Welcome to your complete guide on getting started with the Hyperledger Fabric Operator! In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the essential steps required to deploy your own network using Kubernetes. But before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at some of the astounding features this operator offers.

Key Features

• Create Certificate Authorities (CA)
• Create Peers
• Create Ordering Services
• Create resources without manual provisioning of cryptographic material
• Domain routing with SNI using Istio
• Run chaincode as external chaincode in Kubernetes
• Support for Hyperledger Fabric 2.3+
• Managed genesis for Ordering services
• End-to-End testing including the execution of chaincodes in KIND
• Renewal of certificates

Creating a Kubernetes Cluster

First things first! In order to deploy your network, you need a Kubernetes Cluster. For this, we’ll utilize KinD (Kubernetes in Docker). Ensure that ports 80 and 443 are available before you create the cluster.

kind-config.yaml:
kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
- role: control-plane
  image: kindest/node:v1.25.8
  extraPortMappings:
  - containerPort: 30949
    hostPort: 80
  - containerPort: 30950
    hostPort: 443

kind create cluster --config=kind-config.yaml

Think of it as setting up a stage for a play. You must make sure that the venue (Kubernetes cluster) is ready and the necessary equipment (ports) is in place to showcase your amazing performance (deployment).

Installing the Kubernetes Operator

Now that the Kubernetes Cluster is up and running, the next step is to install the Kubernetes operator for Fabric. This sets the stage for deploying Certification Fabric Peers, Orderers, and Authorities.

You’ll first need to install Helm. You can find the instructions here.

helm repo add kfs https://kfsoftware.github.io/hlf-helm-charts --force-update
helm install hlf-operator --version=1.9.2 --kfshlf-operator

Installing Istio

Next, we’ll need to install Istio, which will help in managing traffic and services for our application.

curl -L https://istio.io/downloadIstio | sh -
kubectl create namespace istio-system
istioctl operator init
kubectl apply -f - EOF
apiVersion: install.istio.io/v1alpha1
kind: IstioOperator
metadata:
  name: istio-gateway
  namespace: istio-system
spec:
  addonComponents:
    grafana:
      enabled: false
    kiali:
      enabled: false
    prometheus:
      enabled: false
    tracing:
      enabled: false
  components:
    ingressGateways:
      - enabled: true
        k8s:
          hpaSpec:
            minReplicas: 1
          service:
            ports:
            - name: http
              port: 80
              targetPort: 8080
              nodePort: 30949
            - name: https
              port: 443
              targetPort: 8443
              nodePort: 30950
            type: NodePort
        name: istio-ingressgateway
    pilot:
      enabled: true
      k8s:
        hpaSpec:
          minReplicas: 1
        resources:
          limits:
            cpu: 300m
            memory: 512Mi
          requests:
            cpu: 100m
            memory: 128Mi
  meshConfig:
    accessLogFile: dev/stdout
    enableTracing: false
    outboundTrafficPolicy:
      mode: ALLOW_ANY
  profile: default
EOF

Imagine Istio as a traffic cop directing vehicles at a busy intersection, ensuring each service (or “vehicle”) flows smoothly to its intended destination without collisions.

Deploying a Peer Organization

With everything in place, we can start deploying our Peer Organizations. This involves creating a certificate authority and registering users.

kubectl hlf ca create --image=$CA_IMAGE --version=$CA_VERSION --storage-class=standard --capacity=1Gi --name=org1-ca --enroll-id=enroll --enroll-pw=enrollpw --hosts=org1-ca.localho.st --istio-port=443
kubectl wait --timeout=180s --for=condition=Running fabriccas.hlf.kungfusoftware.es --all

Remember, each peer is like a performer, and the certificate authority acts as their manager, ensuring they have all the necessary credentials to perform on stage.

Troubleshooting

If something goes wrong or doesn’t work as expected, here are some troubleshooting tips:

• Chaincode Installation Build Error: Sometimes, the installation might fail due to an unsupported local Kubernetes version. If you’re using something like Minikube, consider switching to KinD which is tested and supported.
• Connection Issues: Ensure that your Istio configuration is correctly set up, and double-check the relevant ports.

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