Configuration file specification: Hyperledger-Fabric¶

A network.yaml file is the base configuration file designed in Hyperledger Bevel for setting up a Fabric DLT network. This file contains all the information related to the infrastructure and network specifications.

Schema Definition

A json-schema definition is provided in platforms/network-schema.json to assist with semantic validations and lints. You can use your favorite yaml lint plugin compatible with json-schema specification, like redhat.vscode-yaml for VSCode. You need to adjust the directive in template located in the first line based on your actual build directory:

# yaml-language-server: $schema=../platforms/network-schema.json

The configurations are grouped in the following sections for better understanding.

type
version
frontend
env
frontend
docker
consensus
orderers
channels
organizations

Before setting up a Fabric DLT/Blockchain network, this file needs to be updated with the required specifications.

Use this sample configuration file as a base.

---
# yaml-language-server: $schema=../../../../platforms/network-schema.json
# This is a sample configuration file for setting up initial Fabric network with 1 RAFT Orderer and 5 Nodes.
network:
  # Network level configuration specifies the attributes required for each organization
  # to join an existing network.
  type: fabric
  version: 2.2.2                 # currently tested 1.4.8, 2.2.2 and 2.5.4


type: type defines the platform choice like corda/fabric/quorum, here in the example its Fabric.

version: version defines the version of platform being used. The current Fabric version support is 1.4.8, 2.2.2 & 2.5.4

frontend: frontend s a flag which defines if frontend is enabled for nodes or not. Its value can only be enabled/disabled. This is only applicable if the sample Supplychain App is being installed.

env: env section contains the environment type. Value for proxy field under this section can be 'none' or 'haproxy'

The snapshot of the env section with example value is below

  env:
    type: "dev"              # tag for the environment. Important to run multiple flux on single cluster
    proxy: haproxy                  # values can be 'haproxy' or 'none'
    retry_count: 20                 # Retry count for the checks
    external_dns: enabled           # Should be enabled if using external-dns for automatic route configuration
    annotations:              # Additional annotations that can be used for some pods (ca, ca-tools, orderer and peer nodes)
      service: 
       - example1: example2
      deployment: {} 
      pvc: {}

The fields under env section are

Field	Description
type	Environment type. Can be like dev/test/prod.
proxy	Choice of the Cluster Ingress controller. Currently supports 'haproxy' for production/inter-cluster and 'none' for single cluster
retry_count	Retry count for the checks.
external_dns	If the cluster has the external DNS service, this has to be set `enabled` so that the hosted zone is automatically updated.
annotations	Use this to pass additional annotations to the `service`, `deployment` and `pvc` elements of Kubernetes
labels	Use this to pass additional labels to the `service`, `deployment` and `pvc` elements of Kubernetes


docker: docker section contains the credentials of the container registry where all the required images are stored.

The snapshot of the docker section with example values is below

  # For providing Custom Templates to generate configtx.yaml
  configtx:
    custom: false               # true : when custom tpl(s) are to be provided | false : when the default tpl(s) are to be used
    folder_path: /absolute/path/to/folder             # path to folder where the tpl(s) are placed e.g. /home/bevel/build/configtx_tpl/

  # Docker registry details where images are stored. This will be used to create k8s secrets
  # Please ensure all required images are built and stored in this registry.

The fields under docker section are

Field	Description
url	Docker registry url
username	Username credential required for login
password	Password credential required for login

Tip

Please follow these instructions to build and store the docker images before running the Ansible playbooks.


consensus: consensus section contains the consensus service that uses the orderers provided in the following orderers section.

    username: "docker_username"
    password: "docker_password"

The fields under the each consensus are

Field	Description
name	Name of the Consensus service. Can be `raft` or `kafka`.


orderers: orderers section contains a list of orderers with variables which will expose it for the network.

