Getting started with IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4
ATTENTION!! IBM Blockchain Platform Software Edition has been replaced by IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric!! IBM Blockchain Platform Software Edition is no longer supported as of April 30, 2023. Customers have been directed to migrate their networks by April 30, 2023. After this date, IBM Blockchain Platform software networks that are not migrated to IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric will be at risk for potential security vulnerabilities. Migration scripts are provided, and the disruption to your network is minimal. See Migrating to IBM Support for Hyperledger Fabric for details.
IBM® Blockchain Platform provides a managed and full stack blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) offering that allows you to deploy blockchain components on many platforms including open source Kubernetes, distributions such as Rancher, and OpenShift Container Platform. For details of what is supported, see Supported Platforms. This offering is ideal for the customers who want to deploy their components, store their data, or run their workloads on their own infrastructure or across public and private clouds for security, risk mitigation, preference, or compliance reasons. Clients can build, operate, and grow their blockchain networks with an offering that can be used from development through production.
Your entitlement includes the flexible management console for deploying and managing your blockchain network. Use the console or IBM Blockchain Platform APIs to build a consortium of organizations to easily transact on the same network, regardless of each client's cloud preference. By installing the IBM Blockchain Platform console, users can create components in their clusters and connect them to components deployed on other clusters, forming a distributed, multi-organizational blockchain network.
Experienced Hyperledger Fabric customers who prefer to deploy and manage their containers can download and use the peer, CA, orderer, and smart contract container images without the management console.
The IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 is purchased as a stand-alone entitlement. After purchase, you can access the My IBM dashboard to obtain your entitlement key for the offering. This key is required to deploy the release or download the container images unless you are deploying from Red Hat Marketplace.
With this offering, you are responsible for purchasing and provisioning your own Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, you will need to open ports in your firewall if you are using one.
Are you a Red Hat Marketplace customer?
Already using Red Hat Marketplace and ready to try out blockchain? Check out these instructions to get started.
Already have an IBM Blockchain Platform v2.1.x network and want to upgrade?
Check out the following topics for instructions on how to upgrade:
Is IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 suitable for you?
IBM Blockchain Platform provides different offerings that allow you to deploy your network in the environment of your choice. You need to decide if you want to deploy the IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 or if you want to use the IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud.
| IBM Blockchain Platform for anywhere (2.5.4) | IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Where do you want to deploy the platform? | Multiple Kubernetes distributions on a private, public or hybrid multicloud See Supported Platforms |
A Kubernetes cluster on IBM Cloud See Supported configuration |
| What are my deployment options? |
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| How is it billed? | Contact us for pricing | $0.29 USD per allocated CPU hour |
| Can I connect with Peers in other clouds? | Yes | Yes |
| Can my data center be on-prem and behind a firewall? | Yes | No |
| Can I use a console UI to deploy and manage my blockchain components? | Yes | Yes |
| Are APIs available for node management? | Yes | Yes |
| I am an experienced Fabric customer. Are peer, CA, orderer, and smart contract images available and supported? | Yes | No |
| Where can I learn more? | See About IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 | See About IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud |
| Ready to get started? | See Step one: Install the IBM Blockchain Platform | See Getting started with IBM Blockchain Platform for IBM Cloud |
| ** IBM Blockchain images - Your purchase of IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 includes an entitlement to images for peer, CA, ordering service, and smart contract containers that are signed by IBM. The images are based on the open source Hyperledger Fabric code base and contain a number of enhancements. The images are bundled with support from IBM. The IBM Blockchain images do not include the IBM Blockchain management console or operator. This offering is intended for experienced Fabric users with existing Fabric deployments. For more information, see Using the IBM Blockchain images. |
Have questions and want to speak to an IBM Blockchain Platform expert? Schedule a consult now to learn more about how blockchain can transform your business.
Developer Tools
Are you a developer? Check out the IBM Blockchain Platform Developer Tools, a free IDE that provides an explorer and commands accessible from the command palette for developing smart contracts quickly. Install it locally.
IBM Blockchain images
- Your purchase of IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 includes an entitlement to images for peer, Certificate Authority, ordering service, and smart contract containers that are signed by IBM. The images are based on the open source Hyperledger Fabric code base and contain a number of enhancements. The images are bundled with support from IBM. The IBM Blockchain images do not include the IBM Blockchain management console or operator. This offering is intended for experienced Fabric users with existing Fabric deployments. For more information, see IBM Blockchain images for Hyperledger Fabric.
Before you begin
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Review the Supported Platforms.
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Install a Kubernetes cluster and log in to your cluster. If you are using OpenShift, see the OpenShift Container Platform CLI to deploy the CLI. If you are using an OpenShift cluster that was deployed with the IBM Kubernetes Service, use these instructions to Install the OpenShift Origin CLI.
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If you are not running the platform on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform or Red Hat Open Kubernetes Distribution, you need to set up the NGINX Ingress controller and it needs to be running in SSL passthrough mode. If you are using OpenShift with a load balancer that is external to the OpenShift cluster, configuring the external load balancer to use SSL passthrough is required.
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If you are not deploying from Red Hat Marketplace, get the entitlement key from your MyIBM account in order to install the platform. For more information, see Get your entitlement key.
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Review the persistent storage considerations for OpenShift or Kubernetes depending on your platform.
Step one: Install the IBM Blockchain Platform
The IBM Blockchain Platform uses a Kubernetes Operator to install the IBM Blockchain Platform console on your cluster and manage the deployment and your blockchain nodes. A cluster administrator can use your entitlement key to deploy the platform on any Kubernetes Cluster
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If you are deploying the IBM Blockchain Platform on the OpenShift Container Platform, you can deploy the platform by using the steps in Deploy IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 on the OpenShift Container Platform. Or, if you prefer to deploy from the Red Hat Marketplace see Deploy IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 from Red Hat Marketplace.
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If you are deploying the IBM Blockchain Platform on open source Kubernetes or a distribution such as Rancher, use the steps described in Deploying IBM Blockchain Platform 2.5.4 on Kubernetes.
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If you are an experienced Hyperledger Fabric customer and prefer to only use the IBM Blockchain images, see Using the IBM Blockchain images. Consult the Fabric documentation for further deployment, configuration, and management instructions. The rest of the steps in this topic do not apply when using the images.
Step two: Grant console access to other users
After the platform is deployed, the console administrator can log in to the console with the email address and password that was provided during console deployment. The password that was provided becomes the default password of the console, and is used by all new users to log in to the console for the first time. The administrator can then add new users to the console, allowing others to log in and start working with IBM Blockchain nodes. The administrator can also set a new default password. To learn more, see Managing users from the console.
Step three: Use the console to create your components
After you deploy the console, you can use it to create, operate, and govern IBM Blockchain components on your Kubernetes cluster. To get started with building a blockchain network by using the management console, go to the Build a network tutorial.
Step four: Connect networks across clouds
You can use your console to operate components that are running on other clusters. First, you need to export the component information to a JSON file from the console where the component was originally deployed. Then, you can import the node JSON file into the console that is deployed on your local cluster and manage the components across clouds. For more information, see Importing nodes.