Docker image for Interactive Brokers TWS hosted by IBC running under TightVNC.

• User configuration is cleanly separated, allowing one computer to serve many accounts, store configuration in Kubernetes secrets, and for one-size-fits-all images to exist on Docker Hub.

• In line with Kubernetes best practice, IBC and TWS logs are redirected to container stdout.

• Docker Hub images are completely transparent, except for upload credentials. CI configuration is checked in, and the build log for each cryptographic image digest can be audited via GitHub Actions.

• TWS auto-restart is supported. If TWS exits, the container will search for a replacement Java process and continue running when one is found.

• krallin/tini is used to avoid stray TWS zombie processes accumulating over auto-restarts.

• Running multiple TWS containers within one Kubernetes pod is supported, to allow real time market data to be shared between live and paper trading accounts.

docker run \
    --rm -it \
    -e VNC_PASSWORD=123 \
    -p 127.0.0.1:5900:5900 \
    -p 127.0.0.1:7496:7496 \
    dockertws/dockertws:ci

Optionally supply credentials using:

    -e IBC_USERNAME=myuser123
    -e IBC_PASSWORD=OpenSesame

Optionally supply jts.ini and tws.xml from an existing TWS installation using:

    -v /path/to/jts.ini:/conf/jts.ini:ro
    -v /path/to/tws.xml:/conf/tws.xml:ro

For each account you intend to use the image with, login to TWS from a desktop computer, or simply start the container and login through it. Repeat for each desired account. Now grab jts.ini from your installation, which will contain a list of encoded account usernames docker-tws needs to know where to copy tws.xml to.

Simply grab tws.xml after you have finished customizing it. If you created the files inside a Docker image, use something like docker cp to extract them.

All paths are optional.

Your live account and the paper account associated with it may be used simultaneously, with both receiving real-time market data, so long as both are used on the same computer. TWS uses a fingerprinting mechanism to verify this, which breaks if the accounts run in different pods, possibly due to changes in container IP or MAC addresses.

However, by hosting both instances as containers within the same Kubernetes pod, with a shared volume mapped over /home/tws, and a per-container private emptyDir volume mapped over /home/tws/Jts, the check succeeds and it becomes possible to host this configuration with unattended logins, VNC and restarts for both accounts.

The emptyDir mapping over /home/tws/Jts is necessary since it seems impossible to change the location of /home/tws/Jts/jts.ini, causing a race at startup as the copies of IBC running in each pod update this file to configure their associated trading mode.

An example "combined live/paper" Kubernetes configuration as described below is supplied in example/tws-combined.yml.

Ensure your paper trading account is configured to share real-time market data.

1. From the Interactive Brokers web app, click the burger menu in the top left
2. Choose "Settings" from near the bottom
3. Choose "Account Settings" from the sub-menu
4. Click the gear icon next to "Paper Trading Account" in the right-hand column about one third of the way down
5. Enable the option to share real-time market data
6. Wait a few hours for the configuration change to take effect

When docker-tws starts, if /home/tws or /home/tws/Jts are empty, they are initialized from a pristine TWS installation stored in the image. The volumes required are:

• /home/tws: an emptyDir shared volume mounted in both containers. This volume will contain at least a magic .hwid file that appears to be part of the fingerprinting process.

• /home/tws/Jts: an emptyDir volume that is private to each container, needed to avoid a startup race condition.

• VNC_DISPLAY should be set to 1 for the paper trading container, so that both VNC servers can share the pod IP address.

• TWS_API_PORT should be set to 7497 for the paper trading container, so that both API servers can share the pod IP address.

See the IBC documentation for a description of IBC settings.

Ubuntu 20.04