Create a Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain Network on Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB)

When a user in an AWS account creates a Hyperledger Fabric network on Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB), they also create the first member in the network. This first member has no peer nodes associated with it until you create them. After you create the network and the first member, you can use that member to create an invitation proposal for other members in the same AWS account or in other AWS accounts. Any member can create an invitation proposal.

When you create the network and the first member in your AWS account, the network exists. However, transactions cannot be conducted and the ledger does not exist because there are no peer nodes. Do the following tasks to make your network functional:

• Create an interface VPC endpoint based on the network's VPC service name so that you can privately connect to resources. For more information, see Create an Interface VPC Endpoint for Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) Hyperledger Fabric.

• Create at least one peer node in your first membership to interact with the network and to create and endorse transactions. For more information, see Work with Hyperledger Fabric Peer Nodes on AMB Access.

• Create an invitation proposal for other AWS accounts to be members of the network, or invite an additional member in your account to simulate a multi-AWS account network. Vote Yes on your own proposal to approve it and create the invitation. For more information about inviting members, see Create an Invitation Proposal.

Create a Hyperledger Fabric Network

You can create a Hyperledger Fabric network using the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AMB Access SDK CreateNetwork action.

To create a Hyperledger Fabric network using the AWS Management Console

1. Open the AMB Access console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/managedblockchain/.

2. Choose Create private network.

3. Under Blockchain frameworks:

   1. Select the blockchain framework to use. This tutorial is based on Hyperledger Fabric version 2.2.

   2. Select the Network edition to use. The network edition determines attributes of the network, such as the maximum number of members, nodes per member, and transaction throughput. Different editions have different rates associated with the membership. For more information, see Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) Pricing.

4. Enter a Network name and description.

5. Under Voting Policy, choose the following:

   1. Enter the Approval threshold percentage along with the comparator, either Greater than or Greater than or equal to. For a proposal to pass, the Yes votes cast must meet this threshold before the vote duration expires.

   2. Enter the Proposal duration in hours. If enough votes are not cast within this duration to either approve or reject a proposal, the proposal status is EXPIRED, no further votes on this proposal are allowed, and the proposal does not pass.

6. Choose Next, and then, under Create member, do the following to define the first member for the network, which you own:

   1. Enter a Member name that will be visible to all members and an optional Description.

   2. Under Hyperledger Fabric certificate authority (CA) configuration specify a username and password to be used as the administrator on the Hyperledger Fabric CA. Remember the user name and password. You need them later any time that you create users and resources that need to authenticate.

   3. Choose Next.

7. Review Network options and Member options, and then choose Create network and member.

   The Networks list shows the name and Network ID of the network you created, with a Status of Creating. It takes around 30 minutes for AMB Access to create your network, after which the Status is Available.

To create a Hyperledger Fabric network using the AWS CLI

Use the create-network command as shown in the following example. Consider the following:

• The example shows HYPERLEDGER_FABRIC as the Framework and 2.2 as the FrameworkVersion. The FrameworkConfiguration properties for --network-configuration and --member-configuration options might be different for other frameworks and versions.

• The AdminPassword must be at least 8 characters long and no more than 32 characters. It must contain at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one digit. It cannot have a single quote(‘), double quote(“), forward slash(/), backward slash(\), @, percent sign (%), or a space.

• The member name must not contain any special characters.

• Remember the user name and password. You need them later any time you create users and resources that need to authenticate.

[ec2-user@ip-192-0-2-17 ~]$ aws managedblockchain create-network \
--cli-input-json '{\"Name\":\"OurBlockchainNet\", \"Description\":\"OurBlockchainNetDesc\", \"Framework\":\"HYPERLEDGER_FABRIC\",\"FrameworkVersion\": \"2.2\", \"FrameworkConfiguration\": {\"Fabric\": {\"Edition\": \"STARTER\"}}, \"VotingPolicy\": {\"ApprovalThresholdPolicy\": {\"ThresholdPercentage\": 50, \"ProposalDurationInHours\": 24, \"ThresholdComparator\": \"GREATER_THAN\"}}, “MemberConfiguration”: {\"Name\":\"org1\", \"Description\":\"Org1 first member of network\", \"FrameworkConfiguration\":{\"Fabric\":\n{\"AdminUsername\":\"MyAdminUser\",\"AdminPassword\":\"Password123\"}}, \"LogPublishingConfiguration\": {\"Fabric\":{\"CaLogs\":{\"Cloudwatch\": {\"Enabled\": true}}}}}}'

The command returns the Network ID and the Member ID, as shown in the following example:

{
    "NetworkId": "n-MWY63ZJZU5HGNCMBQER7IN6OIU",
    "MemberId": "m-K46ICRRXJRCGRNNS4ES4XUUS5A"
}