IBGA Frequently Asked Questions

Table of contents

What OS does IBGA support?
What makes IBGA different from IBC?
Can I host IBGA on an internet server?
How is two-factor authentication (Interactive Brokers Secure Login System SLS) handled in IBGA?
How do I run multiple instances of IB Gateway on the same server?
How do I export logs to a non-settings directory on the host?
Why Xvfb but not the modern xserver-xorg-video-dummy as the framebuffer?
Can I distribute IBGA as a commercial product?

What OS does IBGA support?

IBGA is a self-sufficient image. It runs on Docker. Docker is available on a variety of Linux platforms, macOS, and Windows 10.

What makes IBGA different from IBC?

IBC automates many aspects of the Interactive Broker trading software. It is, however, not designed to run in a headless server. Before I started on IBGA, I spent plenty of time trying to make IBC work inside a container but couldn’t reliably do so.

Technically, IBC is a Java program hosting the IB Gateway main class. Certain aspects of IBC can only be done via reverse-engineering how IB Gateway works. IBGA on the other hand, uses two-component automation: one to extract UI coordinates, and another to simulate input. It is a more efficient way to achieve automation, and I don’t need to reverse-engineer the app.

Can I host IBGA on an internet server?

Not recommended. Please refer to Security to learn about the potential issues of hosting IBGA on a public server.

Interactive Brokers now enforces two-factor authentication for trading. As a result, IBGA’s login procedure can no longer be fully automated. The easiest second factor (whether you have a physical password device or not) is to configure IB Key on your phone (iPhone, Android Guide). Once this is configured, you will see the following IBGA screen (via VNC) upon login, right after IBGA automatically enters the password.

Your phone will receive a push notification where you can tap and allow the login.

IBGA can support physical password devices too, in which case, you have to open up the VNC in a browser (generally a computer is preferred over a phone) to enter the password according to instructions.

In both scenarios, the confirmation has to be done within 2 minutes. If you didn’t complete the login, IBG will return to the initial login screen.

Note that if you have more than one device (for instance, an IB Key on phone and a physical device), you will be presented with a choice, in which case, you have to open up the VNC in a browser and choose “IB Key” before you receive a push notification. By default, IBGA will not touch second factor device choices. But by setting IB_PREFER_IBKEY environment variable to “true”, IBGA will automatically choose IB Key when there are more than one choices, enabling simple confirmation without VNC.

How do I run multiple instances of IB Gateway on the same server?

In the example configuration, only one service node (my-ibga) is created. Within the context of IBGA, one service is one container running one instance of IB Gateway. Running another instance needs another service node, with different ports. For example:

version: '2'
services:
  my-ibga:
    ...
    environment:
      ...
      - IB_USERNAME=username_account1
      ...
    ports:
      - "15800:5800"
      - "4000:4000"
  my-other-account:
    ...
    environment:
      ...
      - IB_USERNAME=username_account2
      ...
    ports:
      - "15801:5800"
      - "4001:4000"

However, you cannot share live account market data subscriptions with the paper trading account using this method. For market data sharing to work, both IB Gateway instances must share the same NIC MAC address, which IBGA does not currently support.

How do I export logs to a non-settings directory on the host?

First, log exporting is configured using the IBGA_EXPORT_LOGS variable. To export into a custom directory, mount it in docker-compose.yml like the program and settings directory, and set IBGA_LOG_EXPORT_DIR respectively:

version: '2'
services:
  my-ibga:
    image: ibga
    environment:
      ...
      - IBGA_EXPORT_LOGS=true
      - IBGA_LOG_EXPORT_DIR=/home/ibg_logs
    volumes:
      - ./run/program:/home/ibg
      - ./run/settings:/home/ibg_settings
      - ./run/logs:/home/ibg_logs

Why Xvfb but not the modern xserver-xorg-video-dummy as the framebuffer?

Mainly the size. Switching to xserver-xorg-video-dummy adds about 30MB of additional dependencies to the image without any improvement to the functionality whatsoever.

Can I distribute IBGA as a commercial product?

IBGA is available under the GPLv3 license as well as a commercial license. Users choosing to use IBGA under the free, open-source license must comply with its terms. Alternatively, users may choose to purchase a commercial license, which enables the distribution of IBGA in any form without restrictions.

Please contact heshiming at gmail dot com for the commercial licensing option.