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Deploy IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric on-prem manually

You can use these instructions to deploy IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric behind a firewall without internet connectivity. If you are deploying the platform on a cluster with access to the external internet, use the main instructions for Deploy IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric.

You can deploy the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric onto a Kubernetes cluster that is running on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric uses a Kubernetes Operator to install the Fabric Operations Console on your cluster and manage the deployment and your blockchain nodes. When the Fabric Operations Console is running on your cluster, you can use the console to create blockchain nodes and operate a multicloud blockchain network.

Need to Know

  • If you are deploying the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric behind a firewall, without access to the public internet, your JavaScript or TypeScript smart contract will not be able to download external dependencies when it is deployed. You need point to a local NPM registry for your smart contract to access the required dependencies. See Building Node.js Contracts with limited internet access. This problem does not occur if you are using smart contracts that are written in Go.

  • After you deploy your peer and ordering nodes, you need to expose the ports of your nodes for your network to be able to respond to requests from applications or nodes outside your firewall. For more information about the ports that you need to expose, see Internet Ports in the security guide.

Storage

In addition to a small amount of storage (10 GB) required by the Fabric Operations Console, persistent storage is required for each CA, peer, and ordering node that you deploy. Because blockchain components do not use the Kubernetes node local storage, network-attached remote storage is required so that blockchain nodes can fail over to a different Kubernetes worker node in the event of a node outage. And because you cannot change your storage type after deploying peer, CA, or ordering nodes, you need to decide the type of persistent storage that you want to use before you deploy any blockchain nodes.

The Fabric Operations Console uses dynamic provisioning to allocate storage for each blockchain node that you deploy by using a pre-defined storage class. You can choose your persistent storage from the available Kubernetes storage options. Each Storage Volume is provisioned with the RWO (Read Write Once) Access mode.

If the storage includes support for the volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstCustomer setting, you should configure it to delay volume binding until the pod is scheduled. Read more in the Kubernetes Storage Classes documentation.

Before you deploy the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric, you must create a storage class with enough backing storage for the Fabric Operations Console and the nodes that you create. You can set this storage class to use the default storage class of your Kubernetes cluster or create a new class that is used by the Fabric Operations Console. If you are using a multizone cluster in IBM Cloud and you change the default storage class definition, then you must configure the default storage class for each zone.
After you create the storage class, run the following command to set the storage class of the multizone region to be the default storage class:

kubectl patch storageclass

If you prefer not to choose a persistent storage option, the default storage class of your namespace or OpenShift project is used. Host-local volume storage is not supported.

Considerations when choosing your persistent storage

Consideration Recommendations
Type Fabric supports three types of storage for your nodes: File, Block, and Portworx. All three types support snapshots, which are important for backups and disaster recovery. Portworx is also useful when you have multiple zones in your cluster. Object storage is not supported by Fabric but can be used for backups.
Performance When you choose your storage, you need to factor in the read/write speed (IOPS/GB). IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric suggests at least 2 IOPS/GB for a development or test environment and 4 IOPS/GB for production networks. Your results may vary depending on your use case and how your client application is written.
Scalability When a node runs out of storage, it ceases to operate. Even if Kubernetes attempts to redeploy the node elsewhere, when the storage is full, the node cannot operate. Because the ledger is immutable and can only grow over time, expandable storage is nice to have for blockchain networks whenever available. At some point, you will run out of storage on your peers and ordering nodes and expandable storage helps to avoid this situation. If the storage is not expandable, when a peer or ordering runs out of storage, you need to provision a new node with a larger storage capacity and then delete the old one. When the new node is deployed, it must replicate the ledger, which can take time depending on the depth of the block history.
Monitoring It's critical to monitor the storage consumption by your nodes. Consider the scenario where you deploy five ordering nodes, all with the same amount of storage. They are all replicating the same ledgers so they will all run out of storage at approximately the same time and you will lose consensus, causing the network to stop functioning. Therefore, you might want to consider varying the storage across the nodes and monitoring it as the ledger grows to avoid this situation. Before storage is exhausted on a node, you can expand it or provision a new node.
Encryption Fabric does not require storage to be encrypted but it is a best practice for Security. You need to decide whether encryption is important for your business. If you have the option of encrypting the persistent volume, there may be some performance implications with encryption to consider.
High Availability (HA) There should be redundancy in the storage to avoid a single point of failure.
Multi-zone capable storage IBM Cloud includes the ability to create a single Kubernetes cluster across multiple data centers or "zones". Portworx offers multi-zone capable storage that can be used to potentially reduce the number of peers required. Consider a scenario where you build two zones with two peers for redundancy, one zone can go down and you still have two peers up in another zone. With multi-zone capable storage, you could instead have two zones with one peer each. If one zone goes down, the peer comes up in the other zone with its storage intact, reducing the overall redundant peer requirements.

