Getting Started

Step 1: Install the plugin

I assume that everyone knows how to install plugins. Install CommandBridge on every server you want to connect to the CB network.

Step 2: Configure the connection on Velocity

After you verified that CommandBridge started up correctly and the config was created, open it at plugins/commandbridge/config.yml on Velocity:

CommandBridge has two modes to run the network, either REDIS mode or the default WEBSOCKET mode.

endpoint-type: REDIS
endpoints:
  websocket:
    bind-host: 0.0.0.0
    bind-port: 8765
  redis:
    host: 127.0.0.1
    port: 6379
    username: ''
    password: ''

This section needs to be changed to configure the connection. As said, change endpoint-type to what you want to use. While one mode is selected, the values from the other mode are ignored. First I focus on the websocket section, as it is the default:

The bind-host is set to 0.0.0.0 by default, which you can leave in most cases. If you know what you are doing, you probably know what to enter. The bind-port can be any port, but it has to be an unused one. You need to open this port in the firewall/router to the internet with TCP.

The redis section is nearly the same. The only difference here is that CommandBridge does not host a Redis instance, so you only need to enter your Redis credentials there. Enter the address or IP of the Redis server and the port. In this case you do not have to change anything in the firewall like before, because you only connect. The username and password should be self-explanatory (most of the time they are actually not).

Each CommandBridge instance has an ID that you have to specify. For Velocity, you can modify (or not, as the default value is usually enough) the server-id value. It is set to proxy-1 by default. If you use more proxies in your setup, you need to change the names. Otherwise it is pretty unnecessary.

Step 3: Configure each backend

Open plugins/commandbridge/config.yml on each backend:

The important section should look like this (nearly identical to the Velocity one):

endpoints:
  websocket:
    host: 127.0.0.1
    port: 8765
  redis:
    host: 127.0.0.1
    port: 6379
    username: ''
    password: ''

The only difference here is the naming and the function. I will not explain the Redis section again, as it is identical to before. The websocket section has the values host and port, with slightly different names than before. This is because backends do not host the websocket server, they just connect to it. So for backends you do not have to reserve or open any ports like you had before. For host, enter the public IP address of the Velocity server with the running websocket server. You can also use the local IP address if you use a local setup. And the port just has to match the port on Velocity. Not wizardry here.

Also here you need to change the ID of the instance, and this time it is important to change it. Every backend acts as a client and needs its own specific ID. The value is called client-id and by default it is set to survival-1. I would recommend changing it to the server name or something obvious you can recognize. Cryptic names are not that smart in this case.

Step 4: Set up authentication

On first startup, Velocity generates a secret.key file (it will be regenerated if you delete it).

The content of the file will contain a key and look something like this:

9RDP43dYvjk8tos86QkU9QxG1V20O27LTR8AN0bPfeg

Copy this key into each config of your backend instances. You need to put it in the secret value in the security section. An example section will look like this:

security:
  secret: "9RDP43dYvjk8tos86QkU9QxG1V20O27LTR8AN0bPfeg"

Step 5: Start your network

Pretty self-explanatory. Start your Velocity server and the backend servers. If you run in Redis mode, make sure Redis is running. If you run in websocket mode, ensure that Velocity starts first, because the websocket server needs to run first. After that you can start up any other servers.

CommandBridge comes with an example script. You may need to enable it, or you can start by writing your own. For that, visit the Scripting section.