Virtual host proxy Docker image for Docksal

Automated HTTP/HTTPS virtual host proxy and container supervisor for Docksal.

This image(s) is part of the Docksal image library.

Features

• HTTP/HTTPS and HTTP/2 virtual host routing
• Supports Docker Compose based stacks as well as standalone containers (docker run ...)
• On-demand stack starting (upon HTTP/HTTPS request)
• Stack stopping after a given period of inactivity
• Stack cleanup after a given period of inactivity

On-demand start and inactivity stop/cleanup features are the key components used by Docksal Sandbox Server.

Usage

Start the proxy container:

docker run -d --name docksal-vhost-proxy --label "io.docksal.group=system" --restart=always --privileged --userns=host \
    -p "${DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_PORT_HTTP:-80}":80 -p "${DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_PORT_HTTPS:-443}":443 \
    -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    docksal/vhost-proxy

Container configuration

Proxy reads routing settings from container labels.

io.docksal.virtual-host

Virtual host mapping. Supports any domain (but does not handle DNS), multiple values separated by commas, wildcard sub-domains.

Example: io.docksal.virtual-host=example1.com,*.example2.com

io.docksal.virtual-port

Virtual port mapping. Useful when a container exposes an non-default HTTP port (other than port 80). Only supports HTTP target services, single value.

Example: io.docksal.virtual-port=3000

Example: Routing to a standalone container

Routing http(s)://myapp.example.com to a standalone container listening on port 2580 (HTTP).

# Start a standalone container
$ docker run -d --name=http-echo \
	--label=io.docksal.virtual-host=myapp.example.com \
	--label=io.docksal.virtual-port=2580 \
	--expose 2580 \
	hashicorp/http-echo:0.2.3 -listen=:2580 -text="Hello world: standalone"

# Verify
$ DOCKER_HOST=192.168.64.100
$ curl --header "Host: myapp.example.com" http://${DOCKER_HOST}
Hello world: standalone

Example: Routing to a container in a Docker Compose project stack

Routing http(s)://myproject.example.com to a container in a Docker Compose stack listening on port 2580 (HTTP).

$ cat docker-compose.yaml
version: "3"

# Uncomment if you want this stack to attach to an existing network (e.g., another Docksal project network)
#networks:
#  default:
#    external: true
#    name: <project-name>_default

services:
  web:
    image: hashicorp/http-echo:0.2.3
    # Comment out if using a specific existing network
    network_mode: bridge # Use the default shared 'bridge' network
    expose:
      - 2580
    labels:
      - "io.docksal.virtual-host=myproject.docksal.site"
      - "io.docksal.virtual-port=2580"
    command: ['-listen=:2580', '-text="Hello world: docker-compose"']

$ docker-compose -p myproject up -d
...

# Verify
$ curl http://myproject.docksal.site
"Hello world: docker-compose"

Notice that we used myproject.docksal.site in this example and did not project the Host header in the curl command. *.docksal.site domains are automatically resolved to 192.168.64.100 (Docksal's canonical IP address).

You can use an arbitrary domain, but then you'll have to handle the DNS for that domain.

Advanced proxy configuration

These advanced settings can be used in CI sandbox environments and help keep the resource usage down by stopping Docksal project containers after a period of inactivity.

Projects are automatically restarted upon a new HTTP request (unless PROJECT_AUTOSTART is set to 0, see below).

See Docksal Sandbox Server for the CI sandbox use case.

See services.yml in the docksal/docksal repo for an extensive list of examples of how docksal/vhost-proxy is used in Docksal.

PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT

Defines the timeout (e.g. 0.5h) of inactivity after which the project stack will be stopped.
This option is inactive by default (set to 0).

PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT

WARNING: This is a destructive option. Use at your own risk!

Defines the timeout (e.g. 168h) of inactivity after which the project stack and code base will be entirely wiped out from the host.
This option is inactive by default (set to 0).

For the cleanup job to work, proxy needs access to the projects directory on the host.
Create a Docker bind volume pointing to the directory where projects are stored:

docker volume create --name docksal_projects --opt type=none --opt device=$PROJECTS_ROOT --opt o=bind

then pass it using -v docksal_projects:/projects in docker run command.

Example (extra configuration in the middle):

docker run -d --name docksal-vhost-proxy --label "io.docksal.group=system" --restart=always --privileged --userns=host \
    -p "${DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_PORT_HTTP:-80}":80 -p "${DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_PORT_HTTPS:-443}":443 \
    -e PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT="${PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT:-0}" \

    -e PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT="${PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT:-0}" \
    -e PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT="${PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT:-0}" \
    -v docksal_projects:/projects \
    
    -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    docksal/vhost-proxy

io.docksal.permanent=true

It is possible to protect certain projects/containers from being automatically removed after PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT.

Projects/containers with the io.docksal.permanent=true label are considered permanent are skipped during the cleanup. When running the default Docksal stack, this label can be set with SANDBOX_PERMANENT=true in docksal.env (or an environment specific equivalent, e.g. docksal-ci.env).

Note: permanent projects will still be put into hibernation according to PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT.

PROJECT_AUTOSTART

Setting this variable to 0 will disable autostart projects by visiting project url. This option is active by default (set to 1).

Default and custom certs for HTTPS

The default server cert is a self-signed cert for *.docksal. It allows an HTTPS connection to be established, but will make browsers complain that the cert is not valid. If that's not acceptable, you can use a valid custom cert.

To use custom certs, mount a folder with certs to /etc/certs/custom. Certs are looked up by virtual host name.

E.g., cert and key for example.com (or *.example.com) are expected in:

/etc/certs/custom/example.com.crt
/etc/certs/custom/example.com.key

Shared certs (SNI) are also supported. Use io.docksal.cert-name label to set the cert name for a container.

Example: for io.docksal.cert-name=shared the following cert/key will be used:

/etc/certs/custom/shared.crt
/etc/certs/custom/shared.key

When multiple domain values are set in io.docksal.virtual-host, the first one is considered the primary one and used for certificate lookup. You can also always point to a specific cert with io.docksal.cert-name.

When projects are (re)started over HTTPS, the default virtual host config kicks in first. It uses the default self-signed cert, which would trigger a browser warning, even though the actual virtual host is then served using a valid custom cert. To overcome this issue, you can specify the default custom cert name using the DEFAULT_CERT environment variable.

You can use a single domain or a shared (SNI) cert, just like with other custom certs.

Example: DEFAULT_CERT=example.com or DEFAULT_CERT=shared

Logging and debugging

The following container environment variables can be used to enabled various logging options (disabled by default).

ACCESS_LOG - Set to 1 to enable access logging. DEBUG_LOG - Set to 1 to enable debug logging. STATS_LOG - Set to 1 to enable project stats logging.

Check logs with docker logs docksal-vhost-proxy.

Variable mapping for Docksal

When using this image with Docksal (99% of cases), settings for vhost-proxy are set via $HOME/.docksal/docksal.env.

The following variable mappings should be applied:

Configuration variable	Variable in $HOME/.docksal/docksal.env
ACCESS_LOG	DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_ACCESS_LOG
DEBUG_LOG	DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_DEBUG_LOG
STATS_LOG	DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_STATS_LOG
PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT	PROJECT_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT
PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT	PROJECT_DANGLING_TIMEOUT
DEFAULT_CERT	DOCKSAL_VHOST_PROXY_DEFAULT_CERT