Before you begin

  1. See Supported platforms for a list of supported versions.

  2. You need to install and connect to your cluster by using OpenShift Container Platform CLI to deploy the platform.

  3. If you have a Hardware Security Module (HSM) that you plan to use to generate and store the private key for your CA, peer, or ordering nodes, you need to create an HSM client image and push it to your container registry. Follow instructions in the advanced deployment topic to build the image.

  4. If you are installing on OpenShift on IBM Cloud, please refer to Considerations when using OpenShift on IBM Cloud below.

Pull the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric images

The platform recommends that you use the skopeo utility to download and copy your images to your local container registry. skopeo is a tool for moving container images between different types of container storages. In order to download the platform images and copy them to your container registry behind a firewall, you first need to install skopeo.

Run the following set of commands to download the images and push them to your registry.

Replace:

  • <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER> with the user ID with access to your container registry.
  • <LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> with the password to your container registry.

The following commands only work with a Docker container registry. Depending on the level of permissions required for the target location for the images, you might need to prefix each command with sudo.

skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport-operator:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-operator:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport-crdwebhook:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-crdwebhook:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-console:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-console:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-deployer:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-deployer:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport-mustgather:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-mustgather:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-init:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-init:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-enroller:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-enroller:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-couchdb:3.4.2-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-couchdb:3.4.2-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-ca:1.5.16-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-ca:1.5.16-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-grpcweb:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-grpcweb:1.0.9-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-orderer:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-orderer:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-utilities:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-utilities:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-peer:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-peer:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-chaincode-launcher:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-chaincode-launcher:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-ccenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-ccenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-goenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-goenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-nodeenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-nodeenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all
skopeo copy docker://icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport/ibm-hlfsupport-javaenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/ibm-hlfsupport-javaenv:2.5.14-20260409-amd64 -q --dest-creds <LOCAL_REGISTRY_USER>:<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --all

After you complete these steps, you can use the following instructions to deploy the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric with the images in your registry.

Log in to your cluster

Before you can complete the next steps, you need to log in to your cluster by using the OpenShift CLI. You can log in to your cluster by using the OpenShift web console.

  1. Open the OpenShift web console. In the upper right corner of the cluster overview page, click OpenShift web console.

  2. From the web console, click the dropdown menu in the upper right corner and then click Copy Login Command. Paste the copied command in your terminal window.

The command looks similar to the following example:

oc login https://c100-e.us-south.containers.cloud.ibm.com:31394 --token=<TOKEN>

If the command is successful, you can see the list of pods in your cluster in your terminal by running the following command:

oc get pods

If successful, you can see the pods that are running in your default namespace:

docker-registry-7d8875c7c5-5fv5j    1/1       Running   0          7d
docker-registry-7d8875c7c5-x8dfq    1/1       Running   0          7d
registry-console-6c74fc45f9-nl5nw   1/1       Running   0          7d
router-6cc88df47c-hqjmk             1/1       Running   0          7d
router-6cc88df47c-mwzbq             1/1       Running   0          7d

When you connect to your cluster by using the OpenShift CLI, you also connect by using the kubectl CLI. You can find the same pods by running the equivalent kubectl command:

kubectl get pods

Create the ibm-hlfsupport-infra project for the webhook

Because the platform has updated the internal apiversion from v1alpha1 in previous versions to v1beta1, a Kubernetes conversion webhook is required to update the CA, peer, operator, and console to the new API version. This webhook will continue to be used in the future, so new deployments of the platform are required to deploy it as well. The webhook is deployed to its own project, referred to as ibm-hlfsupport-infra throughout these instructions. Webhooks are supported in Kubernetes v1.15 and higher. If your cluster is running Kubernetes v1.14 or lower, you need to upgrade it now to take advantage of this release of the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric.

After you log in to your cluster, you can create the new ibm-hlfsupport-infra project for the Kubernetes conversion webhook using the kubectl CLI. The new project needs to be created by a cluster administrator.

Run the following command to create the project.

oc new-project ibm-hlfsupport-infra

When you create a new project, a new namespace is created with the same name as your project. You can verify that the existence of the new namespace by using the oc get namespace command:

$ oc get namespace
NAME                                STATUS    AGE
ibm-hlfsupport-infra                            Active    2m

Set up the entitlement for a local registry

After you push the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric images to your own Docker registry, you need to store the password to that registry on your cluster by creating a Kubernetes Secret. Using a Kubernetes secret allows you to securely store the key on your cluster and pass it to the operator and the console deployments.

Run the following command to create the secret and add it to your ibm-hlfsupport-infra namespace or project:

kubectl create secret docker-registry cp-pull-secret --docker-server=<LOCAL_REGISTRY> --docker-username=<USER> --docker-password=<LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> --docker-email=<EMAIL> -n <NAMESPACE>

  • Replace <USER> with your username
  • Replace <EMAIL> with your email address.
  • Replace <LOCAL_REGISTRY_PASSWORD> with the password to your registry.
  • Replace <LOCAL_REGISTRY> with the url of your local registry.
  • Replace <NAMESPACE> with ibm-hlfsupport-infra.

