Exposing Services with Traefik on Docker - Advanced

This guide builds on the concepts and setup from the Basic Guide. Make sure you've completed the basic guide and have a working Traefik setup with Docker before proceeding.

In this advanced guide, you'll learn how to enhance your Traefik deployment with:

• Middlewares for security headers and access control
• Let's Encrypt for automated certificate management
• Sticky sessions for stateful applications
• Multi-layer routing for hierarchical routing with a complex authentication based routing example

Prerequisites

• Completed the Basic Guide
• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• Working Traefik setup from the basic guide

Add Middlewares

Middlewares allow you to modify requests or responses as they pass through Traefik. Let's add two useful middlewares: Headers for security and IP allowlisting for access control.

Add the following labels to your whoami service in docker-compose.yml:

labels:

  # Secure Headers Middleware
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.frameDeny=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.sslRedirect=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.browserXssFilter=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.contentTypeNosniff=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.stsIncludeSubdomains=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.stsPreload=true"
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.secure-headers.headers.stsSeconds=31536000"

  # IP Allowlist Middleware
  - "traefik.http.middlewares.ip-allowlist.ipallowlist.sourceRange=127.0.0.1/32,192.168.0.0/16,10.0.0.0/8"

  # Apply middlewares to whoami router
  - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.middlewares=secure-headers,ip-allowlist"

Add the same middleware to your whoami-api service:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.whoami-api.middlewares=secure-headers,ip-allowlist"

Apply the changes:

docker compose up -d

Test the Middlewares

Now let's verify that our middlewares are working correctly:

Test the Secure Headers middleware:

curl -k -I -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/

In the response headers, you should see security headers set by the middleware:

• X-Frame-Options: DENY
• X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
• X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
• Strict-Transport-Security with the appropriate settings

Test the IP Allowlist middleware:

If your request comes from an IP that's in the allow list (e.g., 127.0.0.1), it should succeed:

curl -k -I -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/

If you try to access from an IP not in the allow list, the request will be rejected with a 403 Forbidden response. To simulate this in a local environment, you can modify the middleware configuration temporarily to exclude your IP address, then test again.

Generate Certificates with Let's Encrypt

Let's Encrypt provides free, automated TLS certificates. Let's configure Traefik to automatically obtain and renew certificates for our services.

Instead of using self-signed certificates, update your existing docker-compose.yml file with the following changes:

Add the Let's Encrypt certificate resolver to the Traefik service command section:

command:
  - "--api.insecure=false"
  - "--api.dashboard=true"
  - "--providers.docker=true"
  - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
  - "--providers.docker.network=proxy"
  - "--entryPoints.web.address=:80"
  - "--entryPoints.websecure.address=:443"
  - "--entryPoints.websecure.http.tls=true"
  - "--entryPoints.web.http.redirections.entryPoint.to=websecure"
  - "--entryPoints.web.http.redirections.entryPoint.scheme=https"
  # Let's Encrypt configuration
  - "[email protected]" # replace with your actual email
  - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
  - "--certificatesresolvers.le.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web"

Add a volume for Let's Encrypt certificates:

volumes:
  # ...Existing volumes...
  - "./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt"

Update your service labels to use the certificate resolver:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.tls.certresolver=le"

Do the same for any other services you want to secure:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.routers.whoami-api.tls.certresolver=le"

Create a directory for storing Let's Encrypt certificates:

mkdir -p letsencrypt

Apply the changes:

docker compose up -d

Public DNS Required

Let's Encrypt may require a publicly accessible domain to validate domain ownership. For testing with local domains like whoami.docker.localhost, the certificate will remain self-signed. In production, replace it with a real domain that has a publicly accessible DNS record pointing to your Traefik instance.

Once the certificate is issued, you can verify it:

# Verify the certificate chain
curl -v https://whoami.docker.localhost/ 2>&1 | grep -i "server certificate"

You should see that your certificate is issued by Let's Encrypt.

Configure Sticky Sessions

Sticky sessions ensure that a user's requests always go to the same backend server, which is essential for applications that maintain session state. Let's implement sticky sessions for our whoami service.

First, Add Sticky Session Labels

Add the following labels to your whoami service in the docker-compose.yml file:

labels:
  - "traefik.http.services.whoami.loadbalancer.sticky.cookie=true"
  - "traefik.http.services.whoami.loadbalancer.sticky.cookie.name=sticky_cookie"
  - "traefik.http.services.whoami.loadbalancer.sticky.cookie.secure=true"
  - "traefik.http.services.whoami.loadbalancer.sticky.cookie.httpOnly=true"

Apply the changes:

docker compose up -d

Then, Scale Up the Service

To demonstrate sticky sessions with Docker, use Docker Compose's scale feature:

docker compose up -d --scale whoami=3

This creates multiple instances of the whoami service.

Scaling After Configuration Changes

If you run docker compose up -d after scaling, it will reset the number of whoami instances back to 1. Always scale after applying configuration changes and starting the services.

Test Sticky Sessions

You can test the sticky sessions by making multiple requests and observing that they all go to the same backend container:

# First request - save cookies to a file
curl -k -c cookies.txt -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/

# Subsequent requests - use the cookies
curl -k -b cookies.txt -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/
curl -k -b cookies.txt -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/

Pay attention to the Hostname field in each response - it should remain the same across all requests when using the cookie file, confirming that sticky sessions are working.

For comparison, try making requests without the cookie:

# Requests without cookies should be load-balanced across different containers
curl -k -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/
curl -k -H "Host: whoami.docker.localhost" https://localhost/

You should see different Hostname values in these responses, as each request is load-balanced to a different container.

