# Getting Started

Epirus supports a number of different hosting options which all come with support from the Web3 Labs team:

  1. Cloud - you can find it in the AWS and Azure marketplaces
  2. SaaS - we also provide a hosted or on-premise Enterprise version

There is also a basic Free version.

This documentation reflects the features of our AWS, Azure and Enterprise versions.

# Azure

The Azure Marketplace offer is the simplest full version of Epirus to get up and running with. It requires an active Azure cloud subscription

Azure Marketplace offer

You will need to provide details of your managed ledger (or Ethereum/Quorum/Hyperledger Besu) node. In your Azure portal, navigate to the Azure Blockchain Service instance you wish to use. From here click Transaction nodes -> <your-transaction-node> -> Connection strings

Then copy the HTTPS access keys with node URL, such as https://<your-service>.blockchain.azure.com:3200/<acess-key> (an example screenshot is shown below)

Example connection string

You will be able to access the Explorer UI via http://<instance-name>-<uuid>.<region>.cloudapp.azure.com

To view the actual URL, navigate to the Overview page for the resource group you used for Epirus, then head to Deployments -> blk-technologies.... -> Outputs -> epirusUrl.

Please allow a few minutes for the service to fully initialise and display data when initially run. You will see the below loading screen while it is initially loading.

loading screen

Please note, it can take a while (multiple hours) to display token and contract details as it needs to process the entire blockchain history.

# AWS

The AWS Marketplace offer provides a pre-configured VM with Epirus already installed. It requires an active AWS subscription.

AWS Marketplace offer

You will need to provide details of the RPC endpoint for your Hyperledger Besu/Quorum/Ethereum node.

Copy the RPC endpoint for your node, such as http://<your-service-url>:8545 (the default RPC port is 8545). This is the same URL you use to attach a console to your node - i.e. geth attach http://<your-service-url>:8545 (for more information, head here).

Once the virtual machine has been deployed, launch a terminal on the machine:

ssh -i <keyfile> ubuntu@<machine name>

Then copy the HTTPS access keys with node URL, such as http://<your-service-url>

Once the virtual machine has been deployed, launch a terminal on the machine. Then run the following command to configure the node (please note AWS requires authentication credentials to be configured):

$ sudo epirus setup
Configuring Epirus instance

Please enter a username: <enter username>
New password: <enter password>
Re-type new password: <re-enter password>
Adding password for user <username>

Please enter node URL: http://<your-service-url>
Successfully connected to http://<your-service-url>
Configuration written to /usr/local/src/epirus/epirus.conf

You can then start the Epirus service:

$ sudo systemctl start epirus.service

You will be able to access the Explorer UI via http://vm-ip-address-or-hostname, providing the authentication credentials you specified when prompted.

Please allow a few minutes for the service to fully initialise and display data when initially run. It will automatically start up on subsequent reboots.

loading screen

Please note, it can take a while (multiple hours) to display token and contract details as it needs to process the entire blockchain history.

If you need to modify or create additional access credentials, you can use the following command:

sudo epirus passwd <new or existing username>

# Enterprise

Web3 Labs also provides hosted Blockchain Explorer instances - these can be hosted within your cloud subscription or hosted by us.

Some of the features include:

  • SSO authentication (Active Directory, SAML, Okta, etc)
  • Dedicated database
  • Data encryption at rest and in transit
  • Continuous backup and point in time data recovery
  • Full access to backups
  • Tableau integration support

For further information please email us.

# Free

A free, feature limited version of Epirus is available. This version is updated periodically, unlike the Azure and SaaS offerings which are constantly being updated with the latest features.

To get started with the free version, you'll need Git installed and an Ethereum, Hyperledger Besu or Quorum node endpoint.

Run the following command to download Epirus:

git clone https://github.com/epirus-io/epirus-free.git

Navigate to the epirus-free directory directory and run the instance with:

cd epirus-free
NODE_ENDPOINT=http://<node_endpoint> docker-compose up

Note that if setting NODE_ENDPOINT to a local Ethereum instance, you may need to use the IP address associated with the Docker bridged interface.

On Linux, the bridged adapter should be 172.16.239.1, as denoted in docker-compose.yml. To connect to a local node, start with the command:

NODE_ENDPOINT=http://172.16.239.1:8545 docker-compose up

On MacOS, a platform sepcific command is required due to limitations around the Docker network stack on MacOS. This is as follows:

NODE_ENDPOINT=http://host.docker.internal:8545 docker-compose up

Note that in both cases, your local instance of geth must be started with --rpcaddr 0.0.0.0 and --rpcvhosts="*", or Epirus will be unable to access it.

Append the -d argument to run the containers in the background

You will be able to access the Explorer UI via:

http://localhost

To stop the containers use:

docker-compose down

To connect to new network you should remove the volumes associated with the old network

docker-compose down -v