Creating Splinter Circuits

This procedure summarizes how to create a simple Splinter circuit between two or more nodes, using the example Grid-on-Splinter environment that is defined by grid/examples/splinter/docker-compose.yaml in the grid repository.

For more information on circuit creation, see Creating a Circuit in the Splinter documentation.

Prerequisites

  • Two or more working Grid nodes. See Running Grid on Splinter for the procedure to set up and run Grid. The examples in this procedure shows two nodes, alpha-node-000 and beta-node-000, that are running in Docker containers.

  • A public/private key pair for the circuit administrator on each node. The keys are used to authorize requests sent to Splinter. This procedure uses the private key files /registry/alpha.priv (on alpha-node-000) and /registry/beta.priv (on beta-node-000). In this example, the key paths are saved by environment variables in the Splinter containers and also saved in the allow_keys file of the respective Splinter container to authorize the client to make requests.

  • The full node ID (hostname and network endpoint) of each node that will belong to the circuit. This procedure shows alpha-node-000::tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044 and beta-node-000::tcps://splinterd-beta:8044.

For more information, see the Splinter documentation: Creating a Circuit. or the splinter-circuit-propose(1) man page.

Important Notes

The examples in this procedure use the node hostnames, container names, node IDs, and URLs that are defined in the example Grid-on-Splinter docker-compose file, examples/splinter/docker-compose.yaml. If you are not using this example environment, replace these items with the actual values for your nodes.

If not using the example’s key files for Splinter, indicate the full path to the private key of the user signing the transactions using the --key option in Splinter commands. For more information on client authorization in Splinter, see the Splinter documentation.

Also, this procedure assumes that all nodes are running in docker containers on the same system (as in the example docker-compose file). If the nodes are on separate physical systems, you must share node information and network endpoints with the other administrators. To use the Splinter registry to share node information, see the Splinter documentation.

Procedure

To create a circuit, a user on one node proposes a new circuit that includes one or more other nodes. When users on the other nodes vote to accept the circuit proposal, the circuit is created.

Find the Grid Daemon Key

  1. Get the gridd public key from the first node’s gridd container (such as gridd-alpha). You will need this key when proposing the circuit in a later step.

    $ docker exec gridd-alpha cat /etc/grid/keys/gridd.pub
025011e5207e943aaf2181764bd4d8f921ce6da56ef0060dd06c90bcd44example

Connect to the First Node

  1. Connect to the first node’s splinterd container (such as splinterd-alpha). You will use this container to run Splinter commands on the first node (for example, alpha-node-000).

    $ docker exec -it splinterd-alpha bash
root@splinterd-alpha:/#

  2. Copy the gridd public key from above and save it in a local file. Make sure to use your actual key value instead of the example value shown below.

    root@splinterd-alpha:/# echo "025011e5207e943aaf2181764bd4d8f921ce6da56ef0060dd06c90bcd44example" > gridd.pub

Propose a New Circuit

  1. Propose a new circuit with the splinter circuit propose command.

    root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit propose \
    --node alpha-node-000::tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044 \
    --node beta-node-000::tcps://splinterd-beta:8044 \
    --service gsAA::alpha-node-000 \
    --service gsBB::beta-node-000 \
    --service-type *::scabbard \
    --service-arg *::admin_keys=$(cat gridd.pub) \
    --service-peer-group gsAA,gsBB \
    --auth-type trust \
    --management grid

    For information on each option, see the splinter-circuit-propose(1) man page.

    Note: This command identifies the scabbard service on each node with a service ID (gsAA for alpha and gsBB for beta), plus the node’s host name. Later, you will use this four-character service ID as part of the fully qualified service ID, which is required by grid commands for operations on the circuit.

  2. Check the output to see the results of the transaction. If the proposal transaction succeeded, the output should resemble this example:

     The circuit proposal was submitted successfully
 Circuit: 01234-ABCDE
     Display Name: -
     Circuit Status: Active
     Schema Version: 2
     Management Type: grid

     alpha-node-000
         Endpoints:
             tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044
         Service (scabbard): gsAA
          admin_keys:
              <gridd-alpha public key>
          peer_services:
              gsBB

     beta-node-000
         Endpoints:
             tcps://splinterd-beta:8044
         Service (scabbard): gsBB
           admin_keys:
               <gridd-alpha public key>
           peer_services:
               gsAA

  3. Verify the results by displaying the list of proposals.

    root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit proposals
ID          NAME MANAGEMENT MEMBERS                      COMMENTS PROPOSAL_TYPE
01234-ABCDE -    grid       alpha-node-000;beta-node-000 -        Create

  4. Set a CIRCUIT_ID environment variable based on the output of the proposals command.

    root@splinterd-alpha:/# export CIRCUIT_ID=01234-ABCDE

    Note: This environment variable is used to simplify the splinter commands in this procedure; it is not used directly by the splinter CLI.

