Terraform Connector

Terraform files for the ILP connector

• Overview
  • Selecting your setup
• Tier 1 with XRP and AWS
  • Set up your domain
  • Acting as a server
  • Adding another peer
  • Upgrading to SSL
• Tier 2 with XRP and AWS
• Access your Connector
  • Use as Moneyd
  • Monitor with Moneyd-GUI
    • Run Both

Overview

This repo contains instructions for how to run an Interledger connector. As the community creates more ways to deploy the connector, they'll be added to this repository.

These instructions are intended for people who want to take part in the early Interledger network as connectors. You'll have to find other members of the community to peer with, and will have to maintain your connector in order to stay on the network.

These instructions will not be perfect, so don't hesitate to ask for help in our Gitter. If you find any mistakes, please submit a PR to this repo to help future readers.

If you want to try Interledger out as a regular user, look at moneyd. Moneyd is a piece of software that runs a "home router" for the interledger. It exposes Interledger access to applications on your machine, and will forward packets to an upstream provider.

Selecting your setup

The instructions you'll want to follow depend on:

1. The ledger(s) you'll be peering over
2. Whether you'll have a parent connector
3. What hosting provider you want to use

1: Interledger currently has functioning integrations for both XRP and Ethereum. Connectors on the live network are currently using XRP, but the first connectors peering over Ethereum will be deployed soon. Instructions for a connector over Ethereum will be added to this repository once this happens.

2: The only difference between "Tier 1" and "Tier 2" connectors is in the routing topology. A Tier 1 connector acts like a Tier 1 ISP. It is a backbone node in the network and requires more upkeep. You must also find other connectors on the network willing to manually peer with you. If you're interested in running a Tier 1 connector, you can find a peer on the Interledger Gitter or mailing list, both accessible from interledger.org.

3: The terraform files currently in this repo are specific to Amazon AWS. The salt files used to provision an already running instance are portable across any hosting provider. If any community members want to add terraform files and instructions for their hosting provider of choice, they can submit a PR to this repo.

Tier 1 with XRP and AWS

• Start out by cloning this repo. Then cd into the tier-1 directory.

• Open ./terraform/terraform.tfvars in your editor of choice. This contains some details that Terraform uses to create your server.

• Replace ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (line 2) with the path of your public key. This should be whatever key you ordinarily use for SSH. When you deploy, terraform will upload it to your server so that you can SSH in.

• Add your private key to ssh-agent using the command ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa where id_rsa is your private key. Use ssh-add -l to verify that your private key has been loaded into the ssh-agent.

• Replace us-east-1 (line 3) with the AWS region you want to run your connector in. You can find the different options in ./terraform/variables.tf.

• Replace example.com (line 4) with a domain that you own. Once you've deployed, follow the set up your domain instructions to point it at your connector.

• Open ./salt/connector/files/launch.config.js in your editor of choice. This file contains the configuration for your connector. If you want to do any advanced configuration of this file, look at the ILP connector README.

• Replace YOUR_HOT_WALLET_RIPPLE_ADDRESS (line 4) with your hot wallet ripple address. This should be an address with at least 35 XRP. Do not keep too much money on this address, in case your server is ever compromised.

• Replace YOUR_HOT_WALLET_RIPPLE_SECRET (line 5) with your hot wallet ripple secret.

• Ask your peer to add a peer plugin for your connector. They'll have to follow the Adding another peer instructions, and then will be able to give you a URI to connect to their server. Replace SERVER_URI_GIVEN_TO_YOU_BY_YOUR_PEER (line 19) with this URI.

  • (If you want to run a websocket server for this peering relationship instead of using your peer's server, follow the Acting as a server instructions).

• Ask your peer for their ripple hot wallet address. Replace RIPPLE_ADDRESS_OF_PEER (line 23) with their ripple hot wallet address.

• Choose a unique global prefix for your connector, and put it in place of MY ILP ADDRESS (line 41). Some examples of prefixes that have already been used are g.zero, g.africa, and g.pando.

• Replace the sdb.amazonaws.com URL with the SDB URL corresponding to your AWS region (the one you entered into ./terraform/variables.tf). Here's the list of the SimpleDB URLs for each AWS region.

• Go to your AWS management dashboard and open the IAM service. If you do not have an AWS account, create one and add your billing details.

• In IAM, go to "Manage Users" and add a new user. Use an existing policy, and select "AdministratorAccess". Set the user's name to "connector".

• Once the user is created, save the Access Key and Secret Key. Create a file called ~/terraform.sh and copy in the following:

#!/bin/bash

AWS_ACCESS_KEY=XXXXXXX AWS_SECRET_KEY=XXXXXXXX terraform $*

• Replace the values in ~/terraform.sh with the values you copied from IAM.

