Deploy VMware Blockchain Nodes Using VMware Blockchain Orchestrator

Using the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator, you can deploy VMware Blockchain nodes on your on-premises environment.

Prerequisites

Verify that your VMware Blockchain Orchestrator appliance is successfully deployed. See Deploy a VMware Blockchain Orchestrator Appliance.
Verify that you familiarize yourself with the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator schema files. See Understanding the Infrastructure Schema Parameters and Understanding the Deployment Schema Parameters.
Make sure that you have reserved IP addresses in vSphere for the Replica and Client nodes.
These reserved IP addresses must be specified in the providedIp fields for each Replica and Client node in the descriptor file.

Procedure

Power on the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator appliance.
SSH into the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator appliance.
Enter the login credentials for the blockchain user account.
Navigate to the /home/blockchain directory.

List the contents of the /home/blockchain directory.

ls -l

Option	Description
/home/blockchain/orchestrator-runtime	Directory consists of all the docker-compose files and schema files. You can run the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator script from this directory.
docker-compose-orchestrator-prereqs.yml	Runs the Docker configuration service and provisioning service containers. The prerequisite service starts when the VM is powered on. The prerequisite service times out if the VM does not have connectivity when powered on and must be manually restarted.
docker-compose-orchestrator.yml	Runs the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator script to deploy VMware Blockchain nodes.
infrastructure-descriptor-v1.schema	Directory stores the infrastructure definitions of all the available parameters to manually configure to deploy VMware Blockchain nodes.
deployment-descriptor-v1.schema	Directory stores the deployment definitions of all the available parameters to manually configure to deploy VMware Blockchain nodes.

To configure the descriptor files and set the parameter values, you must create directories to store the descriptor files.

Create a directory for the descriptor files.

See the sample directory structure.

Option	Description
/home/blockchain/descriptors	Directory stores the infrastructure and deployment descriptor JSON files. VMware Blockchain Orchestrator uses the parameter values set in the infrastructure and deployment descriptor files during provisioning.
/home/blockchain/output	Directory stores the deployment details, such as IP address, Replica and Client node names, Blockchain ID, and consortium ID.
INFRA_DESC_FILENAME=infrastructure_descriptor.json	File provides infrastructure details for deployment that VMware Blockchain Orchestrator uses to prescribe the parameters and connect to vCenter Server.
DEPLOY_DESC_FILENAME=deployment_descriptor.json	File provides deployment details for Replica and Client nodes. If you deploy Full Copy Client nodes, then the deployment details are included in this file. For example, the file also consists of zone names, client group names, and IP addresses.

Verify that the Docker containers are running.

cd ~blockchain/orchestrator-runtime
docker ps -a

The Docker containers that are running appear.

blockchain@localhost [ ~ ]$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                                                                                COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                            NAMES
a20b7fbeacff        athena-docker-local.artifactory.eng.vmware.com/persephone-configuration:0.0.0.2323   "java -Dspring.confi…"   2 minutes ago       Up 2 minutes        0.0.0.0:9003->9003/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8000->9023/tcp   orchestrator-runtime_config-service_1
10cdca6852d8        athena-docker-local.artifactory.eng.vmware.com/persephone-provisioning:0.0.0.2323    "java -Dspring.confi…"   2 minutes ago       Up 2 minutes        8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9002->9002/tcp                 orchestrator-runtime_persephone-provisioning_1

If the Docker containers are not running, then restart the Docker containers.
1. Log in as a root user into the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator appliance.
2. Restart the system service, which in turn starts the Docker containers.
```
systemctl restart blockchain.service
```
3. Log out of the root user account and log in to the blockchain user account.

Create the infrastructure and deployment descriptor files in the descriptor directory.

VMware Blockchain Orchestrator uses the variables defined in these descriptor files to provision the VMware Blockchain nodes.

Sample infrastructure_descriptor.json file to deploy a vCenter Server, datastore, and cluster.

