Hyperledger Besu Sample Networks

Table of Contents

• Hyperledger Besu Sample Networks
  • Table of Contents
  • Example Network Setups
    • i. POW (ethash) Network
    • ii. POA (ethash) Network
    • iii. Smart Contracts & DApp (with MetaMask)
    • iv. [POA (IBFT2) Network with ELK for centralised logs]
    • v. POA (IBFT2) Network with Privacy via Orion
    • vi. POA (IBFT2) Network with On Chain Permissioning
    • vii. POA (IBFT2) Network with Ethsigner to sign transactions

Example Network Setups

All our documentation can be found on the Besu documentation site.

There are multiple examples in this repo, and each has a Proof of Work(POW) and Proof of Authority(POA) setup. Each setup comprises a minimum of 4 Ethereum nodes with monitoring tools like:

• Alethio Lite Explorer to explore blockchain data at the block, transaction, and account level
• Metrics monitoring via prometheus and grafana to give you insights into how the chain is progressing
• Optional logs monitoring to give you real time logs of the nodes. This feature is enabled with a -e flag when starting the sample network

The examples also include architecture diagrams to visually show components. They generally use the POA (IBFT2 algorithm) setup, and to view the architecture diagrams for the POW (ethash) setup please see the images folder (where the POA variants have different suffixes).

Each section also includes use case personas (intended as guidelines only).

To start services and the network:

./run.sh starts all the docker containers in POW mode

./run.sh -c ibft2 starts all the docker containers in POA mode using the IBFT2 Consensus algorithm

There is an optional -e parameter which provides centralised logging functionality via ELK

To stop services :

./stop.sh stops the entire network, and you can resume where it left off with ./resume.sh

./remove.sh will first stop and then remove all containers and images

i. POW (ethash) Network

This is the closest thing to how 'BitCoin' works, where miners create blocks. In the Ethereum space, the 'mainnet' and 'ropsten' public networks are POW based

Start the network with:

./run.sh

Use cases:

• you are learning about how Ethereum works
• you are looking to create a Mainnet or Ropsten node but want to see how it works on a smaller scale
• you are a DApp Developer looking for a robust, simple network to use as an experimental testing ground for POCs. Generally speaking DApp developers prefer the immediate finality that a POA IBFT2 algorithm offer but POW networks work wells too

ii. POA (ethash) Network

Start the network with:

./run.sh -c ibft2

Use cases:

• you are learning about how Ethereum works
• you are looking to create a private eth network
• you are a DApp Developer looking for a robust, simple network to use as an experimental testing ground for POCs. With the IBFT2 protocol you get immediate finality which makes life easier

iii. Smart Contracts & DApp (with MetaMask)

• Install metamask as an extension in your browser
• Once you have setup your own private account, select 'My Accounts' by clicking on the avatar pic and then 'Import Account' and enter the following private_key: 0xc87509a1c067bbde78beb793e6fa76530b6382a4c0241e5e4a9ec0a0f44dc0d3
• Run ./run-dapp.sh and when that completes open a new tab in your browser and go to http://localhost:3001 which opens the Truffle pet-shop box app and you can adopt a pet from there. NOTE: Once you have adopted a pet, you can also go to the block explorer and search for the transaction where you can see its details recorded. Metamask will also have a record of any transactions.

This is a video tutorial of the DApp example

Behind the scenes, this has used a smart contract that is compiled and then deployed (via a migration) to our test network. The source code for the smart contract and the DApp can be found in the folder pet-shop

iv. [POA (IBFT2) Network with ELK for centralised logs]

This is the same as example ii. POA (IBFT2) Network but adds in centralized logging via ELK

Start the network with:

./run.sh -c ibft2 -e

Use cases:

• you are learning about how Ethereum works
• you are looking to create a private Ethereum network
• you are a DevOps engineer or administrator looking to see how the full blockchain works with logging and metrics
• you are a DApp developer and looking to build on the previous example with the ability to see transaction logs via ELK

v. POA (IBFT2) Network with Privacy via Orion

Start the network with: ./run-privacy.sh -c ibft2 -e starts all the docker containers in POA mode using the IBFT2 Consensus algorithm, and also has 3 Orion nodes for privacy

