->n_peers);
+    /* INFO (not TRACE): the authoritative primary committed_lsn advance. Fires
+     * only on a real advance (monotonic guard above), so it is not noisy, and it
+     * is the canonical operator/test signal for the committed watermark — the
+     * standby-reported committed_lsn in ha_process_standby_state heartbeats lags
+     * and only logs on the one-time converged transition. */
+    INFO("commit: committed_lsn %lu -> %lu (n_peers=%d)", cur, cand,
+         ce->n_peers);
     pthread_cond_broadcast(&ce->cond);
 }
 
diff --git a/src/controller/testsuite/clean_failover_preservation.sh b/src/controller/testsuite/clean_failover_preservation.sh
index 49c1016..e717ff6 100755
--- a/src/controller/testsuite/clean_failover_preservation.sh
+++ b/src/controller/testsuite/clean_failover_preservation.sh
@@ -202,16 +202,21 @@ log "primary is $PRIMARY"
 # job entries on the new primary's promotion-truncate (correct Raft, NOT a job
 # loss) — making the "no committed-job lost" assertion a race (it passed/failed
 # nondeterministically on whether replication won the race with the kill). The
-# primary logs each standby's learned committed_lsn via ha_process_standby_state;
-# require it to reach the committed boundary (own-term noop LSN 1 + the committed
-# JOB_SUBMIT entries; bug-845 doubles each submit => 1 + 2*N_JOBS).
+# Poll the PRIMARY's AUTHORITATIVE committed_lsn — the commit-engine INFO line
+# `commit: committed_lsn N -> M` (commit.c), which fires on every real advance.
+# (Do NOT grep the ha_process_standby_state `committed_lsn=N` heartbeat line: that
+# is the standby's *learned* committed_lsn, which lags and only logs on the
+# one-time converged transition — a misleading signal.) Boundary = own-term noop
+# LSN 1 + the committed JOB_SUBMIT entries; bug-845 doubles each submit => 1 + 2*N_JOBS.
 COMMITTED_BOUNDARY="${XCE_FAILOVER_COMMITTED:-$((1 + 2 * N_JOBS))}"
-COMMIT_WAIT_S="${XCE_FAILOVER_COMMIT_WAIT_S:-40}"
+# Catch-up of N entries with per-entry fdatasync can be slow on a loaded box;
+# allow generous headroom (committed advances once the catch-up streamer + ACKs land).
+COMMIT_WAIT_S="${XCE_FAILOVER_COMMIT_WAIT_S:-90}"
 log "waiting up to ${COMMIT_WAIT_S}s for jobs to commit on a majority (committed_lsn >= $COMMITTED_BOUNDARY)"
 COMMIT_HIGH=0
 for _ in $(seq 1 "$COMMIT_WAIT_S"); do
-    COMMIT_HIGH="$(grep -oE 'committed_lsn=[0-9]+' "$TOPDIR/logs/${PRIMARY}.log" 2>/dev/null \
-                   | awk -F= '{print $2}' | sort -n | tail -1)"
+    COMMIT_HIGH="$(grep -oE 'commit: committed_lsn [0-9]+ -> [0-9]+' "$TOPDIR/logs/${PRIMARY}.log" 2>/dev/null \
+                   | awk '{print $NF}' | sort -n | tail -1)"
     COMMIT_HIGH="${COMMIT_HIGH:-0}"
     [ "$COMMIT_HIGH" -ge "$COMMITTED_BOUNDARY" ] && break
     sleep 1