Traefik + Let’s Encrypt + Docker Compose

This guide shows you how to deploy your containers behind Traefik reverse-proxy. It will obtain and refresh HTTPS certificates automatically and it comes with password-protected Traefik dashboard.

Testing on Your Local Computer

Step 1: Make Sure You Have Required Dependencies

• Git
• Docker
• Docker Compose

Example Installation on Debian-based Systems:

sudo apt install git docker.io docker-compose

Step 2: Clone the Repository

git clone git@github.com:bubelov/traefik-letsencrypt-compose.git
cd traefik-letsencrypt-compose

Step 3: Add Environment Variables

nano .env

DOMAIN=localhost
EMAIL=admin@localhost
CERT_RESOLVER=
TRAEFIK_USER=admin
TRAEFIK_PASSWORD_HASH=$2y$10$zi5n43jq9S63gBqSJwHTH.nCai2vB0SW/ABPGg2jSGmJBVRo0A.ni

Note that you should leave CERT_RESOLVER variable empty if you test your deployment locally. The password is admin and you might want to change it before deploying to production.

Step 4: Set Your Own Password

If you're curious about HTTP basic auth and how it can be used with Traefik, you can read the full post. Here is the excerpt and it assumes you already installed htpasswd:

htpasswd -nBC 10 admin

New password:
Re-type new password:

admin:$2y$10$zi5n43jq9S63gBqSJwHTH.nCai2vB0SW/ABPGg2jSGmJBVRo0A.ni

The output has the following format: username:password_hash. The username doesn't have to be admin, feel free to change it (in the first line).

You can paste the username into the TRAEFIK_USER environment variable. The other part, hashedPassword, should be assigned to TRAEFIK_PASSWORD_HASH. Now you have your own username:password pair.

Step 5: Launch Your Deployment

sudo docker-compose up -d

Step 6: Test Your Deployment

curl --insecure https://localhost/

You can also test it in the browser:

https://localhost/

https://traefik.localhost/

Deploying on a Public Server With Real Domain

Let's say you have a domain example.com and it's DNS records point to your production server. Just repeat the local deployment steps, but don't forget to update DOMAIN, EMAIL and CERT_RESOLVER environment variables. In case of example.com, your .env file should have the following lines:

DOMAIN=example.com
EMAIL=your@email.com
CERT_RESOLVER=letsencrypt

Setting correct email is important because it allows Let’s Encrypt to contact you in case there are any present and future issues with your certificates.

That's it! Let me know if something was unclear to you or if you find any errors.