The name of the secret that you are creating is cp-pull-secret. It is required by the webhook that you will deploy later. If you change the name of any of secrets that you create, you need to change the corresponding name in future steps.

Before you can deploy a new instance of the platform to your Kubernetes cluster, you need to create the conversion webhook by completing the steps in this section. The webhook is deployed to its own namespace or project, referred to ibm-hlfsupport-infra throughout these instructions.

The first three steps are for deployment of the webhook. The last step is for the custom resource definitions for the CA, peer, orderer, and console components that IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric requires. You only have to deploy the webhook and custom resource definitions once per cluster. If you have already deployed this webhook and custom resource definitions to your cluster, you can skip these four steps below.

1. Configure role-based access control (RBAC) for the webhook

First, copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as rbac.yaml. This step allows the webhook to read and create a TLS secret in its own project.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: webhook
  namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: webhook
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - "*"
  resources:
  - secrets
  verbs:
  - "*"
---
kind: RoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: webhook
  namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
roleRef:
  kind: Role
  name: webhook
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

Run the following command to add the file to your cluster definition:

kubectl apply -f rbac.yaml -n ibm-hlfsupport-infra

When the command completes successfully, you should see something similar to:

serviceaccount/webhook created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/webhook created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/ibm-hlfsupport-infra created

2. Apply the Security Context Constraint

IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric requires specific security and access policies to be added to the ibm-hlfsupport-infra project. Copy the security context constraint object below and save it to your local system as ibm-hlfsupport-infra-scc.yaml.

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with ibm-hlfsupport-infra.

allowHostDirVolumePlugin: false
allowHostIPC: false
allowHostNetwork: false
allowHostPID: false
allowHostPorts: false
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
allowPrivilegedContainer: false
allowedCapabilities:
- NET_BIND_SERVICE
- CHOWN
- DAC_OVERRIDE
- SETGID
- SETUID
- FOWNER
apiVersion: security.openshift.io/v1
defaultAddCapabilities: []
fsGroup:
  type: RunAsAny
groups:
- system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>
kind: SecurityContextConstraints
metadata:
  name: <PROJECT_NAME>
readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
requiredDropCapabilities: []
runAsUser:
  type: RunAsAny
seLinuxContext:
  type: RunAsAny
seccompProfiles:
- runtime/default
supplementalGroups:
  type: RunAsAny
users:
- system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>
volumes:
- "*"

After you save the file, run the following commands to add the file to your cluster and add the policy to your project.

oc apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-infra-scc.yaml -n ibm-hlfsupport-infra
oc adm policy add-scc-to-user ibm-hlfsupport-infra system:serviceaccounts:ibm-hlfsupport-infra

If the commands are successful, you can see a response that is similar to the following example:

securitycontextconstraints.security.openshift.io/ibm-hlfsupport-infra created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/system:openshift:scc:ibm-hlfsupport-infra added: "system:serviceaccounts:ibm-hlfsupport-infra"

3. Deploy the webhook

In order to deploy the webhook, you need to create two .yaml files and apply them to your Kubernetes cluster.

deployment.yaml

Copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as deployment.yaml.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
  labels:
    helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
        app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
        app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
      annotations:
        productName: "IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric"
        productID: "5d5997a033594f149a534a09802d60f1"
        productVersion: "1.0.9"
        productChargedContainers: ""
        productMetric: "VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE"
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: webhook
      imagePullSecrets:
        - name: cp-pull-secret
      hostIPC: false
      hostNetwork: false
      hostPID: false
      securityContext:
        runAsNonRoot: true
        runAsUser: 1000
        fsGroup: 2000
      containers:
        - name: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
          image: "icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport-crdwebhook:1.0.9-20260409-amd64"
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          securityContext:
            privileged: false
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
            runAsNonRoot: true
            runAsUser: 1000
            seccompProfile:
              type: RuntimeDefault
            capabilities:
              drop:
                - ALL
              add:
                - NET_BIND_SERVICE
          env:
            - name: "LICENSE"
              value: "accept"
            - name: NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: SERVICE_NAME
              value: ibm-hlfsupport-webhook
          ports:
            - name: server
              containerPort: 3000
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /healthz
              port: server
              scheme: HTTPS
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 6
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /healthz
              port: server
              scheme: HTTPS
            initialDelaySeconds: 26
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 5
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 0.1
              memory: "100Mi"

Run the following command to add the file to your cluster definition:

kubectl apply -n ibm-hlfsupport-infra -f deployment.yaml

When the command completes successfully, you should see something similar to:

deployment.apps/ibm-hlfsupport-webhook created

service.yaml

Second, copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as service.yaml.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
  labels:
    type: "webhook"
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"
    helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
    - name: server
      port: 443
      targetPort: server
      protocol: TCP
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport-webhook"

Run the following command to add the file to your cluster definition:

kubectl apply -n ibm-hlfsupport-infra -f service.yaml

When the command completes successfully, you should see something similar to:

service/ibm-hlfsupport-webhook created

4. Extract the certificate and create the custom resource definitions

  • Extract the webhook TLS certificate from the ibm-hlfsupport-infra namespace by running the following command:
    export TLS_CERT=$(kubectl get secret/webhook-tls-cert -n ibm-hlfsupport-infra -o jsonpath={'.data.cert\.pem'})
  • When you deploy IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric you need to apply the following four CRDs for the CA, peer, orderer, and console. Run the following four commands to apply or update each CRD.

