The VWO docs say getAndUpdateSettingsFile is available in the Node.js SDK from v1.10 onward, but calling vwoSDK.getAndUpdateSettingsFile() throws not a function even on v1.10. The method lives on the client instance, not on the SDK module object.
Call it on the client instance returned by launch(), not on the SDK itself: var vwoClientInstance = vwoSDK.launch({ settingsFile: settingsFile }); vwoClientInstance.getAndUpdateSettingsFile().then(...). That is the documented usage.