Is there a block explorer for ABW?

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Hi, 

I am playing around with ABW and I was able to complete some tutorials. Still some things are not clear to me.

1) So currently ABW says to be using Ethereum PoA. Question is, where exactly is the blockchain deployed? Apparently , they dont mean the Ethereum network, right? So is there some sort of private blockchain built based on Ethereum and hosted on Azure?

2) I made some transactions in the sample apps I created and I can see the addresses and the Tx Ids. But I cannot find the explorer. Is there one?

3) Who/ How are the transactions confirmed? Can i add multiple nodes? In that case how can each node keep a copy of the transactions? 

Thank you 

[#2]

Great questions. Here are the answers to your questions:

1. Workbench deploys a private Ethereum PoA blockchain network. With release 1.2.0, you are able to connect Workbench to your own Ethereum-based blockchain network. 
2. You can view the explorer by going to your resource group and accessing Log Analytics (Azure Monitoring/OMS). Log Analytics allows you to create events based on data coming through the blockchain network. You can also customize your dashboard as you need. 
3. Transaction confirmation is based on the consensus model of the underlying blockchain. With a standard Workbench deployment it relies on PoA consensus model. You can add nodes to your network or you can create a desired network and then deploy Workbench attached to that network. Since we are dealing with an Ethereum blockchain, all nodes have access to the same data.

[#3]

Hi Zeyad, 

Thnx for your quick response. 

1) OK , that s clear now. 

2) I m sill not able to track the transactions. I can only see logs related to the deployment of workbench like provisioning of VMs etc. Shall I FIRST create an event to catch the data coming from the blockchain? 

3) So currently, confirmations takes place in the single node, in the underlying VM in azure. How can I add more nodes and where can they possible live? a) In the same workbench deployment as the current node? b) in another deployment (workbench or ethereum PoA)? c) outside azure environment and somehow hook it up with the current workbench deployment.

Kindly bear with me since I have just started exploring Azure and workbench :).

Cheers

[#4]

To access Log Analytics for blockchain transactions do the following:

1. Click on Log Analytics resource in your deployed Workbench resource group
2. Click OMS Portal
3. There are two cards, one for blockchain network and the other for VMs

With default Workbench deployment, there are two nodes. Confirmed transactions are pushed to both nodes. Within the next couple of weeks we will be releasing a stand alone Ethereum PoA solution, which allows you to configure complex networks. You can deploy that solution and then attach Workbench to it. That would be the easiest as modifying the underlying network deployed in Workbench will require a bit more technical work.