The snapshot of the orderers section with example values is below

  # Remote connection information for orderer (will be blank or removed for orderer hosting organization)
  # For RAFT consensus, have odd number (2n+1) of orderers for consensus agreement to have a majority.
  consensus:
    name: raft
  orderers:
    - orderer:
      type: orderer
      name: orderer1
      org_name: supplychain               #org_name should match one organization definition below in organizations: key            
      uri: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443   # Must include port, Can be external or internal URI for orderer which should be reachable by all peers
      certificate: /home/bevel/build/orderer1.crt           # Ensure that the directory exists
    - orderer:
      type: orderer
      name: orderer2
      org_name: supplychain               #org_name should match one organization definition below in organizations: key            
      uri: orderer2.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443   # Must include port, Can be external or internal URI for orderer which should be reachable by all peers
      certificate: /home/bevel/build/orderer2.crt           # Ensure that the directory exists
    - orderer:

The fields under the each orderer are

Field	Description
name	Name of the orderer service
type	For Fabric, `orderer` is the only valid type of orderers.
org_name	Name of the organization to which this orderer belongs to
uri	Orderer URL which is accessible by all Peers. This must include the port even when running on 443
certificate	Path to orderer certificate. For inital network setup, ensure that the directory is present, the file need not be present. For adding a new organization, ensure that the file is the crt file of the orderer of the existing network.


channels: The channels sections contains the list of channels mentioning the participating peers of the organizations.

The snapshot of channels section with its fields and sample values is below

      name: orderer3
      org_name: supplychain               #org_name should match one organization definition below in organizations: key            
      uri: orderer3.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443   # Must include port, Can be external or internal URI for orderer which should be reachable by all peers
      certificate: /home/bevel/build/orderer3.crt           # Ensure that the directory exists

  # The channels defined for a network with participating peers in each channel
  channels:
  - channel:
    consortium: SupplyChainConsortium
    channel_name: AllChannel
    osn_creator_org: # Organization name, whose orderers will create the channel. This field is only used with version 2.5
      name: supplychain 
    chaincodes:
      - "chaincode_name"
    orderers: 
      - supplychain
    participants:
    - organization:
      name: carrier
      type: creator       # creator organization will create the channel and instantiate chaincode, in addition to joining the channel and install chaincode
      org_status: new
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        gossipAddress: peer0.carrier-net.org3proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443  # Must include port, External or internal URI of the gossip peer
        peerAddress: peer0.carrier-net.org3proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443 # Must include port, External URI of the peer
      ordererAddress: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443             # Must include port, External or internal URI of the orderer
    - organization:
      name: store
      type: joiner        # joiner organization will only join the channel and install chaincode
      org_status: new
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        gossipAddress: peer0.store-net.org4proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        peerAddress: peer0.store-net.org4proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443 # Must include port, External URI of the peer
      ordererAddress: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
    - organization:
      name: warehouse
      type: joiner
      org_status: new
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        gossipAddress: peer0.warehouse-net.org5proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        peerAddress: peer0.warehouse-net.org5proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443 # Must include port, External URI of the peer
      ordererAddress: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
    - organization:
      name: manufacturer
      type: joiner
      org_status: new
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        gossipAddress: peer0.manufacturer-net.org2proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        peerAddress: peer0.manufacturer-net.org2proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443 # Must include port, External URI of the peer
      ordererAddress: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
    endorsers:
    # Only one peer per org required for endorsement
    - organization:
      name: carrier
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        corepeerAddress: peer0.carrier-net.org3proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        certificate: "/path/carrier/server.crt" # certificate path for peer
    - organization:
      name: warehouse
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        corepeerAddress: peer0.warehouse-net.org5proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        certificate: "/path/warehouse/server.crt" # certificate path for peer
    - organization:
      name: manufacturer
      peers:
      - peer:
        name: peer0
        corepeerAddress: peer0.manufacturer-net.org2proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        certificate: "/path/manufacturer/server.crt" # certificate path for peer
    - organization:
      name: store
      peers:
      - peer:

The fields under the channel are

Field	Description
consortium	Name of the consortium, the channel belongs to
channel_name	Name of the channel
osn_creator_org.name	Name of the organization whose orderers will create the channel
chaincodes	Contains list of chaincodes for the channel
genesis.name	Name of the genesis block
orderers	List of names of the organizations providing ordering service
participants	Contains list of organizations participating in the channel
endorsers	Contains list of organizations (v2.2+)
channel_status	Mainly needed to add channel to existing org. Possible values are `new` or `existing`

