Traefik: Installation Guide

What You'll Need

• Ubuntu Server (I'm using 24.04 LTS).
• Make sure you are doing an static IP address for this server.
• Install open SSH on your server

1. Update your system and install Docker

First things first, let's update everything:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
        

Install the dependencies Docker needs:

sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
        

Add Docker's GPG key and repository:

curl -fsSL <https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg> | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] <https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu> $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
        

Now install Docker:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli [containerd.io](<http://containerd.io>)
        

Check if it installed correctly:

sudo docker --version
        

Add your user to the docker group so you don't have to sudo everything:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
        

2. Install Docker Compose

Docker Compose makes managing multi-container apps way easier:

sudo curl -L "<https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/$>(curl -s <https://api.github.com/repos/docker/compose/releases/latest> | grep -Po '"tag_name": "\\K.*?(?=")')/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
        

Make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
        

Verify:

docker-compose --version
        

3. Create your Traefik directory structure

Let's keep things organized:

mkdir -p ~/traefik/config ~/traefik/letsencrypt
cd ~/traefik
        

4. Create a Docker network for Traefik

This is important - all your services will need to connect to this network:

docker network create traefik-network
        

5. Create the Traefik configuration file

This is where the magic happens:

nano config/traefik.yml
        

Example config:

api:
  dashboard: true
  insecure: true

entryPoints:
  web:
    address: ":80"
  websecure:
    address: ":443"

providers:
  docker:
    endpoint: "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"
    exposedByDefault: false
    network: traefik-network

certificatesResolvers:
  letsencrypt:
    acme:
      email: basitha[@](<mailto:your-email@example.com>)<my-domain-name>
      storage: /letsencrypt/acme.json
      httpChallenge:
        entryPoint: web
        

6. Create your docker-compose.yml file

nano docker-compose.yml
        

Example config:

services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v2.10
    container_name: traefik
    restart: unless-stopped
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    networks:
      - traefik-network
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "8080:8080"  # Traefik Dashboard port
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./config/traefik.yml:/traefik.yml:ro
      - ./letsencrypt:/letsencrypt
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"

networks:
  traefik-network:
    external: true
        

7. Set permissions for SSL certificates

This is crucial for Let's Encrypt to work:

touch letsencrypt/acme.json
chmod 600 letsencrypt/acme.json
        

8. Start Traefik

Let's fire it up:

docker-compose up -d
        

Check if it's running:

docker ps
        

You should see the traefik container running. If you want to see the logs:

docker-compose logs -f traefik
        

9. Check the Traefik dashboard

Open your browser and go to: http://<your-server-ip>:8080

You should see the Traefik dashboard.

Useful commands you'll need

Check status:

docker-compose ps
        

View logs:

docker-compose logs -f traefik
        

Restart Traefik:

docker-compose restart traefik
        

Stop everything:

docker-compose down
        

Update Traefik:

docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -d
        

What is Next

Now that Traefik is running, I need to actually migrate my services to use it. I'm planning to:

• Add proper SSL certificates with Let's Encrypt
• Set up authentication for the dashboard
• Migrate my services to use Traefik routing