Run this command to update the CA CRD:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply  -f -
apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: ibpcas.ibp.com
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport"
spec:
  conversion:
    strategy: Webhook
    webhook:
      clientConfig:
        caBundle: "${TLS_CERT}"
        service:
          name: ibm-hlfsupport-webhook
          namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
          path: /crdconvert
      conversionReviewVersions:
      - v1beta1
      - v1alpha2
      - v1alpha1
  group: ibp.com
  names:
    kind: IBPCA
    listKind: IBPCAList
    plural: ibpcas
    singular: ibpca
  scope: Namespaced
  versions:
  - name: v1beta1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: true
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha2
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v210
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: false
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v212
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: false
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
status:
  acceptedNames:
    kind: IBPCA
    listKind: IBPCAList
    plural: ibpcas
    singular: ibpca
  conditions: []
  storedVersions:
  - v1beta1
EOF

Depending on whether you are creating or updating the CRD, when successful, you should see:

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibpcas.ibp.com created

or

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibpcas.ibp.com configured

Run this command to update the peer CRD:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply  -f -
apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: ibppeers.ibp.com
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport"
spec:
  conversion:
    strategy: Webhook
    webhook:
      clientConfig:
        caBundle: "${TLS_CERT}"
        service:
          name: ibm-hlfsupport-webhook
          namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
          path: /crdconvert
      conversionReviewVersions:
      - v1beta1
      - v1alpha2
      - v1alpha1
  group: ibp.com
  names:
    kind: IBPPeer
    listKind: IBPPeerList
    plural: ibppeers
    singular: ibppeer
  scope: Namespaced
  versions:
  - name: v1beta1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: true
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha2
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
status:
  acceptedNames:
    kind: IBPPeer
    listKind: IBPPeerList
    plural: ibppeers
    singular: ibppeer
  conditions: []
  storedVersions:
  - v1beta1
EOF

When successful, you should see:

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibppeers.ibp.com created

or

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibppeers.ibp.com configured

Run this command to update the console CRD:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply  -f -
apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: ibpconsoles.ibp.com
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport"
spec:
  conversion:
    strategy: Webhook
    webhook:
      clientConfig:
        caBundle: "${TLS_CERT}"
        service:
          name: ibm-hlfsupport-webhook
          namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
          path: /crdconvert
      conversionReviewVersions:
      - v1beta1
      - v1alpha2
      - v1alpha1
  group: ibp.com
  names:
    kind: IBPConsole
    listKind: IBPConsoleList
    plural: ibpconsoles
    singular: ibpconsole
  scope: Namespaced
  versions:
  - name: v1beta1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: true
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha2
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
status:
  acceptedNames:
    kind: IBPConsole
    listKind: IBPConsoleList
    plural: ibpconsoles
    singular: ibpconsole
  conditions: []
  storedVersions:
  - v1beta1
EOF

When successful, you should see:

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibpconsoles.ibp.com created

or

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibpconsoles.ibp.com configured

Run this command to update the orderer CRD:

cat <<EOF | kubectl apply  -f -
apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
kind: CustomResourceDefinition
metadata:
  name: ibporderers.ibp.com
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport"
spec:
  conversion:
    strategy: Webhook
    webhook:
      clientConfig:
        caBundle: "${TLS_CERT}"
        service:
          name: ibm-hlfsupport-webhook
          namespace: ibm-hlfsupport-infra
          path: /crdconvert
      conversionReviewVersions:
      - v1beta1
      - v1alpha2
      - v1alpha1
  group: ibp.com
  names:
    kind: IBPOrderer
    listKind: IBPOrdererList
    plural: ibporderers
    singular: ibporderer
  scope: Namespaced
  versions:
  - name: v1beta1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: true
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha2
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
  - name: v1alpha1
    schema:
      openAPIV3Schema:
        x-kubernetes-preserve-unknown-fields: true
    served: true
    storage: false
    subresources:
      status: {}
status:
  acceptedNames:
    kind: IBPOrderer
    listKind: IBPOrdererList
    plural: ibporderers
    singular: ibporderer
  conditions: []
  storedVersions:
  - v1beta1
EOF

When successful, you should see:

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibporderers.ibp.com created

or

customresourcedefinition.apiextensions.k8s.io/ibporderers.ibp.com configured

Create a new project for your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment

Next, you need to create a second project for your deployment of IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric. You can create a new project by using the OpenShift web console or OpenShift CLI. The new project needs to be created by a cluster administrator.

