decentrasol / docker-ipfs-infrastructure

Setup a websocket libp2p relay with letsencrypt and nginx

Websocket libp2p-relay

Description

This is a docker image and docker compose file which runs a

• NodeJS websocket relay for libp2p with
• nginx and
• letsencrypt

Usage

0. Copy .env.example to .env and change to your environment
1. Modify init-letsencrypt.sh (domains=(ipfs.le-space.de) around line 8) to setup your letsencrypt domain
2. Run ./init-letsencrypt.sh (letsencrypt is creating ssl certificates for nginx)
3. Run docker-compose up -d (nginx, letsencrypt, relay-service starting)
4. Run docker-compose logs and find the libp2p address to connect your peers

Todo

• move private key from relay.js into .env
• SERVER_NAME inside docker-compose.yml should go into .env
• init-letsencrypt.sh should take SERVER_NAME as an argument or environment variable
• make listen addresses of relay service configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make announce: ['/dns4/ipfs.le-space.de//tcp/443/wss'] configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make bootstrap seed nodes configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make pubsubPeerDiscovery topics configurable via .env / docker-compose

docker-ipfs-infrastructure's Issues

Websocket relay does not relay pubsub messages (except pub-sub peer-discovery)

e.g. in hotel wifi's where Webrtc is restricted through some firewall, (connection is established via Websocket), relay establishes the WebSocket connection to browser peers

The peers create a Webrtc swarm successfully

• not confirmed anymore 15.03.2024 - location Komune
• confiremd 25.05.2024 - location ekb coworking

Unfortunately, if any peer publishes a pub-sub message no other peer can listen and react to it. (except probably the relay, which doesn't relay it via WebSocket).

Mobile networks:
In mobile networks on the other hand this works perfectly (via webrtc then)

Test:

• in an environment where peer-to-peer connections are blocked (peer-to-peer pub-sub doesn't work) which if that counts for both a WebRTC only connected peers and also for a Websocket only connected peers.

• 25.05.2024 (location ekb coworking) - successfully webrtc only connected swarm (via Rust WebRTC relay) but NO pubsub on deContact topic but OrbitDB replicates successfully (via pubsub)

• 25.05.2024 (location ekb coworking) - successfully websocket only connected swarm (via Websocket relay) but NO pubsub on deContact but OrbitDB replicates successfully (via pubsub)

• check if websocket relay can subscribe to a peers topic manually.

• make sure / clarify a websocket relay is able to relay pubsub messages via websocket if peers are not already connected via webrtc

Websocket Relay works for some time but after some time doesn't seem to publish peer-discovery messages

After about 1h the WebSocket relay "stops working".
It accepts new connections from browser peers but doesn't seem to publish peer-discovery messages which results in the symptom that browser peers don't create a swarm.

After restarting the relay everything works again as before.
Relay runs inside a docker-compose container without persistent volume.

Finish Todos on Readme

• init-letsencrypt.sh should take SERVER_NAME as an argument or environment variable
• make listen addresses of relay service configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make bootstrap seed nodes configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make pubsubPeerDiscovery topics configurable via .env / docker-compose
• make announce: ['/dns4/ipfs.le-space.de//tcp/443/wss'] configurable via .env / docker-compose