IBM Blockchain on IBM Container Service

These instructions are to run a basic IBM blockchain network on IBM's container service. It will bring up the following components:

• Fabric-CA (with 3 CAs - 1 for orderer org and 2 for peer orgs)
• Orderer (SOLO)
• Fabric-Peer (for org1)
• Fabric-Peer (for org2)
• Fabric Composer
• Marbles

It also creates services to expose the components.

What are we trying to achieve?

1. Make it easy for a developer to set up a basic hyperledger fabric network on IBM Cloud.
2. Keep it to basic hyperledger fabric network.
3. WE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS OFFERING. Support is only provided through the IBM Container Service; IBM Blockchain does not have a support offering for this.

Can this run on minikube? If yes, why CS?

Yes, this can run on minikube. But, running on CS gives you a cloud hosted network. You can point your solution to HSBN once you are ready and have a HSBN.

Instructions

CREATE A CLUSTER ON IBM CONTAINER SERVICE

1. Download and install kubectl cli

https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/kubectl/install/

2. Download and install the Bluemix cli

http://clis.ng.bluemix.net/ui/home.html

3. Add the bluemix plugins repo

bx plugin repo-add bluemix https://plugins.ng.bluemix.net

4. Add the container service plugin

bx plugin install container-service -r bluemix

5. Create a cluster on container service

bx cs cluster-create --name blockchain

You will have to login to Bluemix for the above to work:

# Point to Bluemix
bx api api.ng.bluemix.net
# Login to Bluemix
bx login

Wait for the cluster to be ready

Command:

bx cs clusters

The response will be similar to the following:

Name         ID                                 State       Created                    Workers
blockchain   7fb45431d9a54d2293bae421988b0080   deploying   2017-05-09T14:55:09+0000   0

Wait for the State to change from deploying to normal. Note that this might take about 15-30 minutes. If it takes more than 30 minutes, there is some issue on the container service.

A ready cluster should give the following response:

$ bx cs clusters
Listing clusters...
OK
Name         ID                                 State    Created                    Workers
blockchain   0783c15e421749a59e2f5b7efdd351d1   normal   2017-05-09T16:13:11+0000   1

If you want to inspect on the status of the workers: Command:

# bx cs workers <cluster-name>
# Example
bx cs workers blockchain

The expected response is as follows:

$ bx cs workers blockchain
Listing cluster workers...
OK
ID                                                 Public IP       Private IP       Machine Type   State    Status
kube-dal10-pa0783c15e421749a59e2f5b7efdd351d1-w1   169.48.140.48   10.176.190.176   free           normal   Ready

6. Configure kubectl to use the cluster

Command:

#bx cs cluster-config <cluster-name>
bx cs cluster-config blockchain

Expected output:

Downloading cluster config for blockchain
OK
The configuration for blockchain was downloaded successfully. Export environment variables to start using Kubernetes.

export KUBECONFIG=/home/mrshah/.bluemix/plugins/container-service/clusters/blockchain/kube-config-prod-dal10-blockchain.yml

Use the export command above to point your kubectl cli to the cluster.

SETUP BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK

Following instructions will setup the blockchain network on IBM Container Service.

Note: You might see some errors Error from server (NotFound): error when stopping. Ignore those errors, as those occur when the cleanup is trying to delete pods which are not created.

TL;DR

To perform all the following steps in one script:

cd scripts
./setup_all.sh

1. Get into the scripts folder

cd scripts

2. Remove all the blockchain pods running on IBM container service

./delete_all.sh

3. Setup the blockchain network

This will create the following:

1. utils pod - This pod pulls the ccenv image and generates the crypto material & the genesis block.
2. CA pods - One for each org
3. Orderer pod - The SOLO orderer
4. Org1Peer1 pod - The peer for org1
5. Org2Peer1 pod - The peer for org2

./create_blockchain.sh

Note: Make sure that the network is up and running before following the next steps.

kubectl get pods

4. Create a channel named channel1

This will create a new channel named channel1 on the orderer.