If you are using the CLI, create a new project by the following command:

oc new-project <PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your project.

It is required that you create a new OpenShift project for each blockchain network that you deploy with the IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric. For example, if you plan to create different networks for development, staging, and production, then you need to create a unique project for each environment. Each project creates a new Kubernetes namespace. Using a separate namespace provides each network with separate resources and allows you to set unique access policies for each network. You need to follow these deployment instructions to deploy a separate operator and console for each project.

When you create a new project, a new namespace is created with the same name as your project. You can verify that the existence of the new namespace by using the oc get namespace command:

$ oc get namespace
NAME                                STATUS    AGE
blockchain-project                  Active    2m

You can also use the CLI to find the available storage classes for your namespace. If you created a new storage class for your deployment, that storage class must be visible in the output in the following command:

kubectl get storageclasses

If you are not using the default storage class, additional configuration is required. See Storage for the considerations.

Add security and access policies

The IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric requires specific security and access policies to be added to your project. The contents of a set of .yaml files are provided here for you to copy and edit to define the security policies for your project. You must save these files to your local system and then add them your project by using the OpenShift CLI. These steps need to be completed by a cluster administrator. Also, be aware that the peer init and dind containers that get deployed are required to run in privileged mode.

Apply the Security Context Constraint

Copy the security context constraint object below and save it to your local system as ibm-hlfsupport-scc.yaml. Edit the file and replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your project.

allowHostDirVolumePlugin: false
allowHostIPC: false
allowHostNetwork: false
allowHostPID: false
allowHostPorts: false
allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
allowPrivilegedContainer: false
allowedCapabilities:
- NET_BIND_SERVICE
- CHOWN
- DAC_OVERRIDE
- SETGID
- SETUID
- FOWNER
apiVersion: security.openshift.io/v1
defaultAddCapabilities: []
fsGroup:
  type: RunAsAny
groups:
- system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>
kind: SecurityContextConstraints
metadata:
  name: <PROJECT_NAME>
readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
requiredDropCapabilities: []
runAsUser:
  type: RunAsAny
seLinuxContext:
  type: RunAsAny
seccompProfiles:
- runtime/default
supplementalGroups:
  type: RunAsAny
users:
- system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>
volumes:
- "*"

If you are creating an HSM-enabled operator deployment, you need to replace:

allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
allowPrivilegedContainer: false

with:

allowPrivilegeEscalation: true
allowPrivilegedContainer: true

After you save and edit the file, run the following commands to add the file to your cluster and add the policy to your project. Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with your project.

oc apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-scc.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>
oc adm policy add-scc-to-user <PROJECT_NAME> system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

If the command is successful, you can see a response that is similar to the following example:

securitycontextconstraints.security.openshift.io/blockchain-project created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/system:openshift:scc:blockchain-project added: "system:serviceaccounts:blockchain-project"

Apply the ClusterRole

Copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as ibm-hlfsupport-clusterrole.yaml. This file defines the required ClusterRole for the PodSecurityPolicy. Edit the file and replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your project.

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: <PROJECT_NAME>
  labels:
    release: "operator"
    helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport-operator"
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - apiextensions.k8s.io
  resources:
  - persistentvolumeclaims
  - persistentvolumes
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - apiextensions.k8s.io
  resources:
  - customresourcedefinitions
  verbs:
  - get
- apiGroups:
  - route.openshift.io
  resources:
  - routes
  - routes/custom-host
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - pods
  - pods/log
  - persistentvolumeclaims
  - persistentvolumes
  - services
  - endpoints
  - events
  - configmaps
  - secrets
  - nodes
  - serviceaccounts
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - "batch"
  resources:
  - jobs
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - "authorization.openshift.io"
  - "rbac.authorization.k8s.io"
  resources:
  - roles
  - rolebindings
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
  - bind
  - escalate
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - namespaces
  verbs:
  - get
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resources:
  - deployments
  - daemonsets
  - replicasets
  - statefulsets
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - monitoring.coreos.com
  resources:
  - servicemonitors
  verbs:
  - get
  - create
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resourceNames:
  - ibm-hlfsupport-operator
  resources:
  - deployments/finalizers
  verbs:
  - update
- apiGroups:
  - ibp.com
  resources:
  - ibpcas.ibp.com
  - ibppeers.ibp.com
  - ibporderers.ibp.com
  - ibpconsoles.ibp.com
  - ibpcas
  - ibppeers
  - ibporderers
  - ibpconsoles
  - ibpcas/finalizers
  - ibppeers/finalizers
  - ibporderers/finalizers
  - ibpconsoles/finalizers
  - ibpcas/status
  - ibppeers/status
  - ibporderers/status
  - ibpconsoles/status
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  - networking.k8s.io
  - config.openshift.io
  resources:
  - ingresses
  - networkpolicies
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - create
  - update
  - patch
  - watch
  - delete
  - deletecollection

After you save and edit the file, run the following commands. Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with your project.

