Ubuntu Manpage: onionbalance - a Tor hidden service load balancer

NAME

       onionbalance - a Tor hidden service load balancer

DESCRIPTION

       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] [-s SOCKET] [-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

       -s <socket>, --socket <socket>
              Tor unix domain control socket location

       -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 its 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
The OnionBalance command line options can also be specified in the OnionBalance
configuration file. Options specified on the command line take precedence over the related
configuration file options:

TOR_CONTROL_SOCKET:
The location of the Tor unix domain control socket. OnionBalance will attempt to
connect to this control socket first before falling back to using a control port
connection. (default: /var/run/tor/control)

TOR_ADDRESS:
The address where the Tor control port is listening. (default: 127.0.0.1)

TOR_PORT:
The Tor control port. (default: 9051)

TOR_CONTROL_PASSWORD:
The password for authenticating to a Tor control port which is using the
HashedControlPassword authentication method. This is not needed when the Tor
control port is using the more common CookieAuthentication method. (default: None)

Other 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 decreased 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

ONIONBALANCE_TOR_CONTROL_SOCKET
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.

AUTHOR