Getting Started with Docker and Traefik

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• Prerequisites
• Install Traefik
• Using Docker Compose
• Using Docker CLI
• Expose the Dashboard
• Deploy a Sample Application
• Test Your Setup
• Next Steps

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Docker is a first-class citizen in Traefik, offering native support for Docker containers and services. Whether you're using Docker Compose or running containers directly, Traefik provides a seamless experience for managing your Docker traffic.

This guide shows you how to:

• Install Traefik using Docker
• Expose the Traefik dashboard
• Deploy a sample application
• Configure basic routing

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose (optional)

Install Traefik

Using Docker Compose

Create a Docker Compose file. This configuration:

• Exposes ports 80 and 8080.
• Enables the Docker provider
• Configures the dashboard with basic settings. Port 8080 serves the dashboard because we enabled --api.insecure=true (development use only)
• Mounts the Docker socket for container discovery

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v3.8
    command:
      - "--api.insecure=true"
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

Start Traefik:

docker-compose up -d

Using Docker CLI

Alternatively, you can run Traefik directly with Docker. This command:

• Exposes ports 80 and 8080 for web traffic and dashboard access
• Mounts the configuration file and Docker socket
• Uses the same configuration as the Docker Compose example

Create a configuration file:

# traefik.yml
api:
  insecure: true
entryPoints:
  web:
    address: ":80"
providers:
  docker: {}

Start Traefik:

docker run -d \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v $PWD/traefik.yml:/etc/traefik/traefik.yml \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  traefik:v3.8

Expose the Dashboard

Because we explicitly enabled insecure mode, the dashboard is reachable on port 8080 without authentication. Do not enable this flag in production.

You can access the dashboard at:

http://localhost:8080/dashboard/

Deploy a Sample Application

Create a whoami service:

# whoami.yml
services:
  whoami:
    image: traefik/whoami
    labels:
      - "traefik.http.routers.whoami.rule=Host(`whoami.localhost`)"

Apply the configuration:

docker-compose -f whoami.yml up -d

Test Your Setup

You can use the following curl command to verify that the application is correctly exposed:

curl http://whoami.localhost

Hostname: 068c0a29a8b7
IP: 127.0.0.1
IP: ::1
IP: 192.168.147.3
RemoteAddr: 192.168.147.2:56006
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: whoami.localhost
User-Agent: curl/8.7.1
Accept: */*
Accept-Encoding: gzip
X-Forwarded-For: 192.168.147.1
X-Forwarded-Host: whoami.localhost
X-Forwarded-Port: 80
X-Forwarded-Proto: http
X-Forwarded-Server: 9232cdd4fd6c
X-Real-Ip: 192.168.147.1

You can also open http://whoami.localhost in a browser to test the application:

If you navigate to the HTTP Routers section of the Traefik dashboard, you can see that the whoami.localhost route is managed by the Traefik Docker provider:

That's it! You've successfully deployed Traefik and configured routing in Docker.

Next Steps

• Configure TLS
• Set up Middlewares
• Enable Metrics
• Learn more about Docker provider

{% include-markdown "includes/traefik-for-business-applications.md" %}