Introduction

The Kubernetes external chaincode builder for Hyperledger Fabric (k8s builder) is an alternative to Fabric's legacy built in Docker chaincode builder, which does not work in a Kubernetes deployment, and the preconfigured chaincode-as-a-service builder, which is more suited to chaincode development and test.

With the k8s builder, the Fabric administrator is responsible for preparing a chaincode image, publishing to a container registry, and preparing a chaincode package with coordinates of the contract's immutable image digest. When Fabric detects the installation of a type=k8s contract, the builder assumes full ownership of the lifecycle of pods, containers, and network linkages necessary to communicate securely with the peer.

Advantages:

🚀 Chaincode runs immediately on channel commit.

✨ Avoids the complexity and administrative burdens associated with Chaincode-as-a-Service.

🔥 Pre-published chaincode images avoid code-compilation errors at deployment time.

🏗️ Pre-published chaincode images encourage modern, industry accepted CI/CD best practices.

🛡️ Pre-published chaincode images remove any and all dependencies on a root-level docker daemon.

🕵️ Pre-published chaincode images provide traceability and change management features (e.g. Git commit hash as image tag)