Deploying a node to a server

Linux: Installing and running Corda as a system service

R3 recommends creating system services to run a node. This provides logging and service handling, and ensures the Corda service is run at boot.

1. Install a supported Java distribution. The supported versions are listed in Getting set up for CorDapp development.

2. As root/sys admin user, add a system user which will be used to run Corda:

   sudo adduser --system --no-create-home --group corda
   

3. Create a directory called /opt/corda and change its ownership to the user you want to use to run Corda:

   mkdir /opt/corda; chown corda:corda /opt/corda
   

4. Download the Corda JAR and place it in /opt/corda.

5. Create a directory called cordapps in /opt/corda and save your CorDapp jar file to it. Alternatively, download one of our sample CorDapps to the cordapps directory.

6. Save the following as /opt/corda/node.conf; see Node configuration for a description of these options:

   p2pAddress = "example.com:10002"
   rpcSettings {
       address: "example.com:10003"
       adminAddress: "example.com:10004"
   }
   h2port = 11000
   emailAddress = "[email protected]"
   myLegalName = "O=Bank of Breakfast Tea, L=London, C=GB"
   keyStorePassword = "cordacadevpass"
   trustStorePassword = "trustpass"
   devMode = false
   rpcUsers= [
       {
           user=corda
           password=portal_password
           permissions=[
               ALL
           ]
       }
   ]
   custom { jvmArgs = [ "-Xmx2048m", "-XX:+UseG1GC" ] }
   

7. Make the following changes to /opt/corda/node.conf:

   a. Change the p2pAddress, rpcSettings.address, and rpcSettings.adminAddress values to match your server’s hostname or external IP address. These are the addresses other nodes or RPC interfaces will use to communicate with your node.

   b. Change the ports if necessary; for example, if you are running multiple nodes on one server (see below).

   c. Enter an email address which will be used as an administrative contact during the registration process. This is only visible to the permissioning service.

   d. Enter your node’s desired legal name; see Node identity for more details.

   e. If required, add RPC users.

8. SystemD: Create a corda.service file based on the example below and save it in the /etc/systemd/system/ directory:

   [Unit]
   Description=Corda Node - Bank of Breakfast Tea
   Requires=network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=simple
   User=corda
   WorkingDirectory=/opt/corda
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/corda/corda.jar
   Restart=on-failure
   Environment="CAPSULE_CACHE_DIR=./capsule"
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target
   

9. Upstart: Create a corda.conf file based on the example below and save it in the /etc/init/ directory:

   description "Corda Node - Bank of Breakfast Tea"
   
   start on runlevel [2345]
   stop on runlevel [!2345]
   
   respawn
   setuid corda
   chdir /opt/corda
   exec java -jar /opt/corda/corda.jar
   

10. Make the following changes to corda.service or corda.conf:

    a. Make sure the service description is informative, particularly if you plan to run multiple nodes.

    b. Change the username to the user account you want to use to run Corda. R3 recommends that this user account is not root.

11. SystemD: Make sure the corda.service file is owned by root with the correct permissions:

    sudo chown root:root /etc/systemd/system/corda.service
    sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/corda.service
    

12. Upstart: Make sure the corda.conf file is owned by root with the correct permissions:>

    sudo chown root:root /etc/init/corda.conf
    sudo chmod 644 /etc/init/corda.conf
    

13. Provision the required certificates to your node. Contact the network permissioning service or see Network certificates.

14. SystemD: You can now start a node and set the services to start on boot by running the following systemctl commands:

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable --now corda
    

15. Upstart: You can now start a node by running the following commands:

    sudo start corda
    

The Upstart configuration files created above tell Upstart to start the Corda services on boot so there is no need to explicitly enable them.

You can run multiple nodes by creating multiple directories and Corda services, modifying the node.conf and SystemD or Upstart configuration files so they are unique.

Windows: Installing and running Corda as a Windows service

R3 recommends running Corda as a Windows service. This provides service handling, ensures the Corda service is run at boot, and means the Corda service stays running with no users connected to the server.