{
  "organization": {
    "damlSdk": "1.4.0",
    "dockerImage": "0.9.0.33",
    "generatePassword": true,
    "generateDamlDbPassword": true
    "secureStore": {
      "storeType": "DISK",
      "url": "file:///config/url/file.json"
  },
  "zones": [
    {
      "name": "replicas",
      "vCenter": {
        "url": "https://vcsa.corp.local/",
        "userName": "[email protected]",
        "password": "VMware1",
        "resourcePool": "replicas",
        "storage": "RegionA01-ISCSI01-COMP02",
        "folder": "blockchain"
      },
      "network": {
        "name": "VM-RegionA01-vDS-COMP",
        "gateway": "192.168.10.1",
        "subnet": 24,
        "nameServers": [
          "192.168.10.10"
        ]
    },
      "containerRegistry": {
      "url": "https://vmwaresaas.jfrog.io/vmwblockchain",
      "userName": "vmbc-jfrog-reader@vmware",
      "password": "<password>"
      },
      "pullMetricsEndpoint": {
         "userName": "metricsUser",
         "password": "metricsPassword",
         "tlsCertificateData": "<public-key-string>",
         "tlsKeyData": "<private-key-string>"
      },
    }
  ]
}

Sample deployment_descriptor.json file deploys four Replica nodes, two Full Copy Client nodes, and two Client nodes.

{
  "replicas": [
    {
    "zoneName": "replicas",
    "providedIp": "192.168.10.12"
    },
    {
    "zoneName": "replicas",
    "providedIp": "192.168.10.13"
    },
    {
    "zoneName": "replicas",
    "providedIp": "192.168.10.14"
    },
    {
    "zoneName": "replicas",
    "providedIp": "192.168.10.15"
    }
  ], 
  "replicaNodeSpec":{
    "cpuCount": 2,
    "memoryGb": 16,
    "diskSizeGb": 64
  },
  "fullCopyClients": [
    {
      "accessKey": "ACCESS_KEY_1",
      "bucketName": "s3BUCKET_1",
      "protocol": "s3",
      "secretKey": "SECRET_KEY_1",
      "url": "109.72.217.75:9000",

      "zoneName": "replicas",     
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.16" 
    }, 
    {
      "accessKey": "ACCESS_KEY_1",
      "bucketName": "BUCKET_1",
      "protocol": "HTTP/HTTP",
      "secretKey": "SECRET_KEY_1",
      "url": "blockchain.s3.amazonaws.com",

      "zoneName": "replicas",
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.17" 
        }
  ],
  "clients": [
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas",
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.18"
      "damlDbPassword": "<password>",
      "groupName": "Group1",
      "ledgerTls": {
      "tlsLedgerData": {
        "pem" : "pem1",
        "crt" : "crt1",
        "cacrt": "cacrt1",
        "clientAuth" : "REQUIRE"
      }
    },
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas",
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.19"
      "damlDbPassword": "<password>",
      "groupName": "Group2",
      "ledgerTls": {
      "tlsLedgerData": {
        "pem" : "pem1",
        "crt" : "crt1",
        "cacrt": "cacrt1",
        "clientAuth" : "OPTIONAL"
      }
  ],
  "clientNodeSpec":{
    "cpuCount": 4,
    "memoryGb": 32,
    "diskSizeGb": 100
  },
  "blockchain": {
    "consortiumName": "finance",
    "blockchainType": "DAML"
  }
}

Sample deployment_descriptor.json file to deploy cloned the Replica, Client, and Full Copy Client nodes.

{
  "populatedReplicas": [
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas"
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.12"
    },
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas"
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.13"
    },
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas"
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.14"
    },
    {
      "zoneName": "replicas"
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.15"
  ],
  "populatedClients": [
    {
      "zoneName": "replica",
      "providedIp": "192.168.10.19"
      "groupName": "Group2",
      "clientGroupId": "709ca448-c6bf-4cb3-b9f3-5964a6cd9fe9",
      "damlDbPassword": "<password>"
    }
    "populatedFullCopyClients": [
        {
            "accessKey": "ACCESS_KEY_1",

            "bucketName": "s3BUCKET_1",

            "protocol": "HTTP",

            "secretKey": "SECRET_KEY_1",

            "url": "109.72.217.75:9000",

            "zoneName": "replicas",

            "providedIp": "192.168.10.16",

            "nodeId": "2c935ce1-9300-4101-a8e2-a157a1a392ab"

        }
  ],
  "blockchain": {
    "consortiumName": "finance",
    "blockchainType": "DAML"
  "blockchainId": "6d5ba56b-2ae7-4bdd-bff3-27294b64c370"
 }
}

Validate your infrastructure descriptor file semantics against the infrastructure-descriptor-v1.schema.
Validate your deployment descriptor file semantics against the deployment-descriptor-v1.schema.

Validate that vSphere credentials, network name, and folder name are correctly populated to avoid errors.

