Setting up a DLT/Blockchain network

Pre-requisites

To create a Production DLT/Blockchain network, ensure you have the following:

  1. One running Kubernetes Cluster and the Config file (kubeconfig.yaml) per Organization.
  2. One running Hashicorp Vault server per Organization. Unsealed and configured as per guidance here.
  3. Domain Name(s) configured as per guidance here.
  4. Private key file per Organization for GitOps with write-access to the Git repo as per guidance here.
  5. Git user details per Organization as per pre-requisites.
  6. Ansible controller configured as per guidance here.

NOTE: All commands are executed from the bevel directory which is the default directory created when you clone our Git repo.

Prepare build folder

If not already done, clone the git repository on your Ansible controller.

git clone https://github.com/<your username>/bevel.git

Create a folder called build inside bevel.

cd bevel
mkdir build

Copy the following files inside build folder:

  • All the Kubernetes config files (kubeconfig.yaml).
  • All the private key files.

Edit the configuration file

Depending on your choice of DLT/Blockchain Platform, select a network.yaml and copy it to build folder.

 # eg for Fabric
 cp platforms/hyperledger-fabric/configuration/samples/network-fabricv2.yaml build/network.yaml

Open and update the network.yaml according to the following Platform specific guides.

Platform-specific configuration files

In summary, you will need to update the following:

  1. docker url, username and password.
  2. external_url_suffix depending on your Domain Name(s).
  3. All DNS addresses depending on your Domain Name(s).
  4. cloud_provider
  5. k8s section depending on your Kubernetes zone/cluster name/config filepath.
  6. vault
  7. gitops section depending on your git username, tokens and private key filepath.

Executing provisioning script

After all the configurations are updated in the network.yaml, execute the following to create the DLT network

# Run the provisioning scripts
ansible-playbook platforms/shared/configuration/site.yaml -e "@./build/network.yaml"

The site.yaml playbook, in turn calls various playbooks depending on the configuration file and sets up your DLT/Blockchain network.

Verify successful configuration of DLT/Blockchain network

To verify if the network is successfully configured or not check if all the kubernetes pods are up and running or not. Below are some commands to check the pod’s status:

  • Kubectl get pods --all-namespaces : To get list of all the pods and their status across all the namespaces. It will look as below - ../_images/ListOfPods.png
  • Kubectl get pods -n xxxxx : To check status of pods of a single namespace mentioned in place of xxxxx. Example

../_images/GetOnePod.png

  • Kubectl logs -f <PODNAME> -n <NAMESPACE> : To check logs of a pod by giving required pod name and namespace in the command. Example-

../_images/LogsOfPod.png

For a successful setup of DLT Network all the pods should be in running state.

Deleting an existing DLT/Blockchain network

The above mentioned playbook site.yaml (ReadMe) can be run to reset the network using the network configuration file having the specifications which was used to setup the network using the following command:

ansible-playbook platforms/shared/configuration/site.yaml -e "@./build/network.yaml" -e "reset=true"