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ONIONBALANCE(1) | OnionBalance | ONIONBALANCE(1) |
NAME¶
onionbalance - a Tor hidden service load balancerDESCRIPTION¶
You can start the OnionBalance management server once all of your backend onion service instances are running. You will need to create a configuration file which list the backend hidden services and the location of your hidden service keys.$ onionbalance -c config.yaml
or
$ sudo service onionbalance start
The management server must be left running to publish new descriptors for your onion service. NOTE:
Multiple OnionBalance management servers can be run
simultaneously with the same master private key and configuration file to
provide redundancy.
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS¶
onionbalance¶
onionbalance distributes the requests for a Tor hidden services across multiple Tor instances. usage: onionbalance [-h] [-i IP] [-p PORT] [-c CONFIG] [-v VERBOSITY][--version]
- -h, --help
- show this help message and exit
- -i <ip>, --ip <ip>
- Tor controller IP address
- -p <port>, --port <port>
- Tor controller port
- -c <config>, --config <config>
- Config file location
- -v <verbosity>, --verbosity <verbosity>
- Minimum verbosity level for logging. Available in ascending order: debug, info, warning, error, critical). The default is info.
- --version
- show program's version number and exit
CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT¶
The OnionBalance management server is primarily configured using a YAML configuration file.# Onion Load Balancer Config File # --- # Each hidden service key line should be followed be followed by a list of 0 # or more instances which contain the onion address of the load balancing # hidden service REFRESH_INTERVAL: 600 # How often to poll for updated descriptors services: - key: /path/to/private_key # 7s4hxwwifcslrus2.onion instances: - address: o6ff73vmigi4oxka # web1 - address: nkz23ai6qesuwqhc # web2 - key: /path/to/private_key.enc # dpkdeys3apjtqydk.onion instances: - address: htbzowpp5cn7wj2u # irc1 - address: huey7aiod8dja8a3 # irc2
The services section of the configuration file contains a list of master onion services that OnionBalance is responsible for. Each key option specifies the location of the 1024 bit private RSA key for the hidden service. This master private key determines the address that users will use to access your onion service. This private key must be kept secure. The location of the private key is evaluated as an absolute path, or relative to the configuration file location. You can use existing Tor hidden service private key with OnionBalance to keep your onion address. Each backend Tor onion service instance is listed by it's unique onion address in the instances list. NOTE:
You can replace backend instance keys if they get lost or
compromised. Simply start a new backend hidden service under a new key and
replace the address in the config file.
If you have used the onionbalance-config tool you can simply use the generated config file from master/config.yaml. NOTE:
By default onionbalance will search for a
config.yaml file in the current working directory.
Configuration Options¶
- LOG_LOCATION
- The path where OnionBalance should write its log file.
- LOG_LEVEL
- Specify the minimum verbosity of log messages to output. All log messages equal or higher the the specified log level are output. The available log levels are the same as the --verbosity command line option.
- REFRESH_INTERVAL
- How often to check for updated backend hidden service descriptors. This value can be increased if your backend instance are under heavy loaded causing them to rotate introduction points quickly. (default: 600 seconds).
- PUBLISH_CHECK_INTERVAL
- How often should to check if new descriptors need to be published for the master hidden service (default: 360 seconds).
- INITIAL_DELAY
- How long to wait between starting OnionBalance and publishing the master descriptor. If you have more than 20 backend instances you may need to wait longer for all instance descriptors to download before starting (default: 45 seconds).
- DISTINCT_DESCRIPTORS
- Distinct descriptors are used if you have more than 10 backend instances. At the cost of scalability, this can be disabled to appear more like a standard onion service. (default: True)
- STATUS_SOCKET_LOCATION
- The OnionBalance service creates a Unix domain socket which provides real-time information about the currently loaded service and descriptors. This option can be used to change the location of this domain socket. (default: /var/run/onionbalance/control)
The following options typically do not need to be modified by the end user:
- REPLICAS
- How many set of HSDirs to upload too (default: 2).
- MAX_INTRO_POINTS
- How many introduction points to include in a descriptor (default: 10)
- DESCRIPTOR_VALIDITY_PERIOD
- How long a hidden service descriptor remains valid (default: 86400 seconds)
- DESCRIPTOR_OVERLAP_PERIOD
- How long to overlap hidden service descriptors when changing descriptor IDs (default: 3600 seconds)
- DESCRIPTOR_UPLOAD_PERIOD
- How often to publish a descriptor, even when the introduction points don't change (default: 3600 seconds)
Environment Variables¶
- ONIONBALANCE_CONFIG
- Override the location for the OnionBalance configuration file.
The loaded configuration file takes precedence over environment variables. Configuration file options will override environment variable which have the same name.
- ONIONBALANCE_LOG_LOCATION
- See the config file option.
- ONIONBALANCE_LOG_LEVEL
- See the config file option
- ONIONBALANCE_STATUS_SOCKET_LOCATION
- See the config file option
FILES¶
- /etc/onionbalance/config.yaml
- The configuration file, which contains services entries.
- config.yaml
- Fallback location for torrc, if /etc/onionbalance/config.yaml is not found.
SEE ALSO¶
Full documentation for the OnionBalance software is available at https://onionbalance.readthedocs.org/AUTHOR¶
Donncha O'Cearbhaill <donncha@donncha.is>June 6, 2016 | 0.1.4 |