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Create a Network and Start Nodes

Please be aware that recommended way of starting a pool is to use Docker.

In order to run your own Network, you need to do the following for each Node:

  1. Install Indy Node
    • A recommended way for ubuntu is installing from deb packages
    sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 68DB5E88
sudo bash -c 'echo "deb https://repo.sovrin.org/deb xenial stable" >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indy-node
    • It's also possible to install from pypi for test purposes: pip install indy-node
  2. Initialize Node to be included into the Network
    • if indy-node were installed from pypi basic directory structure should created manually with the command create_dirs.sh
    • set Network name in config file
      • the location of the config depends on how a Node was installed. It's usually inside /etc/indy for Ubuntu.
      • the following needs to be added: NETWORK_NAME={network_name} where {network_name} matches the one in genesis transaction files above
    • generate keys
      • ed25519 transport keys (used by ZMQ for Node-to-Node and Node-to-Client communication)
      • BLS keys for BLS multi-signature and state proofs support
    • provide genesis transactions files which will be a basis of initial Pool.
      • pool transactions genesis file:
        • The file must be named as pool_transactions_genesis
        • The file contains initial set of Nodes a Pool is started from (initial set of NODE transactions in the Ledger)
        • New Nodes will be added by sending new NODE txn to be written into the Ledger
        • All new Nodes and Clients will use genesis transaction file to connect to initial set of Nodes, and then catch-up all other NODE transactions to get up-to-date Ledger.
        • File must be located in /var/lib/indy/{network_name} folder
      • domain transactions genesis file:
        • The file must be named as domain_transactions_genesis
        • The file contains initial NYM transactions (for example, Trustees, Stewards, etc.)
        • File must be located in /var/lib/indy/{network_name} folder
    • configure iptables to limit the number of simultaneous clients connections (recommended)

Scripts for Initialization

There are a number of scripts which can help in generation of keys and running a test network.

Generating keys

For deb installation

The following script should be used to generate both ed25519 and BLS keys for a node named Alpha with node port 9701 and client port 9702:

init_indy_node Alpha 0.0.0.0 9701 0.0.0.0 9702 [--seed 111111111111111111111111111Alpha]

Also this script generates indy-node environment file needed for systemd service config and indy-node iptables setup script.

For pip installation

The following script can generate both ed25519 and BLS keys for a node named Alpha:

init_indy_keys --name Alpha [--seed 111111111111111111111111111Alpha] [--force]

Note: Seed can be any randomly chosen 32 byte value. It does not have to be in the format 11..

Please note that these scripts must be called after CURRENT_NETWORK is set in config (see above).

Generating keys and test genesis transaction files for a test network

There is a script that can generate keys and corresponding test genesis files to be used with a Test network.

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 1 [--ips '191.177.76.26,22.185.194.102,247.81.153.79,93.125.199.45'] [--network=sandbox]
  • --nodes specifies a total number of nodes in the pool
  • --clients specifies a number of pre-configured clients in the pool (in domain_transactions_file_{network_name}_genesis)
  • --nodeNum specifies a number of this particular node (from 1 to -nodes value), that is a number of the Node to create private keys locally for
  • --ip specifies IP addresses for all nodes in the pool (if not specified, then localhost is used)
  • --network specifies a Network generate transaction files and keys for. sandbox is used by default

We can run the script multiple times for different networks.

Setup iptables (recommended)

It is strongly recommended to add iptables (or some other firewall) rule that limits the number of simultaneous clients connections for client port. There are at least two important reasons for this:

  • preventing the indy-node process from reaching of open file descriptors limit caused by clients connections
  • preventing the indy-node process from large memory usage as ZeroMQ creates the separate queue for each TCP connection.

Instructions related to iptables setup can be found here.

Running Node

The following script will start a Node process which can communicate with other Nodes and Clients:

start_indy_node Alpha 0.0.0.0 9701 0.0.0.0 9702

The node uses separate TCP channels for communicating with nodes and clients. The first IP/port pair is for the node-to-node communication channel and the second IP/port pair is for node-to-client communication channel. IP addresses may be changed according to hardware configuration. Different IP addresses for node-to-node and node-to-client communication may be used.

Local Test Network Example

If you want to try out an Indy cluster of 4 nodes with the nodes running on your local machine, then you can do the following:

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 1 2 3 4
By default node with the name Node1 will use ports 9701 and 9702 for nodestack and clientstack respectively
Node2 will use ports 9703 and 9704 for nodestack and clientstack respectively
Node3 will use ports 9705 and 9706 for nodestack and clientstack respectively
Node4 will use ports 9707 and 9708 for nodestack and clientstack respectively

Now you can run the 4 nodes as

start_indy_node Node1 0.0.0.0 9701 0.0.0.0 9702

start_indy_node Node2 0.0.0.0 9703 0.0.0.0 9704

start_indy_node Node3 0.0.0.0 9705 0.0.0.0 9706

start_indy_node Node4 0.0.0.0 9707 0.0.0.0 9708

Remote Test Network Example

Now let's say you want to run 4 nodes on 4 different machines as

  1. Node1 running on 191.177.76.26
  2. Node2 running on 22.185.194.102
  3. Node3 running on 247.81.153.79
  4. Node4 running on 93.125.199.45

On machine with IP 191.177.76.26 you will run

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 1 --ips '191.177.76.26,22.185.194.102,247.81.153.79,93.125.199.45'
This node with name Node1 will use ports 9701 and 9702 for nodestack and clientstack respectively

On machine with IP 22.185.194.102 you will run

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 2 --ips '191.177.76.26,22.185.194.102,247.81.153.79,93.125.199.45'
This node with name Node2 will use ports 9703 and 9704 for nodestack and clientstack respectively

On machine with IP 247.81.153.79 you will run

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 3 --ips '191.177.76.26,22.185.194.102,247.81.153.79,93.125.199.45'
This node with name Node3 will use ports 9705 and 9706 for nodestack and clientstack respectively

On machine with IP 93.125.199.45 you will run

~$ generate_indy_pool_transactions --nodes 4 --clients 5 --nodeNum 4 --ips '191.177.76.26,22.185.194.102,247.81.153.79,93.125.199.45'
This node with name Node4 will use ports 9707 and 9708 for nodestack and clientstack respectively

Now you can run the 4 nodes as

start_indy_node Node1 0.0.0.0 9701 0.0.0.0 9702

start_indy_node Node2 0.0.0.0 9703 0.0.0.0 9704

start_indy_node Node3 0.0.0.0 9705 0.0.0.0 9706

start_indy_node Node4 0.0.0.0 9707 0.0.0.0 9708