traefik/examples/quickstart

The Træfik Quickstart (Using Docker)

In this quickstart, we'll use Docker compose to create our demo infrastructure.

To save some time, you can clone Træfik's repository and use the quickstart files located in the examples/quickstart directory.

1 — Launch Træfik — Tell It to Listen to Docker

Create a docker-compose.yml file where you will define a reverse-proxy service that uses the official Træfik image:

version: '3'

services:
  reverse-proxy:
    image: traefik #The official Traefik docker image
    command: --api --docker #Enables the web UI and tells Træfik to listen to docker
    ports:
      - "80:80"     #The HTTP port
      - "8080:8080" #The Web UI (enabled by --api)
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock #So that Traefik can listen to the Docker events

That's it. Now you can launch Træfik!

Start your reverse-proxy with the following command:

docker-compose up -d reverse-proxy 

You can open a browser and go to http://localhost:8080 to see Træfik's dashboard (we'll go back there once we have launched a service in step 2).

2 — Launch a Service — Træfik Detects It and Creates a Route for You

Now that we have a Træfik instance up and running, we will deploy new services.

Edit your docker-compose.yml file and add the following at the end of your file.

# ... 
  whoami:
    image: emilevauge/whoami #A container that exposes an API to show it's IP address
    labels:
      - "traefik.frontend.rule=Host:whoami.docker.localhost"

The above defines whoami: a simple web service that outputs information about the machine it is deployed on (its IP address, host, and so on).

Start the whoami service with the following command:

docker-compose up -d whoami

Go back to your browser (http://localhost:8080) and see that Træfik has automatically detected the new container and updated its own configuration.

When Traefik detects new services, it creates the corresponding routes so you can call them ... let's see! (Here, we're using curl)

curl -H Host:whoami.docker.localhost http://127.0.0.1

Shows the following output:

Hostname: 8656c8ddca6c
IP: 172.27.0.3
#...

3 — Launch More Instances — Traefik Load Balances Them

Run more instances of your whoami service with the following command:

docker-compose up -d --scale whoami=2 

Go back to your browser (http://localhost:8080) and see that Træfik has automatically detected the new instance of the container.

Finally, see that Træfik load-balances between the two instances of your services by running twice the following command:

curl -H Host:whoami.docker.localhost http://127.0.0.1

The output will show alternatively one of the followings:

Hostname: 8656c8ddca6c
IP: 172.27.0.3
#...

Hostname: 8458f154e1f1
IP: 172.27.0.4
# ...

4 — Enjoy Træfik's Magic

Now that you have a basic understanding of how Træfik can automatically create the routes to your services and load balance them, it might be time to dive into the documentation and let Træfik work for you! Whatever your infrastructure is, there is probably an available Træfik backend that will do the job.

Our recommendation would be to see for yourself how simple it is to enable HTTPS with Træfik's let's encrypt integration using the dedicated user guide.