corda/docs/source/running-doorman.rst
Michal Kit 109af246e6
ENT-992: Adding docs for the CRL/CRR (#608)
* Adding docs for the CRL/CRR

* Addressing review comments

* Addressing review comments - round 2
2018-03-29 10:48:28 +01:00

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Running a doorman service

See the Readme in under network-management for detailed building instructions.

Configuration file

At startup doorman reads a configuration file, passed with --configFile on the command line.

This is an example of what a doorman configuration file might look like:

../../network-management/doorman.conf

Invoke doorman with -? for a full list of supported command-line arguments.

Configuration parameters

Allowed parameters are:

keystorePassword

the keystore password

caPrivateKeyPassword

the ca private key password

rootKeystorePassword

Password for the root store

rootPrivateKeyPassword

Password for the root private key

address

The host and port on which doorman runs

database

database properties. The same (including its default value) as for node configuration (see corda-configuration-file).

dataSourceProperties

datasource properties

doorman

Doorman specific configuration

approveAll

Whether to approve all requests (defaults to false), this is for debug only.

approveInterval

How often to process Jira approved requests in seconds.

jira

The Jira configuration for certificate signing requests

address

The URL to use to connect to Jira

projectCode

The project code on Jira

username

Username for Jira

password

Password for Jira

revocation

Revocation service specific configuration

localSigning

Configuration for local CRL signing using the file key store. If not defined t

crlUpdateInterval

Validity time of the issued certificate revocation lists (in milliseconds).

crlEndpoint

REST endpoint under which the certificate revocation list can be obtained. It is needed as this URL is encoded in the certificate revocation list itself.

crlCacheTimeout

Certificate revocation list cache entry expiry time (in milliseconds).

This value indicates for how long the crl is kept on the server side before querying the DB.

approveInterval

How often to process Jira approved requests in seconds.

Processing in this context means: querying the JIRA for approved/rejected request and syncing with the Doorman persistence.

approveAll

Whether to approve all requests (defaults to false), this is for debug only.

jira

The Jira configuration for certificate revocation requests

address

The URL to use to connect to Jira

projectCode

The project code on Jira

username

Username for Jira

password

Password for Jira

networkMap

Network map specific configuration.

cacheTimeout

Network map cache entry expiry time (in milliseconds).

signInterval

How often to sign the network map in seconds.

keystorePath

Path for the keystore. If not set (or null is passed) doorman will NOT perform any signing. This is required in case of the HSM integration where signing process is offloaded (from doorman) to an external service that binds with an HSM.

rootStorePath

Path for the root keystore

Bootstrapping the network parameters

When doorman is running it will serve the current network parameters. The first time doorman is started it will need to know the initial value for the network parameters.

The initial values for the network parameters can be specified with a file, like this:

../../network-management/network-parameters.conf

And the location of that file can be specified with: --update-network-parameters. Note that when reading from file:

  1. epoch will always be set to 1,
  2. modifiedTime will be the doorman startup time

epoch will increase by one every time the network parameters are updated.

Bootstrapping the network map

The network map is periodically refreshed, with frequency driven by the 'signInterval' parameter when local signing is in use. In case of an external signing service it depends on that service configuration. Due to the design decisions dictated by the security concerns around the external signing service, doorman is not allowed to connect directly with the signing sevice. Instead, the external service is expected to access the doorman database in order to obtain signature requiring data. Therefore, doorman takes a passive role considering all signing process related aspects. Network map refresh happens only if there is a change to the current one (i.e. most recently created version of the network map). See the signing-service for a more detailed description of the service.

When dealing with a fresh deployment (i.e. no previous data is present in the doorman database), it may take some time until the network map is available. This is caused by the aforementioned decoupling of the signing process from doorman itself.

Bootstrapping the certificate revocation list

Upon doorman startup, the revocation service becomes available serving the certificate revocation list and providing endpoints for certificate revocation request submission. It is assumed, that an empty signed CRL exists prior to the revocation service startup. The revocation service exposes its API in two ways: via REST endpoints and via sockets. While the former are meant to be used externally by network nodes (e.g. for the certificate revocation request submission, certificate revocation list retrieval...), the latter is designed for internal communication with other proprietary services (e.g. HSM signing service). The certificate revocation requests have the same lifecycle as the certificate signing requests. For that purpose (and in the same manner) the revocation service is integrated with JIRA which is configured according to the parameters specified in the doorman configuration file. As mentioned, the revocation service provides the certificate revocation list. The list itself is signed externally (i.e. HSM signing service). Therefore some delay, during the initial deployment of the service, is expected as those two services execute independently.