Configuration

• Configuration Introduction
• Static Configuration File
• Dynamic Configuration File/s

Configuration Introduction

Configuration in Traefik can refer to two different things:

• The fully dynamic routing configuration (referred to as the dynamic configuration)
• The startup configuration (referred to as the static configuration)

Elements in the static configuration set up connections to providers and define the entrypoints Traefik will listen to (these elements don't change often).

The dynamic configuration contains everything that defines how the requests are handled by your system. This configuration can change and is seamlessly hot-reloaded, without any request interruption or connection loss.

Incompatible Configuration
Please be aware that the old configurations for Traefik v1.x are NOT compatible with the v2.x config as of now. If you are running v2, please ensure you are using a v2 configuration. Old configurations fro Traefik v2.x are NOT compatible.

The Static Configuration

There are three different, mutually exclusive (i.e. you can use only one at the same time), ways to define static configuration options in Traefik:

1. In a configuration file
2. In the command-line arguments
3. As environment variables

These ways are evaluated in the order listed above.

If no value was provided for a given option, a default value applies. Moreover, if an option has sub-options, and any of these sub-options is not specified, a default value will apply as well.

For example, the --providers.docker option is enough by itself to enable the docker provider, even though sub-options like --providers.docker.endpoint exist. Once positioned, this option sets (and resets) all the default values of the sub-options of --providers.docker.

See More about configuring the Static Config in this Wiki Post: Static Configuration File

The Dynamic Configuration

Traefik gets its dynamic configuration from providers: whether an orchestrator, a service registry, or a plain old configuration file.

Since this configuration is specific to your infrastructure choices, we invite you to refer to the dedicated section of this documentation.

Configuring Your Routers, Middlewares etc can be done in multiple ways. Either you can add Traefik Labels directly into your Application Docker Compose files Like this Format (- 'traefik.http.routers.bookstack.entrypoints=websecure') But they also can also be configured in Dynamic files. It's a Choice of what you prefer.
See More about configuring the Dynamic Config in this Wiki Post: Dynamic Configuration Files

HTTPS Certificates also belong to the dynamic configuration.
You can add / update / remove them without restarting your Traefik instance like mentioned in the beginning of this Post.

Static Configuration File

There are three different, mutually exclusive (i.e., you can use only one at the same time), ways to define static configuration options in Traefik:

• In a configuration file
• In the command-line arguments
• As environment variables

These ways are evaluated in the order listed above. If no value is provided for a given option, a default value applies. Moreover, if an option has sub-options and any of these sub-options are not specified, a default value will apply as well.

How Traefik Loads the Static Configuration File

At startup, Traefik searches for static configuration in a file named traefik.yml (or traefik.yaml or traefik.toml) in:

• /etc/traefik/
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/
• $HOME/.config/
• . (the working directory).

Applying This Knowledge to Your Traefik Setup

Traefik will look for files named traefik.yml, traefik.yaml, or traefik.toml at the startup of the container. You need to mount the static configuration file into your Traefik container. Below is basic information on how to apply it in Docker Compose. For more details, refer to this post: Bind Mounts.

Examples of How to Apply

volumes:
  # Example 1
  - '/path/to/your/static.yml:/traefik.yml:ro'
  # Example 2
  - '/path/to/your/static.yaml:/traefik.yaml:ro'
  # Example 3
  - '/path/to/your/static.toml:/traefik.toml:ro'

Minimum Required Information Recommended in Your Static.yaml Example:

# Configuration for Traefik v3.3 by aeoneros

global:
  checkNewVersion: true
  sendAnonymousUsage: true

entryPoints:
  web:
    address: ":80"
    http:
      redirections:
        entryPoint:
          to: websecure
          scheme: https
          permanent: true

  websecure:
    address: ":443"
    http:
      tls:
        certResolver: "leresolver"
        domains:
          - main: 'yourdomain.com'
            sans:
              - '*.yourdomain.com'

tls:
  certificates:
    - stores: ["default"]
  stores:
    default:
      defaultCertificate: {}

log:
  filePath: "/traefik.log"
  level: "DEBUG"

accessLog:
  filePath: "/access.log"
  addInternals: true
  format: "json"
  bufferingSize: 200
  fields:
    defaultMode: "keep"
    headers:
      defaultMode: "keep"
      names:
        X-Forwarded-For: "keep"

api:
  dashboard: false
  insecure: false

providers:
  docker:
    exposedByDefault: false
    network: "your_traefik_network"
  swarm:
    network: "your_traefik_network"
  file:
    watch: true
    directory: "/dynamic/"

certificatesResolvers:
  leresolver:
    acme:
      email: 'your-email@domain.com'
      storage: '/acme.json'
      caServer: 'https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory'
      dnsChallenge:
        provider: 'cloudflare'
        delayBeforeCheck: '0'
        resolvers:
          - '1.1.1.1:53'
          - '1.0.0.1:53'
          - '8.8.8.8:53'

For more about dynamic configuration, see: Dynamic Configuration Files.

Dynamic Configuration File/s

The dynamic configuration contains everything that defines how the requests are handled by your system. This configuration can change and is seamlessly hot-reloaded, without any request interruption or connection loss.

How Traefik Loads the Dynamic Config File/s

Refer to the Static Configuration Post for context. Traefik loads the static.yaml, and within that file, the dynamic file(s) are referenced for loading.

To load your dynamic configurations, you can set them up in two ways. Either write all your dynamic content into a single file or split it into multiple files for better organization.

Example: Loading Configuration in One File

Needs to be set up in static.yaml. The /dynamic.yaml is the path inside the container and must be mounted using Docker Compose:

volumes:
  # Dynamic Configuration File
  - '/path/on/your/linuxhost/dynamic:/dynamic.yaml'

Example static.yaml:

providers:
  docker:
    exposedByDefault: false
    network: "management_net"
  swarm:
    network: "management_net"
  file:
    watch: true
    file: "/dynamic.yaml"

Example: Loading Multiple Configuration Files

This setup loads every file in the specified directory with the YAML format. The /dynamic/ path is the path inside the container and must be mounted using Docker Compose:

volumes:
  # Dynamic Configuration Folder
  - '/path/on/your/linuxhost/dynamic:/dynamic/'

Example static.yaml:

providers:
  docker:
    exposedByDefault: false
    network: "management_net"
  swarm:
    network: "management_net"
  file:
    watch: true
    directory: "/dynamic/"

Splitting Dynamic Files

Create multiple paths in your Traefik data folder. Assuming your base Traefik data folder is /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data, you can structure it like this:

mkdir -p /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data/dynamic
touch /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data/dynamic/http.middlewares.yaml
touch /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data/dynamic/http.routers.yaml
touch /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data/dynamic/http.services.yaml
touch /mnt/glustermount/data/traefik_data/dynamic/tls.options.yaml

Then you can write configurations into these files. Below are examples for each:

Example: http.middlewares.yaml

http:
  middlewares:
    my-secure-headers:
      headers:
        sslRedirect: true
        stsSeconds: 31536000
        stsIncludeSubdomains: true
        stsPreload: true

Example: http.routers.yaml

http:
  routers:
    my-router:
      rule: "Host(`example.com`)"
      entryPoints:
        - websecure
      service: my-service
      tls: {}

Example: http.services.yaml

http:
  services:
    my-service:
      loadBalancer:
        servers:
          - url: "http://192.168.1.10:8080"

Example: tls.options.yaml

tls:
  options:
    default:
      minVersion: VersionTLS12
      cipherSuites:
        - TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
        - TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384