Web Proxy using Docker, NGINX and Let's Encrypt

This is an opinionated improvisation to get a self-encrypting load balancer in front of Docker containers.

With this repo you will be able to set up your server with multiple sites using a single NGINX proxy to manage your connections, automating your apps container (port 80 and 443) to auto renew your ssl certificates with Let´s Encrypt.

Something like:

Why use it?

Using this set up you will be able start a productyion enviornment in a few seconds. And to start new web project simply start new containers the option -e VIRTUAL_HOST=your.domain.com and will be ready to go, if you want to use SSL (Let's Encrypt) just add the tag -e LETSENCRYPT_HOST=your.domain.com. Done!

Easy and trustworthy!

Prerequisites

In order to use this compose file (docker-compose.yml) you must have:

1. docker (https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/)
2. docker-compose (https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/)

How to use it

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/eldorplus/deployer.git && cd deployer

2. Make a copy of our .env.sample and rename it to .env:

Update this file with your preferences.

#
# WEBPROXY
#
# A Web Proxy using docker with NGINX with Let's Encrypt
# And our great community docker-gen, nginx-proxy and docker-letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion
#
# This is the .env file to set up your webproxy enviornment

# Define the names for your local containers
NGINX_WEB=nginx-web
DOCKER_GEN=nginx-gen
LETS_ENCRYPT=nginx-letsencrypt

# Your external IP address
IP=0.0.0.0

# Network name
NETWORK=webproxy

# NGINX file path
NGINX_FILES_PATH=/path/to/your/nginx/data

4. Run our start script

# ./run

Your proxy is ready to go!

Starting your web containers

After following the steps above you can start new web containers with port 80 open and add the option -e VIRTUAL_HOST=your.domain.com so proxy will automatically generate the reverse script in NGINX Proxy to forward new connections to your web/app container, as of:

docker run -d -e VIRTUAL_HOST=your.domain.com \
              --network=webproxy \
              --name my_app \
              httpd:alpine

To have SSL in your web/app you just add the option -e LETSENCRYPT_HOST=your.domain.com, as follow:

docker run -d -e VIRTUAL_HOST=your.domain.com \
              -e LETSENCRYPT_HOST=your.domain.com \
              -e [email protected] \
              --network=webproxy \
              --name my_app \
              httpd:alpine

You don´t need to open port 443 in your container, the certificate validation is managed by the web proxy.

Please note that when running a new container to generate certificates with LetsEncrypt (-e LETSENCRYPT_HOST=your.domain.com), it may take a few minutes, depending on multiples circunstances.

Testing your proxy with scripts preconfigured

1. Run the script test informing your domain already configured in your DNS to point out to your server as follow:

# ./test your.domain.com

or simply run:

 docker run -dit -e VIRTUAL_HOST=your.domain.com --network=webproxy --name test-web httpd:alpine

Access your browser with your domain!

To stop and remove your test container run our stop_test script:

# ./stop_test

Or simply run:

docker stop test-web && docker rm test-web 

• Debug with docker-compose ps or docker-compose logs
• Remove with docker-compose stop and docker-compose rm
• Stop with ./stop

License