[tor-dev] [tor-relays] Private Tor Research Network

[Tim Wilson-Brown - teor]

> On 11 Apr 2016, at 09:28, Nicholas R. Parker (RIT Student) <nrp7859 at rit.edu> wrote:
> 
> We've looked into Chutney, but we're looking at building out a whole network for various research purposes (I'm just the grad grunt, whatever research plans they have are above me!)
> It looks like you're saying that we could use chutney to at least generate all of the base configuration files, is that right?

I'm suggesting you use chutney to generate a working network on a single machine, and then move tor instances on that network to other machines one at a time. If you start with a working network, then it's obvious when you do something that breaks the network.

If you can't get a working network using chutney on localhost, then that's useful information, too. (Perhaps your tor install is broken.)

That said, you could use chutney to just generate the config files, but it's harder to work out what went wrong if things fail.

> We've been running into these issues with completely clean installs of CentOS, no new/extraneous services running with single instances of the tor service going at any one time.

I can't really provide any specific help, because I don't have enough detail.

However, here's one guess at some information that might be useful:
Tor authorities will run on their own, and they also act as relays.
Tor relays (including exits and bridges) need authorities.
Tor clients (including onion (hidden) services) need authorities and relays and likely exits.

Start by getting one authority running on one machine.
It will serve a consensus consisting of itself.
Then, get another authority running on another machine.
Make sure they talk to one another and agree that they're both valid.
Then, get a few relays running.
Make sure they all appear in the consensus.
Then get a few exits running.
Then try clients.
Then test that clients can use the exits to talk to a test web server or something.
(Chutney automates this entire process.)

If you want help with any failures, copy and paste the torrc, and the error messages you're getting, and tell us what you've tried already.
(You can anonymise IP addresses if you need to, as long as it's clear which ones are the same.)

Tim

Tim Wilson-Brown (teor)

teor2345 at gmail dot com
PGP 968F094B
ricochet:ekmygaiu4rzgsk6n



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