oc apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-clusterrole.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>
oc adm policy add-scc-to-group <PROJECT_NAME> system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

If successful, you can see a response that is similar to the following example:

clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/blockchain-project created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/system:openshift:scc:blockchain-project added: "system:blockchain-project"

Apply the ClusterRoleBinding

Copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as ibm-hlfsupport-clusterrolebinding.yaml. This file defines the ClusterRoleBinding. Edit the file and replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project:

kind: ClusterRoleBinding
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: <PROJECT_NAME>
  labels:
    release: "operator"
    helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport-operator"
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: default
  namespace: <PROJECT_NAME>
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: <PROJECT_NAME>
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

After you save and edit the file, run the following commands. Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with your project:

oc apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-clusterrolebinding.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>
oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user <PROJECT_NAME> system:serviceaccounts:<PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

If successful, you can see a response that is similar to the following example:

clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/blockchain-project created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/blockchain-project added: "system:serviceaccounts:blockchain-project"

Deploy the Hyperledger Fabric operator

The IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric uses an operator to install the Fabric Operations Console. You can deploy the operator on your cluster by adding a custom resource to your project by using the OpenShift CLI. The custom resource pulls the operator image from the Docker registry and starts it on your cluster.

Copy the following text to a file on your local system and save the file as ibm-hlfsupport-operator.yaml. If you changed the name of the Docker key secret, then you need to edit the field of name: cp-pull-secret.

Replace image: icr.io/cpopen/ with image: <LOCAL_REGISTRY>/, insert the URL of your local registry.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: ibm-hlfsupport-operator
  labels:
    release: "operator"
    helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
    app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport-operator"
spec:
  replicas: 1
  strategy:
    type: "Recreate"
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      name: ibm-hlfsupport-operator
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        name: ibm-hlfsupport-operator
        release: "operator"
        helm.sh/chart: "ibm-hlfsupport"
        app.kubernetes.io/name: "ibm-hlfsupport"
        app.kubernetes.io/instance: "ibm-hlfsupport"
        app.kubernetes.io/managed-by: "ibm-hlfsupport-operator"
      annotations:
        productName: "IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric"
        productID: "5d5997a033594f149a534a09802d60f1"
        productVersion: "1.0.0"
        productChargedContainers: ""
        productMetric: "VIRTUAL_PROCESSOR_CORE"
    spec:
      hostIPC: false
      hostNetwork: false
      hostPID: false
      serviceAccountName: default
      affinity:
        nodeAffinity:
          requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
            nodeSelectorTerms:
              - matchExpressions:
                  - key: kubernetes.io/arch
                    operator: In
                    values:
                      - amd64
      securityContext:
        runAsNonRoot: true
        runAsUser: 1001
        fsGroup: 2000
      imagePullSecrets:
        - name: cp-pull-secret
      containers:
        - name: ibm-hlfsupport-operator
          image: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport-operator:1.0.9-20260409-amd64
          command:
            - ibp-operator
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          securityContext:
            privileged: false
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            readOnlyRootFilesystem: false
            runAsNonRoot: true
            runAsUser: 7051
            runAsGroup: 7051
            seccompProfile:
              type: RuntimeDefault
            capabilities:
              drop:
                - ALL
              add:
                - CHOWN
                - FOWNER
          livenessProbe:
            tcpSocket:
              port: 8383
            initialDelaySeconds: 10
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 5
          readinessProbe:
            tcpSocket:
              port: 8383
            initialDelaySeconds: 10
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            periodSeconds: 5
          env:
            - name: WATCH_NAMESPACE
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.namespace
            - name: POD_NAME
              valueFrom:
                fieldRef:
                  fieldPath: metadata.name
            - name: OPERATOR_NAME
              value: "ibm-hlfsupport-operator"
            - name: CLUSTERTYPE
              value: OPENSHIFT
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 100m
              memory: 200Mi
            limits:
              cpu: 100m
              memory: 200Mi
  • If you changed the name of the Docker key secret, then you need to edit the field of name: cp-pull-secret.

Then, use the kubectl CLI to add the custom resource to your project.

kubectl apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-operator.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

You can confirm that the operator deployed by running the command kubectl get deployment -n <PROJECT_NAME>. If your operator deployment is successful, then you can see the following tables with four ones displayed. The operator takes about a minute to deploy.

NAME           READY     UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
ibm-hlfsupport-operator   1/1       1            1           46s

Deploy the Fabric Operations Console

When the operator is running on your namespace, you can apply a custom resource to start the Fabric Operations Console on your cluster. You can then access the console from your browser. Note that you can deploy only one console per OpenShift project.

