bigchaindb/k8s/nginx/container

Custom Nginx container for a Node

Need

• Since, BigchainDB and MongoDB both need to expose ports to the outside world (inter and intra cluster), we need to have a basic DDoS mitigation strategy to ensure that we can provide proper uptime and security these core services.

• We can have a proxy like nginx/haproxy in every node that listens to global connections and applies cluster level entry policy.

Implementation

• For MongoDB cluster communication, we will use nginx with an environment variable specifying a ":" separated list of IPs in the whitelist. This list contains the IPs of exising instances in the MongoDB replica set so as to allow connections from the whitelist and avoid a DDoS.

• For BigchainDB connections, nginx needs to have rules to throttle connections that are using resources over a threshold.

Step 1: Build the Latest Container

Run docker build -t bigchaindb/nginx:<tag> . from this folder.

Optional: Upload container to Docker Hub: docker push bigchaindb/nginx:<tag>

Step 2: Run the Container

Note that the whilelist IPs must be specified with the subnet in the CIDR format, eg: 1.2.3.4/16

docker run \
--env "MONGODB_FRONTEND_PORT=<port where nginx listens for MongoDB connections>" \
--env "MONGODB_BACKEND_HOST=<ip/hostname of instance where MongoDB is running>" \
--env "MONGODB_BACKEND_PORT=<port where MongoDB is listening for connections>" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_FRONTEND_PORT=<port where nginx listens for BigchainDB connections>" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_BACKEND_HOST=<ip/hostname of instance where BigchainDB is running>" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_BACKEND_PORT=<port where BigchainDB is listening for connections>" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_WS_BACKEND_PORT=<port where BigchainDB is listening for websocket connections>" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_WS_FRONTEND_PORT=<port where nginx listens for BigchainDB WebSocket connections>" \
--env "MONGODB_WHITELIST=<a ':' separated list of IPs that can connect to MongoDB>" \
--env "DNS_SERVER=<ip of the dns server>" \
--name=ngx \
--publish=<port where nginx listens for MongoDB connections as specified above>:<correcponding host port> \
--publish=<port where nginx listens for BigchainDB connections as specified
above>:<corresponding host port> \
--rm=true \
bigchaindb/nginx

For example:

docker run \
--env "MONGODB_FRONTEND_PORT=17017" \
--env "MONGODB_BACKEND_HOST=localhost" \
--env "MONGODB_BACKEND_PORT=27017" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_FRONTEND_PORT=80" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_BACKEND_HOST=localhost" \
--env "BIGCHAINDB_BACKEND_PORT=9984" \
--env="BIGCHAINDB_WS_FRONTEND_PORT=81" \
--env="BIGCHAINDB_WS_BACKEND_PORT=9985" \
--env "MONGODB_WHITELIST=192.168.0.0/16:10.0.2.0/24" \
--name=ngx \
--publish=80:80 \
--publish=17017:17017 \
--rm=true \
bigchaindb/nginx

Note:

You can test the WebSocket server by using wsc tool with a command like: wsc -er ws://localhost:9985/api/v1/streams/valid_tx.