Browser Testing

When testing in browsers, you need to use the same browser session to maintain the cookie. The cookie is set with httpOnly and secure flags for security, so it will only be sent over HTTPS connections and won't be accessible via JavaScript.

For more advanced configuration options, see the reference documentation.

Multi-Layer Routing

Multi-layer routing enables hierarchical relationships between routers, where parent routers can process requests through middleware before child routers make final routing decisions. This is particularly useful for authentication-based routing or staged middleware application.

Provider Requirement

Multi-layer routing requires the File provider, as Docker labels do not support the parentRefs field. However, you can use both Docker and File providers together - Docker labels for service discovery and File configuration for multi-layer routing.

Setup Multi-Layer Routing with Docker

To use multi-layer routing with Docker, you need to enable the File provider alongside the Docker provider.

Update your Traefik service in docker-compose.yml:

services:
  traefik:
    image: "traefik:latest"
    container_name: "traefik"
    restart: unless-stopped
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    networks:
      - proxy
    command:
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--providers.docker.network=proxy"
      - "--providers.file.directory=/etc/traefik/dynamic"  # Enable File provider
      - "--entryPoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entryPoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--entryPoints.websecure.http.tls=true"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro"
      - "./dynamic:/etc/traefik/dynamic:ro"  # Mount directory for dynamic config

Authentication-Based Routing Example

Let's create a multi-layer routing setup where a parent router authenticates requests, and child routers direct traffic based on user roles.

First, keep your Docker services defined with labels as usual:

# In docker-compose.yml
services:
  # ... traefik service from above ...

  # Mock authentication service that adds X-User-Role header
  auth-service:
    image: "traefik/whoami"
    networks:
      - proxy
    environment:
      - WHOAMI_NAME=Auth Service
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.services.auth-service.loadbalancer.server.port=80"

  # Admin backend service
  admin-backend:
    image: "traefik/whoami"
    networks:
      - proxy
    environment:
      - WHOAMI_NAME=Admin Backend
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.services.admin-backend.loadbalancer.server.port=80"

  # User backend service
  user-backend:
    image: "traefik/whoami"
    networks:
      - proxy
    environment:
      - WHOAMI_NAME=User Backend
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.services.user-backend.loadbalancer.server.port=80"

Now create the multi-layer routing configuration in a file. Create dynamic/mlr.yml:

http:
  routers:
    # Parent router with authentication middleware
    api-parent:
      rule: "Host(`api.docker.localhost`) && PathPrefix(`/api`)"
      middlewares:
        - auth-middleware
      entryPoints:
        - websecure
      # Note: No service and no TLS config - this is a parent router

    # Child router for admin users
    api-admin:
      rule: "HeadersRegexp(`X-Auth-User`, `admin`)"
      service: admin-backend@docker  # Reference Docker service
      parentRefs:
        - api-parent@file  # Explicit reference to parent in file provider

    # Child router for regular users
    api-user:
      rule: "HeadersRegexp(`X-Auth-User`, `user`)"
      service: user-backend@docker  # Reference Docker service
      parentRefs:
        - api-parent@file  # Explicit reference to parent in file provider

  middlewares:
    auth-middleware:
      basicAuth:
        users:
          - "admin:$apr1$DmXR3Add$wfdbGw6RWIhFb0ffXMM4d0"
          - "user:$apr1$GJtcIY1o$mSLdsWYeXpPHVsxGDqadI."
        headerField: X-Auth-User

Generating Password Hashes

The password hashes above are generated using htpasswd. To create your own user credentials:

# Using htpasswd (Apache utils)
htpasswd -nb admin yourpassword

Cross-Provider References

Notice the @docker suffix on service names and the @file suffix in parentRefs. When using the File provider to orchestrate multi-layer routing with Docker services:

• Use service-name@docker to reference Docker services
• Use parent-name@file in parentRefs to reference the parent router in the File provider

The @provider suffix tells Traefik which provider namespace to look in for the resource.

Apply the changes:

docker compose up -d

Test Multi-Layer Routing

Test the routing behavior:

# Request goes through parent router → auth middleware → admin child router
curl -k -u admin:test -H "Host: api.docker.localhost" https://localhost/api

You should see the response from the admin-backend service when authenticating as admin. Try with user:test credentials to reach the user-backend service instead.

How It Works

1. Request arrives at api.docker.localhost/api
2. Parent router (api-parent) matches based on host and path
3. BasicAuth middleware authenticates the user and sets the X-Auth-User header with the username
4. Child router (api-admin or api-user) matches based on the header value
5. Request forwarded to the appropriate Docker service

For more details about multi-layer routing, see the Multi-Layer Routing documentation.

Conclusion

In this advanced guide, you've learned how to:

• Add security with middlewares like secure headers and IP allow listing
• Automate certificate management with Let's Encrypt
• Implement sticky sessions for stateful applications
• Setup multi-layer routing for authentication-based routing

These advanced capabilities allow you to build production-ready Traefik deployments with Docker. Each of these can be further customized to meet your specific requirements.

Next Steps

Now that you've mastered both basic and advanced Traefik features with Docker, you might want to explore:

• Advanced routing options like query parameter matching, header-based routing, and more
• Additional middlewares for authentication, rate limiting, and request modifications
• Observability features for monitoring and debugging your Traefik deployment
• TCP services for exposing TCP services
• UDP services for exposing UDP services
• Docker provider documentation for more details about the Docker integration