Each organization field under participants field of the channel contains the following fields

Field	Description
name	Organization name of the peer participating in the channel
type	This field can be creator/joiner of channel
org_status	`new` (for inital setup) or `existing` (for add new org)
ordererAddress	URL of the orderer this peer connects to, including port
peer.name	Name of the peer
peer.gossipAddress	Gossip address of the peer, including port
peer.peerAddress	External address of the peer, including port

Each organization field under endorsers field of the channel contains the following fields

Field	Description
name	Endorser name
peer.name	Name of the peer
peer.corepeerAddress	Endorsers addresses, including port
peer.certificate	Certificate path for peer


organizations: The organizations section contains the specifications of each organization.

In the sample configuration example, we have five organization under the organizations section

The snapshot of an organization field with sample values is below

      name: OrdererGenesis

  # Allows specification of one or many organizations that will be connecting to a network.
  # If an organization is also hosting the root of the network (e.g. doorman, membership service, etc),
  # then these services should be listed in this section as well.
  organizations:

    # Specification for the 1st organization. Each organization maps to a VPC and a separate k8s cluster
    - organization:
      name: supplychain
      country: UK
      state: London
      location: London
      subject: "O=Orderer,OU=Orderer,L=51.50/-0.13/London,C=GB"
      type: orderer
      external_url_suffix: org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com
      org_status: new
      fabric_console: enabled               # To deploy Fabric console for this organization

Each organization under the organizations section has the following fields.

Field	Description
name	Name of the organization
country	Country of the organization
state	State of the organization
location	Location of the organization
subject	Subject format can be referred at OpenSSL Subject
type	This field can be orderer/peer
external_url_suffix	Public url suffix of the cluster.
org_status	`new` (for inital setup) or `existing` (for add new org)
orderer_org	Ordering service provider. It should only be added to peer organizations
ca_data	Contains the certificate authority url (dont include port if running on 443) and certificate path; this has not been implemented yet
cloud_provider	Cloud provider of the Kubernetes cluster for this organization. This field can be aws, azure, gcp or minikube
aws	When the organization cluster is on AWS
k8s	Kubernetes cluster deployment variables.
vault	Contains Hashicorp Vault server address and root-token in the example
gitops	Git Repo details which will be used by GitOps/Flux.
services	Contains list of services which could ca/peer/orderers/concensus based on the type of organization

For the aws and k8s field the snapshot with sample values is below

      ca_data:
        url: ca.supplychain-net.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com
        certificate: /path/supplychain/server.crt        # Path where ca public cert will be stored (if new) or read from (if existing ca)

      cloud_provider: aws   # Options: aws, azure, gcp, digitalocean, minikube
      aws:
        access_key: "aws_access_key"        # AWS Access key, only used when cloud_provider=aws
        secret_key: "aws_secret_key"        # AWS Secret key, only used when cloud_provider=aws

      # Kubernetes cluster deployment variables. The config file path and name has to be provided in case

The aws field under each organization contains: (This will be ignored if cloud_provider is not 'aws')

Field	Description
access_key	AWS Access key
secret_key	AWS Secret key

The k8s field under each organization contains

Field	Description
region	Region where the Kubernetes cluster is deployed, e.g : eu-west-1
context	Context/Name of the cluster where the organization entities should be deployed
config_file	Path to the kubernetes cluster configuration file

For gitops fields the snapshot from the sample configuration file with the example values is below

      # Do not check-in root_token
      vault:
        url: "vault_addr"
        root_token: "vault_root_token"
        secret_path: "secretsv2"
      # Git Repo details which will be used by GitOps/Flux.
      # Do not check-in git_access_token
      gitops:
        git_protocol: "https" # Option for git over https or ssh
        git_url: "https://github.com/<username>/bevel.git"         # Gitops https or ssh url for flux value files 
        branch: "develop"           # Git branch where release is being made
        release_dir: "platforms/hyperledger-fabric/releases/dev" # Relative Path in the Git repo for flux sync per environment. 
        chart_source: "platforms/hyperledger-fabric/charts"     # Relative Path where the Helm charts are stored in Git repo

