Interactive Brokers Gateway Docker

What is it?

A docker image to run the Interactive Brokers Gateway Application without any human interaction on a docker container.

It includes:

• IB Gateway Application (stable, latest)
• IBC Application - to control the IB Gateway Application (simulates user input).
• Xvfb - a X11 virtual framebuffer to run IB Gateway Application without graphics hardware.
• x11vnc - a VNC server that allows to interact with the IB Gateway user interface (optional, for development / maintenance purpose).
• socat a tool to accept TCP connection from non-localhost and relay it to IB Gateway from localhost (IB Gateway restricts connections to 127.0.0.1 by default).

Supported Tags

Channel	IB Gateway Version	IBC Version	Docker Tags
latest	10.22.1m	3.16.0	latest 10.22 10.22.1m
stable	10.19.1j	3.15.2	stable 10.19 10.19.1j

See all available tags here.

How to use?

Create a docker-compose.yml (or include ib-gateway services on your existing one)

version: "3.4"

services:
  ib-gateway:
    image: ghcr.io/unusualalpha/ib-gateway:latest
    restart: always
    environment:
      TWS_USERID: ${TWS_USERID}
      TWS_PASSWORD: ${TWS_PASSWORD}
      TRADING_MODE: ${TRADING_MODE:-live}
      VNC_SERVER_PASSWORD: ${VNC_SERVER_PASSWORD:-}
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:4001:4001"
      - "127.0.0.1:4002:4002"
      - "127.0.0.1:5900:5900"

Create an .env on root directory or set the following environment variables:

Variable	Description	Default
TWS_USERID	The TWS username.
TWS_PASSWORD	The TWS password.
TRADING_MODE	live or paper	paper
READ_ONLY_API	yes or no (see)	not defined
VNC_SERVER_PASSWORD	VNC server password. If not defined, no VNC server will be started.	not defined (VNC disabled)

Example .env file:

TWS_USERID=myTwsAccountName
TWS_PASSWORD=myTwsPassword
TRADING_MODE=paper
READ_ONLY_API=no
VNC_SERVER_PASSWORD=myVncPassword

Run:

$ docker-compose up

After image is downloaded, container is started + 30s, the following ports will be ready for usage on the container and docker host:

Port	Description
4001	TWS API port for live accounts.
4002	TWS API port for paper accounts.
5900	When VNC_SERVER_PASSWORD was defined, the VNC server port.

_Note that with the above docker-compose.yml, ports are only exposed to the docker host (127.0.0.1), but not to the network of the host. To expose it to the whole network change the port mappings on accordingly (remove the '127.0.0.1:'). Attention: See Leaving localhost

How build locally

1. Clone this repo

      git clone https://github.com/UnusualAlpha/ib-gateway-docker

2. Change docker file to use your local IB Gateway installer file, instead of loading it from this project releases: Open Dockerfile on editor and replace this lines:

   RUN curl -sSL https://github.com/UnusualAlpha/ib-gateway-docker/raw/gh-pages/ibgateway-releases/ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh \
       --output ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh
   RUN curl -sSL https://github.com/UnusualAlpha/ib-gateway-docker/raw/gh-pages/ibgateway-releases/ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh.sha256 \
       --output ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh.sha256
   

   with

   COPY ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh
   

3. Remove RUN sha256sum --check ./ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh.sha256 from Dockerfile (unless you want to keep checksum-check)

4. Download IB Gateway and name the file ibgateway-{IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh, where {IB_GATEWAY_VERSION} must match the version as configured on Dockerfile (first line)

5. Download IBC and name the file IBCLinux-{IBC_VERSION}.zip, where {IBC_VERSION} must match the version as configured on Dockerfile (second line)

6. Build and run: docker-compose up --build

Versions and Tags

The docker image version is similar to the IB Gateway version on the image.

See Supported tags

IB Gateway installation files

Note that the Dockerfile does not download IB Gateway installer files from IB homepage but from the github-pages of this project.

This is because it shall be possible to (re-)build the image, targeting a specific Gateway version, but IB does only provide download links for the latest or stable version (there is no 'old version' download archive).

The installer files stored on github-pages have been downloaded from IB homepage and renamed to reflect the version.

If you want to download Gateway installer from IB homepage directly, or use your local installation file, change this line on Dockerfile RUN curl -sSL https://github.com/UnusualAlpha/ib-gateway-docker/raw/gh-pages/ibgateway-releases/ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh --output ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh to download (or copy) the file from the source you prefer.

Example: change to RUN curl -sSL https://download2.interactivebrokers.com/installers/ibgateway/stable-standalone/ibgateway-stable-standalone-linux-x64.sh --output ibgateway-${IB_GATEWAY_VERSION}-standalone-linux-x64.sh for using current stable version from IB homepage.

Customizing the image

The image can be customized by overwriting the default configuration files with custom ones.

Apps and config file locations:

App	Folder	Config file	Default
IB Gateway	/root/Jts	/root/Jts/jts.ini	jts.ini
IBC	/root/ibc	/root/ibc/config.ini	config.ini

To start the IB Gateway run /root/scripts/run.sh from your Dockerfile or run-script.

Security Considerations

Leaving localhost

The IB API protocol is based on an unencrypted, unauthenticated, raw TCP socket connection between a client and the IB Gateway. If the port to IB API is open to the network, every device on it (including potential rogue devices) can access your IB account via the IB Gateway.

Because of this, the default docker-compose.yml only exposes the IB API port to the localhost on the docker host, but not to the whole network.

If you want to connect to IB Gateway from a remote device, consider adding an additional layer of security (e.g. TLS/SSL or SSH tunnel) to protect the 'plain text' TCP sockets against unauthorized access or manipulation.

Credentials

This image does not contain nor store any user credentials.

They are provided as environment variable during the container startup and the host is responsible to properly protect it (e.g. use Kubernetes Secrets or similar).