Using eosio-launcher to build a testnet with distributed producers

Preparation

git clone https://github.com/FeeSimple/my_launcher.git

cd my_launcher

// Inside the current dir, create the following dir structure
mkdir etc
mkdir etc/eosio
mkdir etc/eosio/launcher

// Copy the file testnet.template into the above-created dir structure
// The stupid "eosio-launcher" knows only this folder structure!
sudo cp $EOS_ROOT_DIR/build/etc/eosio/launcher/testnet.template ./etc/eosio/launcher/

// Copy the whole "programs" directory into the current directory
cp -r $EOS_ROOT_DIR/build/programs ./

Deploy multiple testnets on multiple hosts

# -n number of nodes (each node forms a testnet)
# -p number of producers per node (each node can serve 0 or multiple Producers)
# --producers total number of producers (normally it is: n * p)
# Right here, we want to have 2 nodes each of them containa 2 producers (totally 4 producers)
# Besides the normal nodeos, there is always the bios nodeos
# Network topology is "mesh" (or can be changed to "star")
# --network-name network_name_prefix
# --template path_to_file_testnet.template (start up script)
# --script generated_startup_script_name
# The -o option will cause to generate the network file

eosio-launcher -n 2 -p 1 --producers 2 -s mesh --network-name trung_net -o my_testnet.json

Deploy multiple testnets on a single host

Run the following commands from Terminal:

# -p number of nodes containing Producers (each node can serve 0 or multiple Producers)
# -n number of nodes (each node forms a testnet)
# --producers total number of producers
# Right here, we want to have 2 nodes and both of them contain producers (totally 4 producers)
# Besides the normal nodeos, there is always the bios nodeos
# Network topology is "mesh" (or can be changed to "star")
# The -o option will cause to generate the network file
eosio-launcher -n 2 -p 2 --producers 4 -s mesh --network-name trung_net -o my_testnet.json

# After running this cmd, a folder called "staging" is generated.
# It contains all config.ini and genesis.ini files for each node
# Please edit the config.ini files for adapting the http-server-address so that it can reached externally
# Otherwise, only localhost is used

# Run this cmd with the generated network file
# This will start up the node daemons and also execute the boot sequence
eosio-launcher --shape my_testnet.json --boot --force --nogen

# Run this cmd to check if nodeos daemons are really running or not
ps aux | grep nodeos