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Plxtra

Deploy Scripts

One of the largest challenges in working with a system like Plxtra is configuring and installing/deploying it. There are numerous components/services to install and lots to configure. Configuring and assembling a system from scratch can take a significant amount of time even for an experienced Plxtra developer - it would be daunting for someone new to Plxtra.

To reduce this barrier, Plxtra is deployed via Docker containers and has several scripts to automate this:

These scripts allow Plxtra to be quickly deployed to most environments - including on local computers (using Docker Desktop) where it can be used for testing or evaluation.

Note that by default, Windows restricts the running of PowerShell scripts downloaded from the internet. You can use the Unblock-File command in PowerShell to remove this restriction. For example, from within XOSP folder:

Get-ChildItem *.ps1 -Recurse | Unblock-File

XOSP-Configure

Section titled “XOSP-Configure”

XOSP-Configure (like XOSP-Install and XOSP-Clear) is included in the root folder of the XOSP folder.

When run, it will create a Plxtra configuration from the information inside the XOSP folder. All this information is placed in a Docker folder under root of the XOSP folder.

Populating this Docker folder includes the following steps:

  • Creating a self-signed SSL certificate
  • Generating a partial hosts file that needs to be manually merged with the system hosts file
  • Generating secrets for the database and OAuth client applications
  • Prepares service configuration files (inserting secrets, DNS, etc)
  • Initialises extensions (such as downloading market recordings)
  • Download recordings specified in extensions

Profiles

Section titled “Profiles”

XOSP-Configure can create a Plxtra configuration according to a profile. A profile specifies:

  • the registry from where docker images are to be pulled from,
  • some high level configuration parameters
  • extensions that are to be included.

To use a particular profile, include its name as a parameter when XOSP-Configure is run. The details of the last configured profile are saved to the file XOSP-Params.json in the root of the XOSP folder.

XOSP-Configure looks for named profiles in the Profiles folder in the root XOSP folder. The profile name command line parameter needs to match a file name (excluding extension) in this Profiles folder.

./XOSP-Configure.ps1 <profile name>

If XOSP-Configure is run without a profile specified, it will use the profile specified in XOSP-Params.json. If XOSP-Params.json does not exist, then XOSP-Configure will use the Default profile.

./XOSP-Configure.ps1

Recordings

Section titled “Recordings”

One type of extension in profiles is Recordings. When a recording is specified, XOSP-Install will download a recording of one or more days of market data from an exchange. This is the same data as received by a Feed Server. XOSP-Install will then set up a corresponding exchange which replays the recorded market data. It is not possible to trade on this Sample exchange however data can be viewed and accessed in the same way as on the real exchange.

These Sample exchanges are ideal for developing and testing applications which use Plxtra APIs to access exchange data.

The Samples profile included in the Profiles folder includes sample ASX recorded data. Its configuration can be set up with:

./XOSP-Configure.ps1 Samples

XOSP-Install

Section titled “XOSP-Install”

XOSP-Install installs Plxtra on the local computer with the configuration specified in the Docker folder (set up with XOSP-Configure). The script will: * Downloads the required images from the container registry specified in the profile, * Create the Docker containers, * Creates a shared folder for files shared by Docker and the local computer (Docker host). The location of this shared folder is at: * Windows: %LocalAppData%/Xosp * Linux: * Mac: * Run the setup process for each container. This can include actions such as: * Database setup * Create users * Create accounts

At the end of the installation process, the script will display instructions for a couple of steps that need to be carried out manually (installing certificate file and updating host file). It will also display the URLs to use to access the front-end applications (Motif, Arclight) and the username/password to login to Plxtra.

Note that XOSP-Install only gets configuration information from the Docker folder under the XOSP folder.

The XOSP-Install.ps1 script resides in the root folder of the XOSP folder and can be run with:

.\XOSP-Install.ps1

Note it requires that the Docker Engine be running.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

XOSP-Install has 2 optional parameters:

  • -AlwaysPull - will pull down the latest version of a container image from the registry if this version is not already installed locally
  • -SkipInit - only installs containers - does not do setup for them
.\XOSP-Install.ps1 -AlwaysPull -SkipInit

XOSP-Clear

Section titled “XOSP-Clear”

Removes the installation from the computer. This includes:

  • Removing containers from Docker Engine
  • Any Docker volumes created
  • The shared data folder (eg. %LocalAppData%/Xosp)

It does NOT remove Docker folder under the XOSP root containing the configuration created with XOSP-Configure. It also does not remove the XOSP-Params.json file. This allows the last used configuration to be re-installed with XOSP-Install

This script resides in the root folder of the XOSP folder and is run without any parameters. Note it requires that the Docker Engine be running.

.\XOSP-Clear.ps1

Deployment bound to XOSP

Section titled “Deployment bound to XOSP”

Currently this deployment mechanism is tightly bound to XOSP - a sample exchange that can be used for demonstration or application development/debugging. Our plan is to make these independent. However for the foreseeable future, we expect XOSP to be used as a base for the development of a new exchange or brokerage platform.