Hosting a Blockchain Network on Elastic Kubernetes Service

In this chapter, we will delve into the fascinating world of blockchain technology and cloud-based services, focusing on the powerful combination of Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and Hyperledger Fabric.

We will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to Hyperledger Fabric on EKS
• Creating an EKS cluster for hosting the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain
• Deploying a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network on EKS
• Key considerations – Security, scaling, and monitoring
• Testing and troubleshooting a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network on EKS

Technical requirements

Hosting a blockchain network on Amazon EKS involves a set of technical requirements and considerations to ensure optimal performance, security, and scalability. The following requirements form a comprehensive checklist for hosting a blockchain network on Amazon EKS:

• Understanding Amazon EKS and Kubernetes: Familiarity with the architecture of Amazon EKS, including how it manages Kubernetes clusters and integrates with other Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as a fundamental understanding of Kubernetes concepts, including pods, services, deployments, and stateful sets, is required
• AWS account and IAM configuration: An active AWS account is necessary to access Amazon EKS and other related services and properly configured IAM roles for EKS, ensuring permissions for creating and managing Kubernetes clusters and interacting with other AWS resources

This chapter will expand on key concepts of network setup and configuration and the creation of an...

Introduction to Hyperledger Fabric on EKS

Amazon’s EKS is a service offered by AWS that allows users to manage Kubernetes. This service facilitates the deployment, management, and scaling of applications that are containerized using Kubernetes. EKS provides a solution that is secure, scalable, and highly available for hosting blockchain networks, including but not limited to Hyperledger Fabric.

Hyperledger Fabric is a permission-based, modular, and extensible blockchain platform designed for enterprise use. It supports smart contracts written in various languages and offers a customizable consensus mechanism. This chapter focuses on hosting a Hyperledger Fabric network on EKS, but the approach can be adapted for other blockchain platforms.

Architecture and components

At a high level, the software architecture of Hyperledger Fabric includes the following components:

Figure 5.1 – High-level components of Hyperledger Fabric

The key...

Creating an EKS cluster for hosting the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain

Creating an Amazon EKS cluster to host a Hyperledger Fabric network involves several steps, from setting up the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI) and EKS CLI to configuring the Kubernetes cluster itself. Step-by-step, let’s complete the following tasks using an active AWS account:

1. Install and configure the AWS CLI with a user that has the necessary permissions, which are AmazonEKSAdminPolicy, AmazonEC2FullAccess, IAMFullAccess, AmazonS3FullAccess, and AmazonVPCFullAccess. The latest version of the AWS CLI for your platform (Windows, macOS, or Linux) can be found here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html.
2. Install eksctl, a simple CLI tool for creating clusters on EKS. It simplifies much of the cluster creation process. Instructions on how to install eksctl can be found here: https://github.com/eksctl-io/eksctl.
3. Create an IAM role that EKS can assume to...

Deploying a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network on EKS

Now that the EKS cluster is set up, we can start deploying the Hyperledger Fabric components. This involves preparing the relevant Docker images for Fabric components for the peers, order-placing, and CA nodes. The official Hyperledger Fabric images can be obtained at https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-2.2/install.html.

In addition to creating the Kubernetes deployments and services for each component, we will also need to set up persistent storage for data persistence, ideally using AWS EBS or EFS.

Persistent Storage

Setting up persistent storage for a Hyperledger Fabric network in Amazon EKS using EBS involves creating Persistent Volumes (PVs) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) in a Kubernetes cluster. This setup ensures data persistence for key components such as peers, order-placing, and CAs nodes across any restarts and failures.

First, we need to manually create an EBS volume in the same AWS...

Key considerations – Security, scaling, and monitoring

When hosting a Hyperledger Fabric network on EKS, consider the following best practices for improving the security posture and business continuity of the solution. Specifically, let’s look at best practices for security, high availability, and scalability.

Enterprise deployments

Before we dive into each aspect from a configuration perspective, let’s analyze a few real-world examples that demonstrate how these considerations are addressed in enterprise deployments.

Security in Hyperledger Fabric – Trade finance platform by we.trade

we.trade is a blockchain-based trade finance platform developed by a consortium of banks to simplify and secure international trade transactions for SMEs. The platform leverages Hyperledger Fabric to manage, track, and protect trade transactions between buyers, sellers, and banks.

The key security measures put in place in the Hyperledger Fabric deployment are...

Testing and troubleshooting a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network on EKS

Testing and troubleshooting a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network deployed on EKS is a crucial step to ensure its reliability, performance, and security. Effective testing strategies include deploying chaincode in a development environment, performing load testing to understand the network’s behavior under stress, and conducting security vulnerability scans to identify potential threats.

After deploying the Hyperledger Fabric network on EKS, test network functionality by invoking and querying chaincode and monitoring the network for potential issues. Use the following tools and techniques for troubleshooting:

• Inspect network component logs using kubectl logs <pod-name> -n hyperledger-fabric
• View detailed resource information and identify issues or misconfigurations with kubectl describe <resource-type> <resource-name> -n hyperledger-fabric
• Execute commands inside...

Summary

This chapter focused on the integration of AWS’s EKS and Hyperledger Fabric for blockchain hosting. We detailed the creation of an EKS cluster via the AWS Management Console and kubectl configuration, as well as the deployment of Hyperledger Fabric’s components on EKS. We also looked at best practices and tools for enhancing the security, high availability, and scalability of the deployed platform. The last section was dedicated to a few strategies and tools for testing and troubleshooting infrastructure and software components.

In the next chapter, we will dive into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database, a fully managed ledger database that offers a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log ‎ owned by a central trusted authority.

Further reading

• Amazon EKS:

  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/

• Hyperledger Fabric:

  https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/