📃Configure

In this section you will learn how to (re-)configure a nod

When creating a new node you can use the command line or create the YAML configuration file manually. In case you want to reconfigure a node you need to edit the YAML file.

🧙 Configure using the Wizard

The most straight forward way of creating a new server configuration is using the command vnode new which allows you to configure the most basic settings.

By default the node configuration file is stored at user level, which isolates this configuration from other users. In case you want this configuration to be available for all users, simply add the --system flag when you invoke vnode new.

To update a configuration you need to modify the created YAML file. To see where this file is located you can use the command vnode files . Do not forget to specify the --system flag in the case of a system-wide configuration.

Create / Edit configuration file

The configuration wizard outputs a YAML file which can be loaded into vantage6. It is also possible to create this file yourself, to see Configuration File Structure or an example on our github page. This file can be stored (and referred to) at any location at the machine, although it recommended to use either the vantage6 system or user folder. These folders are different per operating system.

Windows	C:\ProgramData\vantage6\node	C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\vantage6\node
MacOS	/Library/Application Support/vantage6/node	/Users/<user>/Library/Application Support/vantage6/node
Linux	/etc/vantage6/node	/home/<user>/.config/vantage6/node

To start a node using a configuration file at an arbitrary location you should use the config option:vnode start --config /path/to/config.yaml note that this will overwrite all other options.

🗃 Configuration File Structure

Similar to the server, each node instance (configuration) can have multiple environments. You can specify these under the key environments which allows four types: dev , test,acc and prod .

We use DTAP for key environments. In short:

• dev Development environment. It is ok to break things here

• test Testing environment. Here, you can verify that everything works as expected. This environment should resemble as much as possible the target environment where the final solution will be deployed.

• acc Acceptance environment. If the tests were successful, you can try this environment, where the final user will test his/her analysis to verify if everything meets his/her expectations.

• prod Production environment. Final version of the proposed solution.

If you do not want to specify any environment, you should only specify the key application .

In the end, the configuration file should have the following structure:

application:
  api_key: api-key-from-server
  server_url: https://api.distributedlearning.ai
  port: 5000
  api_path: '/api'
  task_dir: tasks
  encryption:
    enabled: true
    private_key: /path/to/private_key.pem
  docker_registries:
    - registry: harbor.vantage6.ai
      username: docker-registry-user
      password: your-password!
  allowed_images:
    - ^harbor.vantage6.ai/[a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+
  databases:
    default: /path/to/database.csv
    alternative: /path/to/other/database.csv
  logging:
      level:        DEBUG             # Can be on of 'DEBUG', 'INFO', 'WARNING', 'ERROR', 'CRITICAL'
      file:         node.log          # Filename of logfile
      use_console:  True              # Log output to the console?
      backup_count: 5                 # Number of logs to keep
      max_size:     1024              # Specified in kB (i.e. 1024 means a maximum file size of 1MB)
      format:       "%(asctime)s - %(name)-14s - %(levelname)-8s - %(message)s"
      datefmt:      "%H:%M:%S"

📰 Parameter description

Parameter	Details
api_key	API key used to authenticate at the server.
server_url	URL of the vantage6 server.
port	Port of the vantage6 server. Should be 443 in most cases.
api_path	Path of the API. Usually empty or /api.
task_dir	Local task directory name
encryption	Section that contains encryption settings: enabled: Boolean to indicate whenever encryption is used or not. private_key: path to private key file. See here for more details.
docker_registries	Section that contains a list Docker registry login credentials: registry: url of the docker registry username: username password: password See here for more detail.
allowed_images	List of regular expressions that control which algorithms are allowed on this node. See here for more detail.
databases	List of databases in key:value pair (💔 broken in current version. Will be fixed in a future release, only the default database can be used.)
logging	file: filename of the log-file, used by RotatingFileHandler backup_count: the number of log files that are kept, used by RotatingFileHandler max_size: size kb of a single log file, used by RotatingFileHandler format: input for logging.Formatter, see here. level: debug level used, see here. use_console: whenever the output needs to be shown in the console
algorithm_env	List of additional environment variables you want to provide to the algorithm containers. See here for more detail.

🔒 Encryption

Both the server and node need to agree if encryption is used or not. Encryption at the server is managed at collaboration level, i.e. each collaboration determines whenever encryption of all communication is used or not. You can enable or disable encryption in the configuration file by setting the enabled key in the encryption section.

application:
  ...
  encryption:
    enabled: true
    private_key: /path/to/private_key.pem
  ...

To generate a new private key and upload the public key to the server you can use the command vnode create-private-key. You can also generate the key yourself and upload it by using the /organization/<id> endpoint.

Note that public keys are managed at organization level, meaning that you only can use one private key for all your nodes. It is not possible (yet) to create an unique private key for each node you own.

🏳 Allowed Images

To control which algorithms are allowed at the node you can set the allowed_images key in the configuration file. This is expected to be a valid regular expression.

application:
  ...
  allowed_images:
    - ^harbor.vantage6.ai/[a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+
  ...

🐳 Docker Login

If you are using a private docker repository the environment in which the node needs to be logged in to that repository. In case the Dockerized version of vantage6 is used you need to specify this in the configuration file using the docker_registries key.

application:
  ...
  docker_registries:
    - registry: harbor.vantage6.ai
      username: docker-registry-user
      password: your-password!
  ...

📃 Extra Environment Variables [2.0.1+]

It is possible to define additional environment variables for the algorithm containers. For example, this could be useful for sharing credentials for accessing a data-store.

application:
    ...
    algorithm_env:
        var1: value1
        var2: 2
    ...