Chainlink node single VM docker deployment

Preconditions

Cloud infrastructure setup
PostgreSQL (database setup)
Applying security layers to your instance (2FA, SSH)
Blockchain connection (via a third-party service provider or running an own full node)

Install docker

Install docker and create a user with the permission to create containers:

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | sh
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
exit
# log in again

Create directory

The directory needs to be created as a hidden one in order to follow security best practices:

mkdir .chainlink-kovan
cd .chainlink-kovan

Create Environmental file (for Kovan testnet)

List of all variables: https://docs.chain.link/docs/configuration-variables

echo "ROOT=/chainlink
LOG_LEVEL=debug
ETH_CHAIN_ID=42
MIN_OUTGOING_CONFIRMATIONS=0
MIN_INCOMING_CONFIRMATIONS=0
MINIMUM_CONTRACT_PAYMENT=100000000000000000
LINK_CONTRACT_ADDRESS=0xa36085F69e2889c224210F603D836748e7dC0088
GAS_UPDATER_ENABLED=true
ALLOW_ORIGINS=*" > ~/.chainlink-kovan/.env

MIN_OUTGOING_CONFIRMATIONS and MIN_INCOMING_CONFIRMATIONS are set to 0 to perform faster on testnets. If you're node's jobs trigger transactions of real value you can adjust that value for higher security.
MINIMUM_CONTRACT_PAYMENT is set to 100000000000000000 (0.1 LINK), for on-chain verification on https://market.link it should be set to 1000000000000000 (0.001) or lower.
LINK_CONTRACT_ADDRESS is the chainlink token adress of the Kovan network. Other chains and networks: https://docs.chain.link/docs/link-token-contracts
LOG_LEVEL is debug to display every action and synced block. You can change this parameter to "info" in order to use less storage capacity

Chainlink ETH failover

First you need to create a network, which is nessacery to connect your container to the Chainlink node: https://docs.docker.com/engine/tutorials/networkingcontainers/

docker network create kovan

Load the image into your instance:

docker pull fiews/cl-eth-failover

Run command for the ETH proxy container:

https://medium.com/fiews/chainlink-eth-node-failover-proxy-7d76cdea49f3

docker run --name eth-failover --restart unless-stopped --network kovan fiews/cl-eth-failover wss://cl-ropsten.fiews.io/v1/myApiKey ws://localhost:8546/

You need to change the websocket adresses of your Ethereum connection (nodes of a NaaS Provider or an own ETH full node):

echo "ETH_URL=ws://eth-failover:4000/" >> ~/.chainlink-kovan/.env

Setting up a remote database connection

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan

echo "DATABASE_URL=postgresql://$USERNAME:$PASSWORD@$SERVER:$PORT/$DATABASE
DATABASE_TIMEOUT=0" >> ~/.chainlink-kovan/.env

You need to change the credentials of your Postgres access. Have a look at the official Chainlink documentation: https://docs.chain.link/docs/connecting-to-a-remote-database

TLS certificate for https scheme

Create a hidden directory for your certificates:

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan
mkdir .tls

Create the TLS certificate with crt and key:

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan/.tls && openssl req -x509 -out  ~/.chainlink-kovan/.tls/server.crt  -keyout ~/.chainlink-kovan/.tls/server.key -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -sha256 -days 365 -subj '/CN=localhost' -extensions EXT -config <( printf "[dn]\nCN=localhost\n[req]\ndistinguished_name = dn\n[EXT]\nsubjectAltName=DNS:localhost\nkeyUsage=digitalSignature\nextendedKeyUsage=serverAuth")

Add the certificate to your environmental file:

echo "CHAINLINK_TLS_PORT=6689
TLS_CERT_PATH=/chainlink/.tls/server.crt
TLS_KEY_PATH=/chainlink/.tls/server.key" >> ~/.chainlink-kovan/.env

sed -i '/SECURE_COOKIES=false/d' ~/.chainlink-kovan/.env

Set credentials for the API/web GUI and node wallets

mkdir ~/.chainlink-kovan/.psw
cd ~/.chainlink-kovan/.psw

echo "<user@example.com>" > .api
echo "<password>" >> .api
echo "<my_wallet_password>" > .password

Initialize node and backup

First of all you need to run your Chainlink node without a deamon flag and to configure your API login and password

First initialisation:

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan && sudo docker run --name kovan-main --network kovan -p 6689:6689 -v ~/.chainlink-kovan:/chainlink -it --env-file=.env smartcontract/chainlink:<latest_image> local n

You need to set <latest_image> to the image you want to use, e.g. 0.10.3 Have a look there for the current images of the Chainlink smartcontractkit: https://hub.docker.com/r/smartcontract/chainlink/tags

After entering your password and your API credentials you can cancel and remove the container (kills it automatically)

STRG + C

docker rm kovan-main

Now you can execute the entire command and initialise the node in deamon mode to ensure a permanent uptime

Command main:

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan && sudo docker run --name kovan-main --network kovan --restart unless-stopped -d -p 6689:6689 -v ~/.chainlink-kovan:/chainlink -it --env-file=.env smartcontract/chainlink:<latest_image> local n -p /chainlink/.psw/.password -a /chainlink/.psw/.api

Command backup:

cd ~/.chainlink-kovan && sudo docker run --name kovan-backup --network kovan --restart unless-stopped -d -p 6689:6689 -v ~/.chainlink-kovan:/chainlink -it --env-file=.env smartcontract/chainlink:<latest_image> local n -p /chainlink/.psw/.password -a /chainlink/.psw/.api

-d flag = start the container in detached mode
-p flag = maps your containers port to the host machine
-v flag = mounts the current working directory into the container
-a flag = attach inside of the container
--restart unless-stopped = Restart policy to apply when a container exits
--name = give the container a name

To ensure updates and configuration changes can be done without downtime you need to kill and restart the main and backup node with full lock on the database: https://docs.chain.link/docs/performing-system-maintenance

security flags

Here is a list of other security flags to ensure best protection:

Run images with "no new priviledges" to prevent privilege escalation

--security-opt=no-new-privileges

Restrict the container to read-only privilege

--read-only

Limit

--pids-limit 100

Attackers could launch a fork bomb with a single command inside the container. This fork bomb could crash the entire system and would require a restart of the host to make the system functional again. Using the PIDs cgroup parameter –pids-limit would prevent this kind of attack by restricting the number of forks that can happen inside a container within a specified time frame.

CPU & memory capacity

--cpus=1.5

--memory=5g

Important commands

list all containers

docker ps

docker ps -a

last 10 log files of a container

docker logs -n 10 <container_name>

current log files of a container

docker logs -f <container_name>

kill a running container

docker kill <container_name>

remove a running container

docker rm <container_name>

connect to the operator GUI on your browser

https://localhost:6689

connect to the CLI

docker exec -it <kovan-main> /bin/bash

chainlink admin login

debilionia/Chainlink-node-single-VM-docker-deployment