Deploying Traefik with Docker: A Tutorial

Traefik is the best and simplest reverse proxy I have ever used, compared to Caddy, NGINX, and others. Besides that, Traefik already comes with automatic SSL like Caddy, but goes further — it’s integrated with Docker and Kubernetes.

First, you need to create a dedicated network — in my example I create my own network named pratama-network, which you can create with the command below.

docker network create pratama-network

Next, create a directory named traefik on your server, then create a compose.yaml file with the code below.

After this, you still need to create a few files:

• traefik.toml -> Traefik’s main configuration
• dynamic-conf.toml -> HTTP, TCP and UDP routing configuration
• acme.json -> SSL content generated by Traefik

Here I use the TOML format for the Traefik configuration. Normally people use the YAML format, but I personally prefer TOML. You can use YAML directly if you prefer it, but in this tutorial we’ll stick with the TOML format.

Let’s create the files first: traefik.toml and dynamic-conf.toml will be stored in the conf directory, while acme.json will sit at the same level as compose.yml

Here are the commands in short:

mkdir conf
touch conf/traefik.toml
touch conf/dynamic-conf.toml
touch acme.json
chmod 600 acme.json

In order, the layout looks like this:

-- | /home/<user>/docker/traefik
   | -- compose.yml
   | -- acme.json
   | -- conf
        | -- traefik.toml
        | -- dynamic-conf.toml

Based on the structure above, I added the docker directory to keep things tidy, but you’re free to decide where the traefik directory lives — and it doesn’t even have to be called traefik, it’s just for tutorial purposes. Now, let’s fill in traefik.toml, which looks roughly like this

Then fill in the dynamic-conf.toml file as below — both files above will be explained in detail later.

The code is all done — you just need to replace the traefik.supanadit.com part with your own domain, then run it with the command below.

docker compose up -d

In short, the Traefik deployed on your server is now accessible. With the configuration above, for example, it’s a small slice of my server — and in this case it’s at the following link.

http://traefik.supanadit.com

Wait…. however, you won’t be able to access it — I protect it with Authelia as Middleware, so not everyone can see the list of apps on the dashboard.

😁Curious how I use Authelia and integrate it with Traefik? I’ll write more articles about Traefik another time, and I’ll create a dedicated page about Traefik.

FAQ

[certificatesResolvers.lets-encrypt.acme]
  email = "xxx@xxx.com"
  storage = "acme.json"
  [certificatesResolvers.lets-encrypt.acme.tlsChallenge]

If you have questions or something is unclear, write it in the comments below and I’ll update this article.