• Install Terraform on your machine.

• Now it's time for you to deploy. Run:

cd terraform
bash ~/terraform.sh init
bash ~/terraform.sh apply

• Enter 'yes' when Terraform asks you to confirm. Wait for the deploy to finish. It should end by printing your server's IP address. If there was an error,

• If you did not encounter any errors, then your connector is running! Follow Access your Connector to start using it.

• If you encounter any issues, you can use the IP address that Terraform returned to SSH into the machine. Once you're inside the machine, you can use sudo pm2 logs to see the connector's logs. You can fix the issue in the configuration files on your local machine, then redeploy.

Set up your domain

• Your connector must be deployed already. Complete the deploy instructions, then continue here.

• Go to your AWS management console and open the "Route 53" service.

• Under "Hosted Zones," you should see an entry for the domain that you configured on your connector. Click that entry.

• Select the nameservers on the hosted zone, and configure your domain to point at them. Give the change a little while to propagate.

• You're done! Your domain now can be used for your peering relationships.

Acting as a server

• Open your ./salt/connector/files/launch.config.js.

• On the peer that you want to be a server for, replace:

  server: ".....",

With

  listener: {
    port: 8080,
    secret: "GENERATE_A_SECURE_RANDOM_SECRET"
  },

• If you already have a listener with port 8080, you'll have to use a different port. If you're using port 8080, skip the following indented steps.

  • If you're using a port other than 8080, open ./terraform/main.tf. For example, let's say you're using port 1080.

  • In resource "aws_security_group" "elb", add the following block:

  ingress {
    from_port   = 1080
      to_port     = 1080
      protocol    = "tcp"
      cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
  

  • In resource "aws_security_group" "default", add the following block:

  ingress {
    from_port   = 1080
    to_port     = 1080
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["10.0.0.0/16"]
  }
  

  • In resource "aws_elb" "web", add the following block:

  listener {
    instance_port     = 1080
    instance_protocol = "tcp"
    lb_port           = 1080
    lb_protocol       = "tcp"
  }
  

• Now the server you can give your peer is btp+ws://:[email protected]:PORT with:

  • example.com as your domain
  • GENERATE_A_SECURE_RANDOM_SECRET as your generated secret
  • 8080 as your instance port (the load balancer will expose 80). If you followed the indented steps above replace 8080 with the port you used (e.g. 1080).

  (Change to wss if you already completed Upgrading to SSL)

• Make sure you Set up your domain once your connector is deployed, if it is not deployed already.

• Redeploy your connector if it is already deployed.

Adding another peer

• Open ./salt/connector/files/launch.config.js in your editor of choice.

• Add the following block, after the constants declared at the top of the file:

const secondPeerPlugin = {
  relation: 'peer',
  plugin: 'ilp-plugin-xrp-paychan',
  assetCode: 'XRP',
  assetScale: 9,
  balance: {
    maximum: '10000000',
    settleThreshold: '-5000000',
    settleTo: '0'
  },
  options: {
    assetScale: 9,
    server: 'SERVER_URI_GIVEN_TO_YOU_BY_YOUR_PEER',
    rippledServer: 'wss://s1.ripple.com',
    secret,
    address,
    peerAddress: 'RIPPLE_ADDRESS_OF_PEER'
  }
}

• Follow the instructions in Tier 1 with XRP and AWS to fill in the placeholder fields. If you are the websocket server in this relationship, you'll also have to follow Acting as a Server.

• In the CONNECTOR_ACCOUNTS object, add another entry that says:

  secondPeer: secondPeerPlugin

• Redeploy your connector.

Upgrading to SSL

• Go to your AWS management console. Select the "Certificate Manager" service.

• Select "Request a Certificate," and request *.example.com, where example.com is the domain you put in your ./terraform/terraform.tfvars.

• Follow the instructions that AWS provides. If you've configured your domain via Route 53 (which Terraform should have done automatically), AWS will go through the process automatically.

• Open ./terraform/main.tf in your editor of choice.

• Add the following block at the top of the file (replacing example.com with your domain):

data "aws_acm_certificate" "web-cert" {
  domain   = "*.example.com"
  statuses = ["ISSUED"]
}

• In the resource "aws_security_group" "elb" block, replace the entire ingress block containing from_port = 80 with the following block:

  ingress {
    from_port   = 443
    to_port     = 443
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }

• In the resource "aws_elb" "web" block, change lb_port to 443 wherever it previously said 80, in any listener block. Change lb_protocol to ssl on all listener blocks. In every listener block, add the following line at the end:

    ssl_certificate_id = "${data.aws_acm_certificate.web-cert.arn}"

• If you've already deployed, change directories into ./terraform and run bash ~/terraform.sh apply to apply these changes. You don't need to taint anything; Terraform is smart enough to notice which blocks you've edited.