The gitops field under each organization contains

Field	Description
git_protocol	Option for git over https or ssh. Can be `https` or `ssh`
git_url	SSH or HTTPs url of the repository where flux should be synced
branch	Branch of the repository where the Helm Charts and value files are stored
release_dir	Relative path where flux should sync files
chart_source	Relative path where the helm charts are stored
git_repo	Gitops git repo URL https URL for git push like "github.com/hyperledger/bevel.git"
username	Username which has access rights to read/write on repository
password	Password of the user which has access rights to read/write on repository (Optional for ssh; Required for https)
email	Email of the user to be used in git config
private_key	Path to the private key file which has write-access to the git repo (Optional for https; Required for ssh)

For Hyperledger Fabric, you can also generate different user certificates and pass the names and attributes in the specific section for users. This is only applicable if using Fabric CA. An example is below:

        git_repo: "github.com/<username>/bevel.git"   # Gitops git repository URL for git push  (without https://)
        username: "git_username"          # Git Service user who has rights to check-in in all branches
        password: "git_access_token"          # Git Server user password/token (Optional for ssh; Required for https)
        email: "git@email.com"                # Email to use in git config
        private_key: "path_to_private_key"          # Path to private key file which has write-access to the git repo (Optional for https; Required for ssh)
      # Generating User Certificates with custom attributes using Fabric CA in Bevel for Peer Organizations
      users:

The fields under user are

Field	Description
identity	The name of the user
attribute	key value pair for the different attributes supported in Fabric, details about the attribues are here

The services field for each organization under organizations section of Fabric contains list of services which could be ca/orderers/consensus/peers based on if the type of organization.

Each organization will have a CA service under the service field. The snapshot of CA service with example values is below

        username: "git_username"          # Git Service user who has rights to check-in in all branches
        password: "git_access_token"          # Git Server user password/token (Optional for ssh; Required for https)
        email: "git@email.com"                # Email to use in git config
        private_key: "path_to_private_key"          # Path to private key file which has write-access to the git repo (Optional for https; Required for ssh)

      # Services maps to the pods that will be deployed on the k8s cluster
      # This sample is an orderer service and includes a raft consensus
      services:
        ca:

The fields under ca service are

Field	Description
name	Certificate Authority service name
subject	Subject format can be referred at OpenSSL Subject
type	Type must be `ca` for certification authority
grpc.port	Grpc port number

Each organization with type as peer will have a peers service. The snapshot of peers service with example values is below

          name: ca
          subject: "/C=CH/ST=Zurich/L=Zurich/O=Manufacturer/CN=ca.manufacturer-net.org2proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com"
          type: ca
          grpc:
            port: 7054
        peers:
        - peer:
          name: peer0          
          type: anchor    # This can be anchor/nonanchor. Atleast one peer should be anchor peer.         
          gossippeeraddress: peer0.manufacturer-net:7051 # Internal Address of the other peer in same Org for gossip, same peer if there is only one peer 
          peerAddress: peer0.manufacturer-net.org2proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443 # Must include port, External URI of the peer 
          certificate: /path/manufacturer/peer0.crt # Path to peer Certificate
          cli: disabled      # Creates a peer cli pod depending upon the (enabled/disabled) tag.
          cactus_connector: disabled  # set to enabled to create a cactus connector for Fabric
          grpc:
            port: 7051
          events:
            port: 7053
          couchdb:
            port: 5984
          restserver:           # This is for the rest-api server
            targetPort: 20001
            port: 20001
          expressapi:           # This is for the express api server
            targetPort: 3000
            port: 3000
          chaincodes:
            - name: "chaincode_name" #This has to be replaced with the name of the chaincode
              version: "1" #This has to be replaced with the version of the chaincode
              sequence: "1" #sequence of the chaincode, update this only for chaincode upgrade
              maindirectory: "chaincode_main"  #The main directory where chaincode is needed to be placed
              lang: "golang"  # The language in which the chaincode is written ( golang/java/node )
              repository:
                username: "git_username"          # Git Service user who has rights to check-in in all branches
                password: "git_access_token"