ORCHESTRATOR_DESCRIPTORS_DIR=/home/blockchain/descriptors  INFRA_DESC_FILENAME=infrastructure_descriptor.json DEPLOY_DESC_FILENAME=deployment_descriptor.json ORCHESTRATOR_OUTPUT_DIR=/home/blockchain/output 
ORCHESTRATOR_DEPLOYMENT_TYPE=VALIDATE 
docker-compose -f docker-compose-orchestrator.yml up

Run the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator deployment script.

For a new deployment, run the command,

ORCHESTRATOR_DESCRIPTORS_DIR=/home/blockchain/descriptors INFRA_DESC_FILENAME=infrastructure_descriptor.json DEPLOY_DESC_FILENAME=deployment_descriptor.json ORCHESTRATOR_OUTPUT_DIR=/home/blockchain/output 
docker-compose -f docker-compose-orchestrator.yml up

For a clone deployment, run the command,

ORCHESTRATOR_DESCRIPTORS_DIR=/home/blockchain/descriptors INFRA_DESC_FILENAME=infrastructure_descriptor_clone.json DEPLOY_DESC_FILENAME=deployment_descriptor_clone.json ORCHESTRATOR_OUTPUT_DIR=/home/blockchain/output ORCHESTRATOR_DEPLOYMENT_TYPE=CLONE 
docker-compose -f docker-compose-orchestrator.yml up

(Optional) During deployment, view the VM creation and IP allocation from the vSphere Client under the Workloads > <Workload_Name> > VMs tab.

The deployment of the VMware Blockchain nodes can take up to five minutes.

(Optional) If you have enabled the pullMetricsEndpoint parameter, you can run the command and retrieve the monitoring metrics data.

# If using username/password use http
curl -i -u '<username>:<password>' http://<VM-IP>:9273/metrics
# If using TLS use https
curl -i -l -u '<username>:<password>' https://<VM-IP>:9273/metrics -k

Results

After a successful deployment, the VMware Blockchain Orchestrator creates and saves the deployment results in the /home/blockchain/output directory.

Note:

If your deployment fails, identify the error and fix it before redeploying the VMware Blockchain nodes.

Example

Sample output file.

Starting deployment type: PROVISION, at 2020-10-08T02:01:21.886332

Deployment Request Id: 02514422-6263-4c22-89ab-dbd0e58601ef

Blockchain Id: 72a0f104-6845-46df-98d4-5ab0bf5623b0

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d848, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.12

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11399, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11399, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11399, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11399, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 177d59fa-40bf-489c-a7cc-9a6517f79a83, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11399, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d847, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.13

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11402, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11402, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11402, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11402, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 335f56dd-b8d8-4227-9158-2ed635122be3, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11402, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d846, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.16

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: CLIENT_ENDPOINT, value: https://{{ip}}:6865

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: CLIENT_GROUP_ID, value: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 5b229bb7-7162-48fe-b73f-4f4e817f7bba, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11403, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d84b, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.17

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: CLIENT_ENDPOINT, value: https://{{ip}}:6865

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: CLIENT_GROUP_ID, value: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 5df3f076-6750-4fd1-a334-9d95ee3ce68d, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11404, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d84a, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.14

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11401, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11401, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11401, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11401, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 80fc24da-ba01-4abf-91a0-5575439759b9, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11401, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: /blocks/sddc6-vmware-vpn-onprem-5/segments/0a48d800/addresses/0a48d849, key: PRIVATE_IP, value: 192.168.10.15

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11400, key: DAML_SDK_VERSION, value: 1.4.0

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11400, key: IMAGE_TAG, value: 0.9.0.33

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11400, key: NODE_LOGIN, value: c0nc0rd

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11400, key: VM_CPU_COUNT, value: 2

Node Id: 91f68ba2-edbb-48ae-8a1b-6e9ee7640c11, name: https://vcsa.corp.local//rest/vcenter/vm/vm-11400, key: VM_MEMORY, value: 4

Blockchain Id: 72a0f104-6845-46df-98d4-5ab0bf5623b0, completion status: SUCCESS

RequestId: 02514422-6263-4c22-89ab-dbd0e58601ef succeeded

Deployment finished at 2021-06-08T02:07:05.03125 with status SUCCESS

What to do next

Verify that the Replica node includes all the parameter values set in the deployment descriptor. See Validate a Replica Node in VMware Blockchain Orchestrator.