Save the custom resource definition below as ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml on your local system:

apiVersion: ibp.com/v1beta1
kind: IBPConsole
metadata:
  name: ibm-hlfsupport-console
spec:
  arch:
  - amd64
  license:
    accept: false
  serviceAccountName: default
  email: "<EMAIL>"
  password: "<PASSWORD>"
  registryURL: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport
  imagePullSecrets:
    - cp-pull-secret
  networkinfo:
    domain: <DOMAIN>
  storage:
    console:
      class: ""
      size: 5Gi
  usetags: true
  version: 1.0.0

Accept the license:

Specify the external endpoint information of the console in the ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml file:

  • Replace registryURL: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport with the URL of your local registry.
  • Replace <DOMAIN> with the name of your cluster domain. You can find this value by using the OpenShift web console. Use the dropdown menu next to OpenShift Container Platform at the top left of the page to switch from Service Catalog to Cluster Console. Examine the URL for that page. It will be similar to console.xyz.abc.com/k8s/cluster/projects. The value of the domain then would be xyz.abc.com, after removing console and /k8s/cluster/projects.

Provide the user name and password that is used to access the console for the first time:

  • Replace <EMAIL> with the email address of the console administrator.
  • Replace <PASSWORD> with the password of your choice. This password also becomes the default password of the console until it is changed.

You also need to make additional edits to the file depending on your choices in the deployment process:

  • If you changed the name of your Docker key secret, change corresponding value of the imagePullSecrets: field.
  • If you created a new storage class for your network, provide the storage class that you created to the class: field.

Because you can only run the following command once, you should review the Advanced deployment options in case any of the options are relevant to your configuration, before you install the console. For example, if you are deploying your console on a multizone cluster, you need to configure that before you run the following step to install the console.

After you update the file, you can use the CLI to install the console.

kubectl apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your project. Before you install the console, you might want to review the advanced deployment options in the next section. The console can take a few minutes to deploy.

Advanced deployment options

You can edit the ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml file to allocate more resources to your console or use zones for high availability in a multizone cluster. To take advantage of these deployment options, you can use the console resource definition with the resources: and clusterdata: sections added:

apiVersion: ibp.com/v1beta1
kind: IBPConsole
metadata:
  name: ibm-hlfsupport-console
spec:
  arch:
  - amd64
  license:
    accept: false
  serviceAccountName: default
  email: "<EMAIL>"
  password: "<PASSWORD>"
  registryURL: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport
  imagePullSecrets:
    - cp-pull-secret
  networkinfo:
    domain: <DOMAIN>
  storage:
    console:
      class: ""
      size: 5Gi
  clusterdata:
    zones:
  resources:
    console:
      requests:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1000Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1000Mi
    configtxlator:
      limits:
        cpu: 25m
        memory: 50Mi
      requests:
        cpu: 25m
        memory: 50Mi
    couchdb:
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1000Mi
      requests:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1000Mi
    deployer:
      limits:
        cpu: 100m
        memory: 200Mi
      requests:
        cpu: 100m
        memory: 200Mi
  usetags: true
  version: 1.0.0
  • You can use the resources: section to allocate more resources to your console. The values in the example file are the default values allocated to each container. Allocating more resources to your console allows you to operate a larger number of nodes or channels. You can allocate more resources to a currently running console by editing the resource file and applying it to your cluster. The console will restart and return to its previous state, allowing you to operate all of your exiting nodes and channels.
  • If you plan to use the console with a multizone Kubernetes cluster, you need to add the zones to the clusterdata.zones: section of the file. When zones are provided to the deployment, you can select the zone that a node is deployed to using the console or the APIs. As an example, if you are deploying to a cluster across the zones of dal10, dal12, and dal13, you would add the zones to the file by using the format below.
     clusterdata:
   zones:
     - dal10
     - dal12
     - dal13

When you finish editing the file, apply it to your cluster.

kubectl apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

Unlike the resource allocation, you cannot add zones to a running network. If you have already deployed a console and used it to create nodes on your cluster, you will lose your previous work. After the console restarts, you need to deploy new nodes.

Use your own TLS Certificates (Optional)

The Fabric Operations Console uses TLS certificates to secure the communication between the console and your blockchain nodes and between the console and your browser. You have the option of creating your own TLS certificates and providing them to the console by using a Kubernetes secret. If you skip this step, the console creates its own self-signed TLS certificates during deployment.

This step needs to be performed before the console is deployed.

You can use a Certificate Authority or tool to create the TLS certificates for the console. The TLS certificate needs to include the hostname of the console and the proxy in the subject name or the alternative domain names. The console and proxy hostname are in the following format:

Console hostname: <PROJECT_NAME>-ibm-hlfsupport-console-console.<DOMAIN>
Proxy hostname: <PROJECT_NAME>-ibm-hlfsupport-console-console-proxy.<DOMAIN>

  • Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of the OpenShift project that you created.
  • Replace <DOMAIN> with the name of your cluster domain. You can find this value by using the OpenShift web console. Use the dropdown menu next to OpenShift Container Platform at the top of the page to switch from Service Catalog to Cluster Console. Examine the URL for that page. It will be similar to console.xyz.abc.com/k8s/cluster/projects. The value of the domain then would be xyz.abc.com, after removing console and /k8s/cluster/projects.

Navigate to the TLS certificates that you plan to use on your local system. Name the TLS certificate tlscert.pem and the corresponding private key tlskey.pem. Run the following command to create the Kubernetes secret and add it to your OpenShift project. The TLS certificate and key need to be in PEM format.

kubectl create secret generic console-tls-secret --from-file=tls.crt=./tlscert.pem --from-file=tls.key=./tlskey.pem -n <PROJECT_NAME>

After you create the secret, add the tlsSecretName field to the spec: section of ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml with one indent added, at the same level as the resources: and clusterdata: sections of the advanced deployment options. You must provide the name of the TLS secret that you created to the field. The following example deploys a console with the TLS certificate and key stored in a secret named "console-tls-secret". Replace "<CONSOLE_TLS_SECRET_NAME>" with "console-tls-secret" unless you used a different name for the secret.

apiVersion: ibp.com/v1beta1
kind: IBPConsole
metadata:
  name: ibm-hlfsupport-console
spec:
  arch:
  - amd64
  license:
    accept: false
  serviceAccountName: default
  email: "<EMAIL>"
  password: "<PASSWORD>"
  registryURL: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport
  imagePullSecrets:
    - cp-pull-secret
  networkinfo:
    domain: <DOMAIN>
  storage:
    console:
      class: default
      size: 10Gi
  usetags: true
  tlsSecretName: "<CONSOLE_TLS_SECRET_NAME>"
  • Reminder: Replace registryURL: icr.io/cpopen/ibm-hlfsupport with the URL of your local registry and accept the license.

When you finish editing the file, you can apply it to your cluster in order to secure communications with your own TLS certificates:

kubectl apply -f ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml -n <PROJECT_NAME>

Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment project.

Verifying the console installation

You can confirm that the operator deployed by running the command kubectl get deployment -n <PROJECT_NAME>. If your console deployment is successful, you can see ibm-hlfsupport-console added to the deployment table, with four ones displayed. The console takes a few minutes to deploy. You might need to click refresh and wait for the table to be updated.

NAME           READY     UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
ibm-hlfsupport-operator   1/1       1            1           10m
ibm-hlfsupport-console     1/1       1            1           4m

The console consists of four containers that are deployed inside a single pod:

  • optools: The console UI.
  • deployer: A tool that allows your console to communicate with your deployments.
  • configtxlator: A tool used by the console to read and create channel updates.
  • couchdb: An instance of CouchDB that stores the data from your console, including your authorization information.

If there is an issue with your deployment, you can view the logs from an individual container. First, run the following command to get the name of the console pod:

kubectl get pods -n <PROJECT_NAME>

Then, use the following command to get the logs from one of the four containers inside the pod:

kubectl logs -f <pod_name> <container_name> -n <PROJECT_NAME>

As an example, a command to get the logs from the UI container would look like the following example:

kubectl logs -f ibm-hlfsupport-console-55cf9db6cc-856nz console -n blockchain-project

Log in to the console

You can use your browser to access the console by using the console URL:

https://<NAMESPACE>-ibm-hlfsupport-console-console.<DOMAIN>:443
  • Replace <NAMESPACE> with the name of your IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric deployment namespace.
  • Replace <DOMAIN> with the name of your cluster domain. You passed this value to the DOMAIN: field of the ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml file.

Your console URL looks similar to the following example:

https://blockchain-project-ibm-hlfsupport-console-console.xyz.abc.com:443

You can also find your console URL by logging in to your OpenShift cluster and running the following command. Replace <PROJECT_NAME> with the name of your project:

oc get routes -n <PROJECT_NAME>

In the output of the command, you can see the URLs for the proxy and the console. You need to add https:// to the beginning console URL to access the console. You do not need to add a port to the URL.

In your browser, you can see the console log in screen:

  • For the User ID, use the value you provided for the email: field in the ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml file.
  • For the Password, use the value you encoded for the password: field in the ibm-hlfsupport-console.yaml file. This password becomes the default password for the console that all new users use to log in to the console. After you log in for the first time, you will be asked to provide a new password that you can use to log in to the console.

Ensure that you are not using the ESR version of Firefox. If you are, switch to another browser such as Chrome and log in.

The administrator who provisions the console can grant access to other users and restrict the actions they can perform. For more information, see Managing users from the console.

Next steps

When you access your console, you can view the nodes tab of your console UI. You can use this screen to deploy components on the cluster where you deployed the console. See the Build a network tutorial to get started with the console. You can also use this tab to operate nodes that are created on other clouds. For more information, see Importing nodes.

To learn how to manage the users that can access the console, view the logs of your console and your blockchain components, see Administering your console.

Considerations when using OpenShift on IBM Cloud

The IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric service requires additional configuration when installing on IBM Kubernetes Platform (IKS). Additional steps are needed if a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is used.

Considerations for Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

If you are installing on IBM Cloud using a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), be sure to use a storage class that has a volumeBindingMode with WaitForFirstConsumer See Storage.

All VPC subnets must have a public gateway enabled. Refer to Configuring VPC subnets.