microfab

'microfab' provides a single container image that allows you to quickly build, operate & govern and grow blockchain networks. It uses Hyperledger Fabric, the open source, industry standard for enterprise blockchain.

This containerized version of Fabric can be easily configured with the selection of channels and orgs you want, and also can be started and stopped in seconds. You can interfact with it as you would any Fabric setup. Note that this uses the fabric binaries and starts Fabric with couchdb and cas for identities. It's not cut down.

Why microfab?

There are other 'form factors' of Fabric some are aimed at production/k8s deployments. Of more development focussed form factors some key ones are.

test-network with Fabric Samples - a docker-compose approach to starting fabric great for running the samples and as the 'reference standard'
minifab - also a good way of standing up a overall fabric network
test-network-nano - based around the separate binaries, useful when developing Fabric itself.

Try several out, and see which you prefer and suits your way of working best.

Starting microfab

To start Microfab with the default configuration using Docker, run the following command:

docker run -p 8080:8080 ibmcom/ibp-microfab

Microfab provides a REST API. This REST API provides all the information you need to connect to the Hyperledger Fabric runtime using any of the Hyperledger Fabric SDKs.

To access this information, use the following REST API:

curl http://console.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8080/ak/api/v1/components

Connection profiles are returned with a type of gateway:

curl http://console.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8080/ak/api/v1/components | jq '.[] | select(.type == "gateway")'

Identities (certificate and private key pairs) are returned with a type of identity:

curl http://console.127.0.0.1.nip.io:8080/ak/api/v1/components | jq '.[] | select(.type == "identity")'

Configuring microfab

Microfab can be configured by specifying the MICROFAB_CONFIG environment variable. For example, to start Microfab with different organizations using Docker, run the following commands:

export MICROFAB_CONFIG='{
    "endorsing_organizations":[
        {
            "name": "SampleOrg"
        }
    ],
    "channels":[
        {
            "name": "mychannel",
            "endorsing_organizations":[
                "SampleOrg"
            ]
        }
    ]
}'

docker run -p 8080:8080 -e MICROFAB_CONFIG ibmcom/ibp-microfab

The configuration is a JSON object with the following keys:

domain

The domain name to use. The domain name must be resolvable both outside and inside the container, and it must resolve to an IP address of that container (or the system hosting the container).

Default value: "127-0-0-1.nip.io"
port

The port to use. The port must be accessible both outside and inside the container.

Default value: 8080
directory

The directory to store data in within the container.

Default value: "/home/microfab/data"
ordering_organization

The ordering organization.

Default value:
```
{
  "name": "Orderer" // The name of the organization.
}
```
endorsing_organizations

The list of endorsing organizations.

Default value:
```
[
  {
    "name": "Org1" // The name of the organization.
  }
]
```

channels

The list of channels.

Default value:

[
  {
    "name": "channel1", // The name of the channel.
    "endorsing_organizations": [ // The list of endorsing organizations that are members of the channel.
      "Org1"
    ],
    "capability_level": "V2_0" // Optional: the application capability level of the channel.
  }
]

capability_level

The application capability level of all channels. Can be overriden on a per-channel basis.

Default value: "V2_0"
couchdb

Whether or not to use CouchDB as the world state database.

Default value: true
certificate_authorities

Whether or not to create certificate authorities for all endorsing organizations.

Default value: true
timeout

The time to wait for all components to start.

Default value: "30s"

tls

The TLS configuration.

Default value:

{
  "enabled": false, // Set to true to enable TLS.
  "certificate": null, // Optional: the TLS certificate to be used.
  "private_key": null, // Optional: the TLS private key to be used.
  "ca": null // Optional: the TLS CA certificate to be used.
}

Examples

Configuration example for enabling TLS:

export MICROFAB_CONFIG='{
    "port": 8443,
    "tls": {
      "enabled": true
    }
}'

docker run -p 8443:8443 -e MICROFAB_CONFIG ibmcom/ibp-microfab

Important Notes

When using the client SDKs, do not use the 'asLocalhost' option set to true. It must be false. Without this clients will connect to microfab passing 'localhost' as a host name. Microfab needs the hostname to work out where to route the connection. Which it won't be able to do if 'asLocalhost' is set

Operational Examples

.......

License

Apache-2.0

Author Information

Microfab is maintained by the IBM Blockchain team.

mbwhite/microfab