1. Install a supported Java distribution. The supported versions are listed in Getting set up for CorDapp development.

2. Create a Corda\cordapps directory:

   mkdir C:\Corda\cordapps
   

3. Download the following JAR file:

   https://software.r3.com/ui/native/corda-releases/net/corda/corda/4.10/corda-4.10.jar

4. Copy the file to the Corda/cordapps directory, and rename it corda.jar.

5. Alternatively, download one of our sample CorDapps to the cordapps directory.

6. Save the following configuration as the file C:\Corda\node.conf. See Node configuration for a description of these options:

    p2pAddress = "example.com:10002"
    rpcSettings {
        address = "example.com:10003"
        adminAddress = "example.com:10004"
    }
    h2port = 11000
    emailAddress = "[email protected]"
    myLegalName = "O=Bank of Breakfast Tea, L=London, C=GB"
    keyStorePassword = "cordacadevpass"
    trustStorePassword = "trustpass"
    devMode = false
    rpcSettings {
       useSsl = false
       standAloneBroker = false
       address = "example.com:10003"
       adminAddress = "example.com:10004"
   }
   custom { jvmArgs = [ '-Xmx2048m', '-XX:+UseG1GC' ] }
   

7. Make the following changes to C:\Corda\node.conf:

   a. Change the p2pAddress, rpcSettings.address and rpcSettings.adminAddress values to match your server’s hostname or external IP address. These are the addresses other nodes or RPC interfaces will use to communicate with your node.

   b. Change the ports if necessary; for example, if you are running multiple nodes on one server (see below).

   c. Enter an email address which will be used as an administrative contact during the registration process. This is only visible to the permissioning service.

   d. Enter your node’s desired legal name; see Node identity for more details.

   e. If required, add RPC users.

8. Copy the required Java keystores to the node; see Network certificates.

9. Download the NSSM service manager.

10. Unzip nssm-2.24\win64\nssm.exe to C:\Corda.

11. Save the following configuration as C:\Corda\nssm.bat:

    nssm install cordanode1 java.exe
    nssm set cordanode1 AppParameters "-jar corda.jar"
    nssm set cordanode1 AppDirectory C:\Corda
    nssm set cordanode1 AppStdout C:\Corda\service.log
    nssm set cordanode1 AppStderr C:\Corda\service.log
    nssm set cordanode1 AppEnvironmentExtra CAPSULE_CACHE_DIR=./capsule
    nssm set cordanode1 Description Corda Node - Bank of Breakfast Tea
    nssm set cordanode1 Start SERVICE_AUTO_START
    sc start cordanode1
    

12. Edit the nssm.bat file:

    a. If you are installing multiple nodes, use a different service name (cordanode1), and modify AppDirectory, AppStdout and AppStderr for each node accordingly.

    b. Set an informative description.

13. Provision the required certificates to your node. Contact the network permissioning service or see Network certificates.

14. Run the batch file by clicking on it or from a command prompt.

15. Run services.msc and verify that a service called cordanode1 is present and running.

16. Run netstat -ano and check for the ports you configured in node.conf.

17. If required, open the ports on the Windows firewall.

Testing your installation

You can verify Corda is running by connecting to your RPC port from another host; for example:

telnet your-hostname.example.com 10002

If you receive the message “Escape character is ^]”, then Corda is running and accessible. Press Ctrl-] and Ctrl-D to exit telnet.

Database schema initialisation and migration

Database schema initialisation

From Corda 4.8, the database schema objects are not automatically initialized during the first run of the node. There are two ways to initialize the database schema sets:

Use initial-registration

Start the node using the initial-registration sub-command:

java -jar corda.jar initial-registration

Use run-migration-scripts

Start the node with the run-migration-scripts sub-command with --core-schemas and --app-schemas:

java -jar corda.jar run-migration-scripts --core-schemas --app-schemas

See Node command-line options for more details.

Database schema migration

The database schema migration process requires you to explicitly perform the following actions. This step is only required when upgrading to Corda 4.8 from a previous version.

Update configuration

This step is only required when updating from versions less than or equal to 4.5.

Remove any transactionIsolationLevel, initialiseSchema, or initialiseAppSchema entries from the database section of your configuration.

Start the node with the run-migration-scripts sub-command

Start the node with the run-migration-scripts sub-command with --core-schemas and --app-schemas.

java -jar corda.jar run-migration-scripts --core-schemas --app-schemas

The node will perform any automatic data migrations required, which may take some time. If the migration process is interrupted it can be continued simply by starting the node again, without harm. The node will stop automatically when migration is complete.

See Node command-line options for more details.