Alibaba Cloud BaaS supports migrating a self-hosted, open-source Hyperledger Fabric network to Alibaba Cloud Fabric. Use this guide to verify whether your environment is eligible, understand what happens during the migration, and complete the application-layer changes required after migration.
The blockchain service remains available throughout the migration. However, you must update your application configuration and restart it before traffic fully shifts to the Alibaba Cloud infrastructure.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, verify that your self-hosted Fabric network meets all of the following requirements.
Certificates issued by Fabric-CA
All certificates in your self-hosted Fabric network must be issued by Fabric-CA. Certificates from other certificate authorities are not supported.
Matching instance count on Alibaba Cloud
Purchase the same number of consortium and organization instances on Alibaba Cloud as you have in your self-hosted Fabric network.
MSPID format and domain name
The MSPID of each organization in your self-hosted Fabric network must end with MSP. When you create the corresponding organization or consortium on Alibaba Cloud, set the domain name to the MSPID value with the MSP suffix removed.
For example, if the MSPID is Org1MSP, the domain name must be Org1.
Publicly accessible node addresses
The organization and consortium node addresses in your self-hosted Fabric channel must be publicly accessible. Alibaba Cloud connects to these addresses during the migration.
System channel named testchainid
The system channel in your self-hosted Fabric network must be named testchainid. This is a fixed requirement of the open-source Fabric system channel.
Migration process
The migration has three phases. Alibaba Cloud handles the infrastructure side; you are responsible for the application-layer changes described below.
Before migration
Your application communicates with your self-hosted Fabric network. The Orderer and Peer node addresses, connection profile, and client certificates all point to your self-hosted infrastructure.
During migration
Alibaba Cloud migrates the infrastructure. While the migration is in progress, complete the following two steps in your application:
Update the connection profile — Replace the Orderer and Peer node addresses in your application's software development kit (SDK) with the new Alibaba Cloud node addresses provided after migration.
Re-enroll to get a new client certificate — Use the new username and password to re-enroll with Fabric-CA and get a new client certificate. Update your application to use this certificate.
Both steps require a restart of your application.
After migration
Your application connects to Alibaba Cloud Fabric. Verify that transactions are processed correctly before decommissioning your self-hosted infrastructure.
Submit a migration ticket
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud BaaS console. In the top navigation bar, click Tickets > Submit Ticket. Follow the prompts to create a ticket.
NoteNo purchase is required to submit a ticket.
After Alibaba Cloud receives your request, we will contact you to evaluate the migration and help you purchase the required blockchain instances. The migration then begins.
During the migration, complete the two application-layer steps described in During migration.
Why migrate to Alibaba Cloud Fabric
Migrating gives you the following advantages over running a self-hosted network:
| Advantage | Details |
|---|---|
| Open ecosystem | BaaS continuously integrates blockchain technologies to provide a standardized, open environment for blockchain applications. |
| High security | Built-in protection covers certificate systems, collaboration processes, and network access control. |
| High availability | End-to-end high availability (HA) design ensures business continuity and supports elastic storage scaling. |
| Simple operations | One-click operations and deep integration with Alibaba Cloud services simplify development. |
| High performance | Runs on Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, ECS Bare Metal Instances, high-bandwidth networks, and storage with high concurrency and throughput. |
| Global deployment | Alibaba Cloud data centers are located worldwide, with mature compliance processes for regions outside China. |
For a full feature overview, see Alibaba Cloud Fabric benefits.