./create_channel.sh

5. Make peer of org1 join the channel created in (4)

This will make the peer of Org1 join the channel named channel1

./join_channel.sh

At the end of this step, you should see the log Peer joined the channel! when you check the logs of the joinchannel pod.

kubectl logs joinchannel

6. Start Hyperledger Composer Playground for developing Blockchain business networks

Hyperledger Composer is a framework for developing Blockchain business networks. Find more information here: https://hyperledger.github.io/composer/

This command will start an instance of the Hyperledger Composer Playground for developing Blockchain business networks:

./composer-playground.sh

Next, determine the public IP address of the cluster by running the following command:

bx cs workers blockchain

The output should be similiar to the following:

Listing cluster workers...
OK
ID                                                 Public IP      Private IP       Machine Type   State    Status
kube-dal10-pabdda14edc4394b57bb08d53c149930d7-w1   169.48.140.99   10.171.239.186   free           normal   Ready

Using the value of the Public IP (in this example 169.48.140.99) you can now access the Hyperledger Composer Playground: http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31080

Run Marbles

For instructions to run marbles, look here

Create a Hyperledger Composer connection profile

You can create a Hyperledger Composer connection profile for use with locally installed Composer tools - for example, the composer CLI tool for deploying business network archives.

First, determine the public IP address of the cluster by running the following command:

bx cs workers blockchain

The output should be similiar to the following:

Listing cluster workers...
OK
ID                                                 Public IP      Private IP       Machine Type   State    Status
kube-dal10-pabdda14edc4394b57bb08d53c149930d7-w1   169.48.140.99   10.171.239.186   free           normal   Ready

You then need to make the following changes to this example JSON connection profile document:

1. Replace all instances of YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE with the value of the Public IP (in this example 169.48.140.99).
2. Change YOUR_HOME_DIRECTORY_HERE to a directory on your machine that already exists, for example /home/sstone1.

{
    "type": "hlfv1",
    "orderers": [
        "grpc://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31010"
    ],
    "ca": "http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31001",
    "peers": [
        {
            "requestURL": "grpc://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31020",
            "eventURL": "grpc://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31021"
        }
    ],
    "keyValStore": "YOUR_HOME_DIRECTORY_HERE/.hfc-key-store",
    "channel": "channel1",
    "mspID": "Org1MSP",
    "deployWaitTime": "300",
    "invokeWaitTime": "100"
}

Start a Hyperledger Composer REST server

You can also deploy a Hyperledger Composer REST server after you have deployed a business network definition.

First, edit the file kube_configs/composer-rest-server.yaml.base to reflect the business network that you have deployed. You only need to do this step if you have deployed a business network using the composer CLI. You will need to change the values of the environment variable COMPOSER_BUSINESS_NETWORK to reflect the name of the deployed business network. Note that when deploying using Hyperledger Composer Playground, the deployed business network is always named org.acme.biznet.

Next, run the following commands:

./composer-rest-server.sh

Next, determine the public IP address of the cluster by running the following command:

bx cs workers blockchain

The output should be similiar to the following:

Listing cluster workers...
OK
ID                                                 Public IP      Private IP       Machine Type   State    Status
kube-dal10-pabdda14edc4394b57bb08d53c149930d7-w1   169.48.140.99   10.171.239.186   free           normal   Ready

Using the value of the Public IP (in this example 169.48.140.99) you can now access the Hyperledger Composer REST server: http://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP_HERE:31090/explorer/

Helpful commands:

# To get the logs of a component, use -f to follow the logs
kubectl logs $(kubectl get pods | grep <component> | awk '{print $1}')
# Example
kubectl logs $(kubectl get pods | grep org1peer1 | awk '{print $1}')

# To get into a running container
kubectl exec -ti $(kubectl get pods | grep <component> | awk '{print $1}') bash
# Example
kubectl exec -ti $(kubectl get pods | grep ordererca | awk '{print $1}') bash