  5. Use the circuit ID to display the details of the proposed circuit.

     root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit show $CIRCUIT_ID
 Proposal to create: 01234-ABCDE
   Display Name: -
   Circuit Status: Active
   Schema Version: 2
   Management Type: grid

   alpha-node-000
       Vote: ACCEPT (implied as requester):
           <alpha-public-key>
       Endpoints:
           tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044
       Service (scabbard): gsAA
           admin_keys:
               <gridd-alpha public key>
           peer_services:
               gsBB

   beta-node-000
       Vote: PENDING
       Endpoints:
           tcps://splinterd-beta:8044
       Service (scabbard): gsBB
           admin_keys:
               <gridd-alpha public key>
           peer_services:
               gsAA

Connect to the Second Node

A user on the other node (or nodes) must vote to accept or reject the circuit proposal.

  1. Connect to the second node’s splinterd container (such as splinterd-beta). You will use this container to run Splinter commands on the second node (for example, on beta-node-000).

     $ docker exec -it splinterd-beta bash
 root@splinterd-beta:/#

Vote on the Circuit Proposal

  1. Find the ID of the proposed circuit. This ID is required for voting on the proposal and for interacting with the circuit once it is approved. For example:

     root@splinterd-beta:/# splinter circuit proposals
 ID          NAME MANAGEMENT MEMBERS                      COMMENTS PROPOSAL_TYPE
 01234-ABCDE -    grid       alpha-node-000;beta-node-000 -        Create

  2. As on the first node, save the ID in the CIRCUIT_ID environment variable, which simplifies entering splinter commands.

     root@splinterd-beta:/# export CIRCUIT_ID=01234-ABCDE

  3. Use the circuit ID to show the details of the proposed circuit.

     root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit show $CIRCUIT_ID
 Proposal to create: 01234-ABCDE
    Display Name: -
    Circuit Status: Active
    Schema Version: 2
    Management Type: grid

    alpha-node-000
        Vote: ACCEPT (implied as requester):
            <alpha-public-key>
        Endpoints:
            tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044
        Service (scabbard): gsAA
            admin_keys:
                <gridd-alpha public key>
            peer_services:
                gsBB

    beta-node-000
        Vote: PENDING
        Endpoints:
            tcps://splinterd-beta:8044
        Service (scabbard): gsBB
            admin_keys:
                <gridd-alpha public key>
            peer_services:
                gsAA

  4. Vote to accept the proposal.

     root@splinterd-beta:/# splinter circuit vote \
    $CIRCUIT_ID \
    --accept

Display the Circuit List and Circuit Details

  1. Display all approved circuits to verify that the new circuit has been created. For example:

    root@splinterd-beta:/# splinter circuit list
ID          NAME MANAGEMENT MEMBERS
01234-ABCDE -    grid       alpha-node-000;beta-node-000

  2. Check the circuit status on the first node. The circuit information should be the same on both nodes.

    root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit list
ID          NAME MANAGEMENT MEMBERS
01234-ABCDE -    grid       alpha-node-000;beta-node-000

  3. You can display the circuit’s details with the splinter circuit show command. This example uses the CIRCUIT_ID variable that was set in an earlier step.

     root@splinterd-alpha:/# splinter circuit show $CIRCUIT_ID
 Circuit: 01234-ABCDEg
     Display Name: -
     Circuit Status: Active
     Schema Version: 2
     Management Type: grid

     alpha-node-000
         Endpoints:
             tcps://splinterd-alpha:8044
         Service (scabbard): gsAA
           admin_keys:
               <gridd-alpha public key>
           peer_services:
               gsBB

     beta-node-000
         Endpoints:
             tcps://splinterd-beta:8044
         Service (scabbard): gsBB
           admin_keys:
               <gridd-alpha public key>
           peer_services:
               gsAA

    Now that the circuit has been accepted, note that the output starts with Circuit: instead of the Proposal to create: label that marks a proposed circuit (as shown in a previous step).

Determine the Service ID

Most Grid commands require the fully qualified service ID for the scabbard service on the circuit. This ID has the form circuitID::serviceString (for example, 01234-ABCDE::gsAA). You can run splinter circuit show to see the elements for the service ID, as shown in the previous step.

Tip: The grid CLI accepts the GRID_SERVICE_ID environment variable in place of the --service-id option on the command line. For example, you can use the following command to set this variable on alpha-node-000:

   root@gridd-alpha:/# export GRID_SERVICE_ID=01234-ABCDE::gsAA

For more information on grid commands, see the CLI command reference.

Next Steps

Now that you have a working circuit between member nodes, you can create items such as Pike organizations, product schemas, and Grid products. For more information, see Using Grid Features.