What's the Console?

When you provisioned your Oracle Blockchain Platform instance, all of the capabilities you need to begin work on your blockchain network were added to the console.

You can use the console to perform tasks such as managing nodes, configuring network channels and policies, and deploying and instantiating chaincodes. You can also monitor and troubleshoot the network, view node status, view ledger blocks, and find and view log files.

In most cases, each member of your network has its own console that they use to manage their organization and monitor the blockchain network. Your role in the network (founder or participant) determines the tasks you can perform in your console. For example, if you're a participant, then you can’t add another participant to the network. Only the founder can add a participant to the network.

Also, what you can do in the console is determined by your access privileges (either Administrator or User). For example, only an Administrator can set an anchor peer or create a new channel.

Your instance includes sample chaincodes that you can use to get started. See Explore Oracle Blockchain Platform Using Samples.

The console is divided into tabs.

Dashboard Tab

Use the Dashboard tab for an overview of the network’s performance. See What Type of Information Is on the Dashboard?

On the Dashboard tab, you’ll find:

A banner showing you how many different components are on your network. For example, how many channels and chaincodes.
The number of user transactions on a channel during a specific time range.
The number of nodes that are running or stopped.
The number of endorsements and commits by peers.
Utilization statistics for your instance's partitions.

Network Tab

The Network tab is where you view a list of the members in your network. The first time you use the Network tab after setting up your instance, you’ll see the nodes you created during set up.

You can use the Network tab to:

Find the organization IDs of the members in your network, their Membership Service Provider (MSP) IDs, and roles.
Add a participant to the network.
See a graphical representation of the network’s structure.
Configure, view, or import the orderer settings.
Manage certificates.
Add new orderering service node into network.
Export the network config block.

Nodes Tab

Go to the Nodes tab to view a list of the nodes in your network. The first time you use the Nodes tab after setting up your instance, you’ll see:

The console node.
The number of peer nodes you requested when provisioning.
The number of orderer nodes associated with your instance type. Standard has three orderer nodes and cannot be scaled up, while Enterprise has three and additional can be added.
One Fabric certificate authority (CA) node representing the membership service.
One REST proxy node.

During the founder instance provisioning a default channel was created and all peers were added to it.

Use the Nodes tab to:

View and set node configurations.
Export and import peers.
Start, stop, and restart nodes.
Configure and start a new orderer node.
See a graphical representation of which peer nodes are using which channels.
Click a node's name to find more information about it.

Channels Tab

The Channels tab shows you the channels in your network, the peers using the channels, and the chaincodes instantiated on the channels. The first time you use the Channels tab after setting up your instance, you’ll see the default channel that was created and all of the peers in your network added to it.

Use the Channels tab to:

Add new channels.
See the number of chaincodes instantiated on a channel.
Click a channel's name to find more information about it, such as its ledger summary, the peers and OSNs joined to the channel, and the channel's policies and ACLs.
Join peers to the channel.
Manage the ordering service of the channel.
Add or remove an ordering service node (OSN) for a channel.
View and update the ordering service’s settings.
Configure rich history for the channel.

Chaincodes Tab

Note that Oracle Blockchain Platform refers to smart contracts as chaincodes.

Go to the Chaincodes tab to view a list of the chaincodes installed on the instance. The first time you use the Chaincodes tab after setting up your instance, no chaincodes display in the list because no chaincodes were included during set up. You must add the needed chaincodes.

You can use the Chaincodes tab to:

Install, instantiate, and deploy a chaincode using the Quick or Advanced deploy option.
See how many peers have a chaincode installed.
Find out how many channels a chaincode was instantiated on.
Upgrade a chaincode.
Find the chaincode’s path.

Developer Tools Tab

The Developer Tools tab is designed to help you learn blockchain fundamentals like how to write chaincodes and create blockchain applications.

You can use the Developer Tools tab to:

Find templates and the Hyperledger Fabric mock shim to help you create chaincodes.
Link to the SDKs and APIs that you need to write blockchain applications.
Use the sample chaincodes to learn about chaincodes. Install, instantiate, and invoke the sample chaincodes.
Download the Blockchain App Builder for Oracle Blockchain Platform - a set of tools and samples to help you create, test, and debug chaincode projects using a command line interface or a Visual Studio Code extension.