Changing the reverse proxy to Traefik

[liechtjc]

Hello,

I’m a old user of EGroupware and we had an old version running on a cloud server.
We updated the infrastructure to have a Docker server where we run our applications.

I wonder if someone use EGroupware without the Nginx reverse proxy but instead with a Traefik docker instance?

Is there a mechanism to “override” docker-compose with preserving the possibility to upgrade the EGroupware package? I see a /etc/egroupware-docker/docker-compose.override.yml but I think it’s for specific use only.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[RalfBecker]

Is there a mechanism to “override” docker-compose with preserving the possibility to upgrade the EGroupware package? I see a /etc/egroupware-docker/docker-compose.override.yml but I think it’s for specific use only.

No, the docker-compose.override.yml is exactly for that purpose.

Thought you need to understand we use two Nginx servers in a standard EGroupware installation:

1. an internal Nginx running in a container named egroupware-nginx, which also serves our static content
2. the Nginx running on the host as reverse proxy also responsible for the TLS termination

It is the second one, you want to replace with Traefic, thought as running on the host (not in docker) it’s not configured via Docker and docker-compose(.override).yml!

Obviously you can add your Traffic container either to you EGroupware docker-compose.override.yml or a separate docker-compose.yml file.

The more important questions: are we’re going to support you creating such a configuration?
Answering basic questions to a certain extend here in the forum, but be prepared to be quickly directed to our professional (payed) support!

Ralf

[liechtjc]

Hello Ralf,

Thank you very much for the clarification. Yes it’s the second nginx server I would replace by Traefik.

Yes I can have a separate stack for traefic and checking but it would be maybe cleaner to add a dependency to Traefik in the egroupware docker-compose.

Yes no problem to pay support if I get stucked.

Is there is some document/online article where I can better understand the rationale of having the reverse proxy outside of Docker… I could also use the 2nd Nginx server to proxy our other applications.

Thank you!

JC

[StefanU]

Hi JC.

Is there is some document/online article where I can better understand the rationale of having the reverse proxy outside of Docker… I could also use the 2nd Nginx server to proxy our other applications.

The Docker-Nginx is the Webserver for EGroupware.
Suited to our EGroupware needs, suitably configured and also updatable by us in a standard installation (with watchtower) at any time. In this way, the web server remains suitable and secure.

The Nginx(Apache)-Reverseproxy on the host proxys EGroupware and other Apps we (you) integrate in EGroupware (Collabora Online, Rocket.Chat, Guacamole).
See here:

Docker (in EGroupware)?

and here (German-Lecture, but EN-Handout):

🇩🇪 (🇬🇧) Folien/Vortrag - slides/lecture Kielux 2021: Docker für EGroupware

Technical doc:
https://github.com/EGroupware/egroupware/tree/master/doc/docker
There you will find all the information you need to run EGroupware in the configuration files for your Traefik.

Stefan