InteractiveBrokers provides couple of tools that can be used to setup environment for trading or signal bots. The first one is the trading terminal itself, TWS and the second one is a kind of communicator between bots and the broker, IBGateway.
In case of server side environment, IBGateway supposed to be used. Eventhough it can be easily installed on different systems, including unix-based, such as Ubuntu, it's not fully as a hands-free tool. As there is no command line interface and utils to run it smoothly.
IBGateway reqiures graphical interface. So to emulate it, some tools to be installed first.
# xvfb, as screen simulator
apt install xvfb
# x11vnc, as remote access connector for the screen simulator
apt install x11vnc
And then on your computer, from where IBGateway will be configured and managed, install any VNC client. There are free ones, for example VNC Viewer. So finally you get not only command line, but graphical access to your server.
As all the dependencies are in place and running, its time to install IBGateway itself.
# choose location (home directory)
cd ~
# download installation script
wget https://download2.interactivebrokers.com/installers/ibgateway/latest-standalone/ibgateway-latest-standalone-linux-x64.sh
# make it executable
chmod a+x ibgateway-latest-standalone-linux-x64.sh
# run it (on the "Run IB Gateway?" question, answer "No")
sh ibgateway-latest-standalone-linux-x64.sh -c
IBGateway version 978 or later needs no extra "wrappers", such as IBController or IBC, to run continuously. Even more, these tools can produce undesibrable effects, if coupled with the new IBG versions.
# screen emulator (press enter twice)
Xvfb :1 -ac -screen 0 1024x768x24 &
# remote access connector
x11vnc -ncache 10 -ncache_cr -display :1 -forever -shared -logappend /var/log/x11vnc.log -bg -noipv6
# gateway (press enter twice)
export DISPLAY=:1
DISPLAY=:1 ~/Jts/ibgateway/978/ibgateway &
