vspd/docs/deployment.md

# Deployment Guide

This guide is deliberately written at a high level and with minimal details
because it is assumed that VSP operators will already have a level of
familiarity with Decred software and a level of sysadmin experience.

## Prerequisites

### Build from source

Compiled binaries are not provided for vspd - VSP operators are expected to
build vspd from source.

### Fee wallet

A wallet should be created to collect VSP fees. Ideally this would be a cold
wallet which is not used for any other purpose, and it should be completely
separate from the vspd infrastructure. The dcrwallet `getmasterpubkey` RPC
should be used to export an extended public (xpub) key from one of the wallet
accounts. This xpub key will be provided to vspd via config, and vspd will use
it to derive a new addresses for receiving fee payments.

## Voting Servers

A vspd deployment should have a minimum of three remote voting wallets. The
servers hosting these wallets should ideally be in geographically seperate
locations.

Each voting server should be running an instance of dcrd and dcrwallet. The
wallet on these servers should be completely empty and not used for any other
purpose. dcrwallet should be permenantly unlocked and have voting enabled
(`--enablevoting`). vspd on the front-end server must be able to reach each
instance of dcrwallet over RPC.

## Front-end Server

The front-end server is where vspd will be running. A webserver (eg. nginx)
should be configured with SSL and used to proxy requests from the internet to
vspd.

1. Start an instance of dcrd on this server with transaction index enabled
   (`--txindex`). dcrd is used for fishing ticket details out of the chain, for
   receiving `blockconnected` notifications, and for broadcasting and checking
   the status of fee transactions.

1. Run `vspd` with no arguments to write a default config file. Modify the
   config file to set your dcrd and dcrwallet connection details, and any other
   required customization.

1. A vspd database must be initialized before vpsd can be started. To do this,
   provide vspd with the xpub key it should use for collecting fees:

  ```no-highlight
  $ vspd --feexpub=tpubVppjaMjp8GEW...
  ```

1. Once the database is initialized, vspd can be started for normal operation by
   running it without the `--feexpub` flag.

## Deploying alongside dcrstakepool

It is possible to run vspd on the same infrastructure as an existing
dcrstakepool deployment.

- On the voting servers...
  - The existing dcrd instance requires no changes.
  - Create a new instance of dcrwallet listening for RPC connections on a
    different port. Ensure the new wallet is unlocked and voting is enabled
    (dcrstakepool wallet should still have voting disabled).

- On the front-end server...
  - Run an instance of dcrd with txindex enabled.
  - Run the vspd binary
    - Configure webserver to proxy requests from the internet to vspd.
    - Configure vspd to use the newly created dcrwallet instances.
  - Web requests for `/api/v3` should be redirected to vspd.

## Monitoring

### Logs

Any event logged at the `[ERR]` level is worthy of immediate investigation.
Examples include configuration or deployment issues, RPC failures and database
errors.

The `[WRN]` level is used to indicate events which are of interest, but do not
necessarily require investigation (eg. bad requests from clients, recoverable
errors).

### Voting Wallets

The current status of the voting wallets is displayed in a table on the `/admin`
page, and the same information can be retrieved as a JSON object from
`/admin/status` for automated monitoring.

```json
{
  "wss://127.0.0.1:20111/ws":
    {
      "connected":true,
      "infoerror":false,
      "daemonconnected":true,
      "voteversion":8,
      "unlocked":true,
      "voting":true,
      "bestblockerror":false,
      "bestblockheight":462345
    }
}
```

<!-- 

// TODO: Content copied from dcrstakepool repo, should be updated for vspd when we have a
suitable HTTP endpoint:

  A monitoring system with alerting should be pointed at dcrstakepool and
  tested/verified to be operating properly. There is a hidden /status page which
  throws 500 if the RPC client is shutdown. If your monitoring system supports it,
  add additional points of verification such as: checking that the /stats page
  loads and has expected information in it, create a test account and setup
  automated login testing, etc.

-->

## Backup

The bbolt database file used by vspd is stored in the process home directory, at
the path `{homedir}/data/{network}/vspd.db`. vspd keeps a file lock on this
file, so it cannot be opened by any other processes while vspd is running.

To facilitate back-ups, vspd will periodically write a copy of the bbolt
database to the path `{homedir}/data/{network}/vspd.db-backup`. A copy of the
database file will also be written to this path when vspd shuts down. This file
should be backed up often and regularly (probably at least hourly). Backups
should be transferred off-site, ideally to a server which is not part of the
vspd deployment.

It is also possible to generate and download a database backup on demand from
the admin page of the vspd web front-end.

## Disaster Recovery

### Voting Wallets

To recover from a total failure of a wallet or wallet server (or to add a new
wallet to the vspd deployment):

- Set up a new empty wallet. Ensure voting is enabled and the wallet is
  unlocked.
- Update the vspd config file to include the new wallet (and remove the old
  wallet if necessary).
- Restart vspd and it will connect to the new wallet and automatically insert
  all required data to bring it up to date.

### Front-end

The vspd database file contains everything needed to restore a vspd deployment
from scratch. Simply place the database file into the vspd data directory and
start vspd as normal. vspd will use the database to insert all necessary data
into all of the voting wallets.

## Listing on decred.org

The process for listing a new VSP on [decred.org](https://decred.org/vsp/), and
consequently in Decrediton, is detailed at
[docs.decred.org](https://docs.decred.org/advanced/operating-a-vsp/).