./run-privacy.sh starts all the docker containers in POW mode, and also has 3 Orion nodes for privacy

Use cases:

• you are learning about how Ethereum works
• you are a user looking to execute private transactions at least one other party
• you are looking to create a private Ethereum network with private transactions between two or more parties. The logs make it easy to see whats going on between nodes and transactions

This is a video tutorial of what the privacy example does

Where the node details are as follows:

Name	Besu Node address	Orion node key	Node URL
node1	0x866b0df7138daf807300ed9204de733c1eb6d600	9QHwUJ6uK+FuQMzFSXIo7wOLCGFZa0PiF771OLX5c1o=	http://localhost:20000
node2	0xa46f0935de4176ffeccdeecaf3c6e3ca03e31b22	qVDsbJh2UluZOePxbXAL49g0S0s2gGlJ3ftQceMlchU=	http://localhost:20002
node3	0x998c8bc11c28b667e4b1930c3fe3c9ab1cde3c52	T1ItOQxwgY1pTW6YXb2EbKXYkK4saBEys3CfJ2OIKHs=	http://localhost:20004

Testing Privacy between Orion nodes

Install Nodejs and then follow the eeajs-multinode-example which deploys an EventEmitter contract and then sends a couple of Private Transaction from Node1 -> Node2 (& vice versa) with an arbitrary value (1000).

At the end of both transactions, it then reads all three Orion nodes to check the value at an address, and you should observe that only Node1 & Node2 have this information becuase they were involved in the transaction and that Orion3 responds with a 0x value for reads at those addresses

There is an additional erc20 token example that you can also test with: executing node example/erc20.js deploys a HumanStandardToken contract and transfers 1 token to node2.

This can be verified from the data field of the logs which is 1.

vi. POA (IBFT2) Network with On Chain Permissioning

This example showcases on chain permissioning by deploying come smart contracts

Start the network with:

./run-permissioning.sh -e gets the latest smart contract code, compiles the contracts and updates the genesis file with the contract code. Once done it spins up a full network

./run-permissioning-dapp.sh -e With the network up from the previous step, it will migrate the contracts to the network. Once complete, it restarts the blockchain network with permissions enabled so the rules and permissions deployed in the previous step take effect

Open a new tab in your browser and go to http://localhost:3001 to use the Permissioning DApp

Use this scenario:

• if you are a DevOps engineer or administrator looking to see how the full blockchain works with on chain permissioning and restrictions
• if you are looking to start a consortium network with permissioning so you can restrict members that join the network

This is a video tutorial of what the permissioning example does

You need to have the following tools installed

• Nodejs
• Yarn
• JQ
• Install metamask as an extension in your browser
• Once you have setup your own private account, select 'My Accounts' by clicking on the avatar pic and then 'Import Account' for the following private keys:
  • 0x8f2a55949038a9610f50fb23b5883af3b4ecb3c3bb792cbcefbd1542c692be63
  • 0xc87509a1c067bbde78beb793e6fa76530b6382a4c0241e5e4a9ec0a0f44dc0d3
  • 0xae6ae8e5ccbfb04590405997ee2d52d2b330726137b875053c36d94e974d162f

Open a new tab in your browser and go to http://localhost:3001 to use the Permissioning DApp, where you can allow/disallow nodes from the network

vii. POA (IBFT2) Network with Ethsigner to sign transactions

Start the network with:

./run.sh -c ibft2 -s gets the latest smart contract code, compiles the contracts and updates the genesis file with the contract code. Once done it spins up a full network

Use this scenario:

• if you need to sign transactions with a private key and forward that to the Ethereum client (for example Besu)

Once it is up you can follow this tutorial which shows you how to sign transactions that get on the chain. NOTE: please remember to use port 18545 for any examples in this tutorial