Redeploy

In order to redeploy, you must be in your terraform directory. This will fail if you aren't on the same machine that you initially deployed from.

bash ~/terraform.sh taint aws_instance.web
bash ~/terraform.sh apply

Tier 2 with XRP and AWS

• Start out by cloning this repo. Then cd into the tier-2 directory.

• Open ./terraform/terraform.tfvars in your editor of choice. This contains some details that Terraform uses to create your server.

• Replace ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (line 2) with the path of your public key. This should be whatever key you ordinarily use for SSH. When you deploy, terraform will upload it to your server so that you can SSH in.

• Add your private key to ssh-agent using the command ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa where id_rsa is your private key. Use ssh-add -l to verify that your private key has been loaded into the ssh-agent.

• Replace us-east-1 (line 3) with the AWS region you want to run your connector in. You can find the different options in ./terraform/variables.tf.

• Replace example.com (line 4) with a domain that you own. Once you've deployed, follow the set up your domain instructions to point it at your connector.

• Open ./salt/connector/files/launch.config.js in your editor of choice. This file contains the configuration for your connector. If you want to do any advanced configuration of this file, look at the ILP connector README.

• Replace YOUR_HOT_WALLET_RIPPLE_ADDRESS (line 4) with your hot wallet ripple address. This should be an address with at least 35 XRP. Do not keep too much money on this address, in case your server is ever compromised.

• Replace YOUR_HOT_WALLET_RIPPLE_SECRET (line 5) with your hot wallet ripple secret.

• Find a parent BTP host on the current Connector List. You can also ask for a suitable parent on the Gitter. Replace YOUR_PARENT_HOST (line 13) with this host.

• Replace the sdb.amazonaws.com URL with the SDB URL corresponding to your AWS region (the one you entered into ./terraform/variables.tf). Here's the list of the SimpleDB URLs for each AWS region.

• Go to your AWS management dashboard and open the IAM service. If you do not have an AWS account, create one and add your billing details.

• In IAM, go to "Manage Users" and add a new user. Use an existing policy, and select "AdministratorAccess". Set the user's name to "connector".

• Once the user is created, save the Access Key and Secret Key. Create a file called ~/terraform.sh, and copy in the following:

#!/bin/bash

AWS_ACCESS_KEY=XXXXXXX AWS_SECRET_KEY=XXXXXXXX terraform $*

• Replace the values in ~/terraform.sh with the values you copied from IAM.

• Install Terraform on your machine.

• Now it's time for you to deploy. Run:

cd terraform
bash ~/terraform.sh init
bash ~/terraform.sh apply

• Enter 'yes' when Terraform asks you to confirm. Wait for the deploy to finish. It should end by printing your server's IP address. If there was an error,

• If you did not encounter any errors, then your connector is running! Follow Access your Connector to start using it.

• If you encounter any issues, you can use the IP address that Terraform returned to SSH into the machine. Once you're inside the machine, you can use sudo pm2 logs to see the connector's logs. You can fix the issue in the configuration files on your local machine, then redeploy.

Access your Connector

Use as your Moneyd

You can access your deployed connector by tunnelling its ilp-plugin-mini-accounts instance to your local machine. Then any application can access it via port 7768, just as though you were running moneyd.

You should have an IP address for your connector, once it's deployed. To get access to your funds locally, just run the following command:

ssh -N -L 7768:localhost:7768 ubuntu@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS

Replace YOUR_IP_ADDRESS with your IP address. This command should produce no output; just keep the command running to keep the port-forward running.

To test your ILP connection, try these examples from moneyd's README.

Monitor with Moneyd-GUI

The connector you deployed comes with a GUI to view routes, ping destinations, and send test payments. This GUI runs as a webserver.

To access it, forward the GUI's port to your local machine.

ssh -N -L 7770:localhost:7770 ubuntu@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS

You should have an IP address for your connector, once it's deployed. Replace YOUR_IP_ADDRESS with this IP address. This command should produce no output; just keep the command running to keep the port-forward running.

Open http://localhost:7770 to see your connector's control panel.

Run Both

If you want to forward both Moneyd and Moneyd GUI, the port-forward commands can be combined

ssh -N -L 7770:localhost:7770 -L 7768:localhost:7768 ubuntu@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS