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Docker Backend

Træfik can be configured to use Docker as a backend configuration.

Docker

################################################################
# Docker configuration backend
################################################################

# Enable Docker configuration backend.
[docker]

# Docker server endpoint. Can be a tcp or a unix socket endpoint.
#
# Required
#
endpoint = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"

# Default domain used.
# Can be overridden by setting the "traefik.domain" label on a container.
#
# Required
#
domain = "docker.localhost"

# Enable watch docker changes.
#
# Optional
#
watch = true

# Override default configuration template.
# For advanced users :)
#
# Optional
#
# filename = "docker.tmpl"

# Expose containers by default in Traefik.
# If set to false, containers that don't have `traefik.enable=true` will be ignored.
#
# Optional
# Default: true
#
exposedbydefault = true

# Use the IP address from the binded port instead of the inner network one.
# For specific use-case :)
#
# Optional
# Default: false
#
usebindportip = true

# Use Swarm Mode services as data provider.
#
# Optional
# Default: false
#
swarmmode = false

# Enable docker TLS connection.
#
# Optional
#
#  [docker.tls]
#  ca = "/etc/ssl/ca.crt"
#  cert = "/etc/ssl/docker.crt"
#  key = "/etc/ssl/docker.key"
#  insecureskipverify = true

To enable constraints see backend-specific constraints section.

Docker Swarm Mode

################################################################
# Docker Swarmmode configuration backend
################################################################

# Enable Docker configuration backend.
[docker]

# Docker server endpoint.
# Can be a tcp or a unix socket endpoint.
#
# Required
# Default: "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"
#
endpoint = "tcp://127.0.0.1:2375"

# Default domain used.
# Can be overridden by setting the "traefik.domain" label on a services.
#
# Optional
# Default: ""
#
domain = "docker.localhost"

# Enable watch docker changes.
#
# Optional
# Default: true
#
watch = true

# Use Docker Swarm Mode as data provider.
#
# Optional
# Default: false
#
swarmmode = true

# Override default configuration template.
# For advanced users :)
#
# Optional
#
# filename = "docker.tmpl"

# Expose services by default in Traefik.
#
# Optional
# Default: true
#
exposedbydefault = false

# Enable docker TLS connection.
#
# Optional
#
#  [docker.tls]
#  ca = "/etc/ssl/ca.crt"
#  cert = "/etc/ssl/docker.crt"
#  key = "/etc/ssl/docker.key"
#  insecureskipverify = true

To enable constraints see backend-specific constraints section.

Labels: overriding default behaviour

Using Docker with Swarm Mode

If you use a compose file with the Swarm mode, labels should be defined in the deploy part of your service. This behavior is only enabled for docker-compose version 3+ (Compose file reference).

version: "3"
services:
  whoami:
    deploy:
      labels:
        traefik.docker.network: traefik

Using Docker Compose

If you are intending to use only Docker Compose commands (e.g. docker-compose up --scale whoami=2 -d), labels should be under your service, otherwise they will be ignored.

version: "3"
services:
  whoami:
    labels:
      traefik.docker.network: traefik

On Containers

Labels can be used on containers to override default behaviour.

Label Description
traefik.backend=foo Give the name foo to the generated backend for this container.
traefik.backend.maxconn.amount=10 Set a maximum number of connections to the backend. Must be used in conjunction with the below label to take effect.
traefik.backend.maxconn.extractorfunc=client.ip Set the function to be used against the request to determine what to limit maximum connections to the backend by. Must be used in conjunction with the above label to take effect.
traefik.backend.loadbalancer.method=drr Override the default wrr load balancer algorithm
traefik.backend.loadbalancer.stickiness=true Enable backend sticky sessions
traefik.backend.loadbalancer.stickiness.cookieName=NAME Manually set the cookie name for sticky sessions
traefik.backend.loadbalancer.sticky=true Enable backend sticky sessions (DEPRECATED)
traefik.backend.loadbalancer.swarm=true Use Swarm's inbuilt load balancer (only relevant under Swarm Mode).
traefik.backend.circuitbreaker.expression=EXPR Create a circuit breaker to be used against the backend
traefik.port=80 Register this port. Useful when the container exposes multiples ports.
traefik.protocol=https Override the default http protocol
traefik.weight=10 Assign this weight to the container
traefik.enable=false Disable this container in Træfik
traefik.frontend.rule=EXPR Override the default frontend rule. Default: Host:{containerName}.{domain} or Host:{service}.{project_name}.{domain} if you are using docker-compose.
traefik.frontend.passHostHeader=true Forward client Host header to the backend.
traefik.frontend.priority=10 Override default frontend priority
traefik.frontend.entryPoints=http,https Assign this frontend to entry points http and https. Overrides defaultEntryPoints
traefik.frontend.auth.basic=EXPR Sets basic authentication for that frontend in CSV format: User:Hash,User:Hash
traefik.frontend.whitelistSourceRange:RANGE List of IP-Ranges which are allowed to access. An unset or empty list allows all Source-IPs to access. If one of the Net-Specifications are invalid, the whole list is invalid and allows all Source-IPs to access.
traefik.docker.network Set the docker network to use for connections to this container. [1]
traefik.frontend.redirect.entryPoint=https Enables Redirect to another entryPoint for that frontend (e.g. HTTPS)
traefik.frontend.redirect.regex=^http://localhost/(.*) Redirect to another URL for that frontend. Must be set with traefik.frontend.redirect.replacement.
traefik.frontend.redirect.replacement=http://mydomain/$1 Redirect to another URL for that frontend. Must be set with traefik.frontend.redirect.regex.

[1] traefik.docker.network: If a container is linked to several networks, be sure to set the proper network name (you can check with docker inspect <container_id>) otherwise it will randomly pick one (depending on how docker is returning them). For instance when deploying docker stack from compose files, the compose defined networks will be prefixed with the stack name. Or if your service references external network use it's name instead.

Security Headers

Label Description
traefik.frontend.headers.allowedHosts=EXPR Provides a list of allowed hosts that requests will be processed. Format: Host1,Host2
traefik.frontend.headers.customRequestHeaders=EXPR Provides the container with custom request headers that will be appended to each request forwarded to the container. Format: HEADER:value||HEADER2:value2
traefik.frontend.headers.customResponseHeaders=EXPR Appends the headers to each response returned by the container, before forwarding the response to the client. Format: HEADER:value||HEADER2:value2
traefik.frontend.headers.hostsProxyHeaders=EXPR Provides a list of headers that the proxied hostname may be stored. Format: HEADER1,HEADER2
traefik.frontend.headers.SSLRedirect=true Forces the frontend to redirect to SSL if a non-SSL request is sent.
traefik.frontend.headers.SSLTemporaryRedirect=true Forces the frontend to redirect to SSL if a non-SSL request is sent, but by sending a 302 instead of a 301.
traefik.frontend.headers.SSLHost=HOST This setting configures the hostname that redirects will be based on. Default is "", which is the same host as the request.
traefik.frontend.headers.SSLProxyHeaders=EXPR Header combinations that would signify a proper SSL Request (Such as X-Forwarded-For:https). Format: HEADER:value||HEADER2:value2
traefik.frontend.headers.STSSeconds=315360000 Sets the max-age of the STS header.
traefik.frontend.headers.STSIncludeSubdomains=true Adds the IncludeSubdomains section of the STS header.
traefik.frontend.headers.STSPreload=true Adds the preload flag to the STS header.
traefik.frontend.headers.forceSTSHeader=false Adds the STS header to non-SSL requests.
traefik.frontend.headers.frameDeny=false Adds the X-Frame-Options header with the value of DENY.
traefik.frontend.headers.customFrameOptionsValue=VALUE Overrides the X-Frame-Options header with the custom value.
traefik.frontend.headers.contentTypeNosniff=true Adds the X-Content-Type-Options header with the value nosniff.
traefik.frontend.headers.browserXSSFilter=true Adds the X-XSS-Protection header with the value 1; mode=block.
traefik.frontend.headers.contentSecurityPolicy=VALUE Adds CSP Header with the custom value.
traefik.frontend.headers.publicKey=VALUE Adds pinned HTST public key header.
traefik.frontend.headers.referrerPolicy=VALUE Adds referrer policy header.
traefik.frontend.headers.isDevelopment=false This will cause the AllowedHosts, SSLRedirect, and STSSeconds/STSIncludeSubdomains options to be ignored during development.
When deploying to production, be sure to set this to false.

On Service

Services labels can be used for overriding default behaviour

Label Description
traefik.<service-name>.port=PORT Overrides traefik.port. If several ports need to be exposed, the service labels could be used.
traefik.<service-name>.protocol Overrides traefik.protocol.
traefik.<service-name>.weight Assign this service weight. Overrides traefik.weight.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.backend=BACKEND Assign this service frontend to BACKEND. Default is to assign to the service backend.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.entryPoints Overrides traefik.frontend.entrypoints
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.auth.basic Sets a Basic Auth for that frontend
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.passHostHeader Overrides traefik.frontend.passHostHeader.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.priority Overrides traefik.frontend.priority.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.rule Overrides traefik.frontend.rule.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.redirect Overrides traefik.frontend.redirect.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.redirect.entryPoint=https Overrides traefik.frontend.redirect.entryPoint.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.redirect.regex=^http://localhost/(.*) Overrides traefik.frontend.redirect.regex.
traefik.<service-name>.frontend.redirect.replacement=http://mydomain/$1 Overrides traefik.frontend.redirect.replacement.

Note

If a label is defined both as a container label and a service label (for example traefik.<service-name>.port=PORT and traefik.port=PORT ), the service label is used to defined the <service-name> property (port in the example).

It's possible to mix container labels and service labels, in this case container labels are used as default value for missing service labels but no frontends are going to be created with the container labels.

More details in this example.

Warning

When running inside a container, Træfik will need network access through:

docker network connect <network> <traefik-container>