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How to deploy Hyperledger Fabric V1.0 network in production level?


I have setup a Hyperledger Fabric V1.0 Network by following the Hyperledger-fabric docs and using fabric-sdk-java client I am able to communicate with the network from my java application. Now everything is working fine in the development setup. But still I am not getting the clear picture about its production level implemenation. Looking for some valuable suggestions for the following points to make it production live.

  1. Will it be possible to use this setup for production? then how can I build my network using this docker-compose setup? Which are the options available for production hosting of the network?
  2. If it is possible to setup in production, should I run this docker-compose set up and all in all the peer system's, then how will I configure the docker-compose.yaml to define each of the peers/organisations which are in different system?
  3. I have found Bluemix Blockchain Service as an alternative, but it is having high monthly charges. So is there any alternative to deploy myown Hyperledger Fabric V1.0 network by defining myown peers and organization?

Solution

    1. I think that for a production deployment, you'd likely want to implement Swarm or Kubernetes. See Hyperledger Cello for instance. You will also want to have a process and automation for managing the code going forward. Updating images, chaincode, etc. Further, you might want to further automate some of the on-boarding process which at present is rather bare bones.

    2. As noted above, the Docker Compose is designed for a single system. You'd likely want to use Swarm or Kubernetes to manage nodes on different systems and you want decentralized operations when you are engaging multiple entities into a consortia where the members want to choose where they run their nodes.

    3. There is a developer sandbox offering that you can deploy to IBM's Container service (Kubernetes) but you won't be getting the benefits of the crypto acceleration, HSM, and added security of the LinuxOne platform on which IBM deploys the IBM Blockchain Platform. The good things in life may be free, but I would want to have the added value of a vendor provided cloud offering like IBM Blockchain Platform for my production system. YMMV.