Project: BigchainDB (App Definition and Development / Database)
File: network-setup.md

<! Copyright 2020 Interplanetary Database Association e.V., BigchainDB and IPDB software contributors. SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 AND CC-BY-4.0) Code is Apache-2.0 and docs are CC-BY-4.0 > You can setup or connect to a network once you have a single node running. Until now, everything could be done by a node operator, by themselves. Now the node operators, also called Members, must share some information with each other, so they can form a network. There is one special Member who helps coordinate everyone: the Coordinator. Each BigchainDB node is identified by its: `hostname`, i.e. the node's DNS subdomain, such as `bnode.example.com`, or its IP address, such as `46.145.17.32` Tendermint `pub_key.value` Tendermint `node_id` The Tendermint `pub_key.value` is stored in the file `$HOME/.tendermint/config/priv_validator.json`. That file should look like: ```json { "address": "E22D4340E5A92E4A9AD7C62DA62888929B3921E9", "pub_key": { "type": "tendermint/PubKeyEd25519", "value": "P+aweH73Hii8RyCmNWbwPsa9o4inq3I+0fSfprVkZa0=" }, "last_height": "0", "last_round": "0", "last_step": 0, "priv_key": { "type": "tendermint/PrivKeyEd25519", "value": "AHBiZXdZhkVZoPUAiMzClxhl0VvUp7Xl3YT6GvCc93A/5rB4fvceKLxHIKY1ZvA+xr2jiKercj7R9J+mtWRlrQ==" } } ``` To get your Tendermint `node_id`, run the command: ``` tendermint shownodeid ``` An example `node_id` is `9b989cd5ac65fec52652a457aed6f5fd200edc22`. Share your `hostname`, `pub_key.value` and `node_id` with all other Members. At this point the Coordinator should have received the data from all the Members, and should combine them in the file `$HOME/.tendermint/config/genesis.json`: ```json { "genesis_time":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "chain_id":"test-chain-la6HSr", "consensus_params":{ "blocksizeparams":{ "max_bytes":"22020096", "max_txs":"10000", "max_gas":"-1" }, "txsizeparams":{ "max_bytes":"10240", "max_gas":"-1" }, "blockgossipparams":{ "blockpartsize_bytes":"65536" }, "evidence_params":{ "max_age":"100000" } }, "validators":[ { "pub_key":{ "type":"tendermint/PubKeyEd25519", "value":"<Member 1 public key>" }, "power":10, "name":"<Member 1 name>" }, { "pub_key":{ "type":"tendermint/PubKeyEd25519", "value":"<Member 2 public key>" }, "power":10, "name":"<Member 2 name>" }, { "...":{ }, }, { "pub_key":{ "type":"tendermint/PubKeyEd25519", "value":"<Member N public key>" }, "power":10, "name":"<Member N name>" } ], "app_hash":"" } ``` Note: The above `consensus_params` in the `genesis.json` are default values. The new `genesis.json` file contains the data that describes the Network. The key `name` is the Member's moniker; it can be any valid string, but put something human-readable like `"Alice's Node Shop"`. At this point, the Coordinator must share the new `genesis.json` file with all Members. At this point the Member should have received the `genesis.json` file. The Member must copy the `genesis.json` file into their local `$HOME/.tendermint/config` directory. Every Member now shares the same `chainid` and `genesistime` (used to identify the Network), and the same list of `validators`. Each Member must edit their

file and make the following changes: ``` moniker = "Name of our node" createemptyblocks = false log_level = "main:info,state:info,*:error" persistent_peers = "<Member 1 node id>@<Member 1 hostname>:26656,\ <Member 2 node id>@<Member 2 hostname>:26656,\ <Member N node id>@<Member N hostname>:26656," send_rate = 102400000 recv_rate = 102400000 recheck = false ``` Note: The list of `persistent_peers` doesn't have to include all nodes in the network. If you installed MongoDB using `sudo apt install mongodb`, then MongoDB should already be running in the background. You can check using `systemctl status mongodb`. If MongoDB isn't running, then you can start it using the command `mongod`, but that will run it in the foreground. If you want to run it in the background (so it will continue running after you logout), you can use `mongod --fork --logpath /var/log/mongodb.log`. (You might have to create the `/var/log` directory if it doesn't already exist.) If you installed MongoDB using `sudo apt install mongodb`, then a MongoDB startup script should already be installed (so MongoDB will start automatically when the machine is restarted). Otherwise, you should install a startup script for MongoDB. This section describes how to manage the BigchainDB and Tendermint processes using , a small open-source utility for managing and monitoring Unix processes. BigchainDB and Tendermint are managed together, because if BigchainDB is stopped (or crashes) and is restarted, Tendermint won't try reconnecting to it. (That's not a bug. It's just how Tendermint works.) Install Monit: ``` sudo apt install monit ``` If you installed the `bigchaindb` Python package as above, you should have the `bigchaindb-monit-config` script in your `PATH` now. Run the script to build a configuration file for Monit: ``` bigchaindb-monit-config ``` Run Monit as a daemon, instructing it to wake up every second to check on processes: ``` monit -d 1 ``` Monit will run the BigchainDB and Tendermint processes and restart them when they crash. If the root `bigchaindb_` process crashes, Monit will also restart the Tendermint process. You can check the status by running `monit status` or `monit summary`. By default, it will collect program logs into the `~/.bigchaindb-monit/logs` folder. To learn more about Monit, use `monit -h` (help) or read . Check `bigchaindb-monit-config -h` if you want to arrange a different folder for logs or some of the Monit internal artifacts. If you want to start and manage the BigchainDB and Tendermint processes yourself, then look inside the file to see how it starts BigchainDB and Tendermint. If you followed the above instructions, then your node should be publicly-accessible with BigchainDB Root URL `https://hostname` or `http://hostname:9984`. That is, anyone can interact with your node using the exposed at that address. The most common way to do that is to use one of the .