nanoporetech / nanoporetech/minknow_api

API clients only support one server certificate at a time

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#85 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Python
Stars
73
Forks
16
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

I have written a simple python API client app to look up historic flowcell check results across multiple P2-solo hosts.

Unfortunately each of these minknow instances seems to use a secure channel with its own self-signed certificates and the python API client library only allow one ca.crt to be read at runtime via the MINKNOW_TRUSTED_CA environment variable.

According to #77 these certificates are regenerated at boot and daily (though only picked up when Minknow service restarts), and seems to ignore the application_conf configured cert path. This isn't very easy to unpick for anybody starting to write remote API client tools! (Please can you improve the docs for remote connections?)

The quickest fix I can see is to replace the certificates with my own single cert shared across all instances and clients and disable rpc-certs-gend.service. Is that what ONT recommend or are they likely to change things again before #77 is fixed?

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading issue #77 and tracing how MINKNOW_TRUSTED_CA, application_conf, and rpc-certs-gend.service relate to remote connections. Determine whether multi-host certificate support or clearer remote-connection documentation is intended; done should include an agreed supported setup and corresponding guidance.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
grpc, python
Domain
api, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
28/100

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