The fields under peer service are

Field	Description
name	Name of the peer. Must be of the format `peer0` for the first peer, `peer1` for the second peer and so on.
type	Type can be `anchor` and `nonanchor` for Peer
gossippeeraddress	Gossip address of another peer in the same Organization, including port. If there is only one peer, then use that peer address. Can be internal if the peer is hosted in the same Kubernetes cluster.
peerAddress	External address of this peer, including port. Must be the HAProxy qualified address. If using single cluster, this can be internal address.
certificate	Path where the Peer's CA certificate will be stored.
cli	Optional field. If `enabled` will deploy the CLI pod for this Peer. Default is `disabled`.
configpath	This field is mandatory for using external chaincode. This is the path where a custom core.yaml will be used for the peer.
grpc.port	Grpc port
events.port	Events port
couchdb.port	Couchdb port
restserver.targetPort	Restserver target port
restserver.port	Restserver port
expressapi.targetPort	Express server target port
expressapi.port	Express server port
metrics.enabled	Enable metrics (ensure serviceMonitor CRD is present before enabling metrics)
metrics.port	Metrics Port

The chaincodes section contains the list of chaincode for the peer, the fields under each chaincode are below

Field	Description
name	Name of the chaincode
version	Version of the chaincode. Please do not use . (dot) in the version.
external_chaincode	This is mandatory to be `true` when using external chaincode
maindirectory	Path of main.go file, optional for external_chaincode
lang	The language in which the chaincode is written ( golang/ java), optional for external_chaincode
repository.username	Username which has access to the git repo containing chaincode, optional for external_chaincode
repository.password	Password of the user which has access to the git repo containing chaincode, optional for external_chaincode
repository.url	URL of the git repository containing the chaincode, optional for external_chaincode
repository.branch	Branch in the repository where the chaincode resides, optional for external_chaincode
repository.path	Path of the chaincode in the repository branch, optional for external_chaincode
arguments	Init Arguments to the chaincode, mandatory for both chaincode types
endorsements	Endorsements (if any) provided along with the chaincode, optional for external_chaincode
tls	Mandatory for external_chaincode, marks the chaincode as tls enabled
buildpack_path	Mandatory for external_chaincode, Path from where the buildpack will be uploaded to the peer, ensure the core.yaml has been also updated correctly
image	Mandatory for external_chaincode, the container from docker registry applicable for this chaincode. For private registry, ensure password is passed in `network.docker` section
crypto_mount_path	Required only when `tls: true`, the path where the crypto materials will be stored

The organization with orderer type will have concensus service. The snapshot of consensus service with example values is below

          subject: "/C=GB/ST=London/L=London/O=Orderer/CN=ca.supplychain-net.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com"
          type: ca

The fields under consensus service are

Field	Description
name	Name of the Consensus service. Can be `raft` or `kafka`.
type	Only for `kafka`. Consensus service type, only value supported is `broker` currently
replicas	Only for `kafka`. Replica count of the brokers
grpc.port	Only for `kafka`. Grpc port of consensus service

The organization with orderer type will have orderers service. The snapshot of orderers service with example values is below

          grpc:
            port: 7054

        consensus:
          name: raft
        orderers:
        # This sample has multiple orderers as an example.
        # You can use a single orderer for most production implementations.
        # For RAFT consensus, have odd number (2n+1) of orderers for consensus agreement to have a majority.
        - orderer:
          name: orderer1
          type: orderer
          consensus: raft
          grpc:
            port: 7050
          ordererAddress: orderer1.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        - orderer:
          name: orderer2
          type: orderer
          consensus: raft
          grpc:
            port: 7050
          ordererAddress: orderer2.org1proxy.blockchaincloudpoc.com:443
        - orderer:
          name: orderer3

The fields under orderer service are

Field	Description
name	Name of the Orderer service
type	This type must be `orderer`
consensus	Consensus type, for example: `kafka`, `raft`
status	(Only needed to add new orderer). Possible values are `new` or `existing`
grpc.port	Grpc port of orderer
ordererAddress	Accessible address of the Orderer, including port
metrics.enabled	Enable metrics (ensure serviceMonitor CRD is present before enabling metrics)
metrics.port	Metrics Port