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Proxy Management

New

Introduced in 0.5.0, Enhanced in 0.6.0

proxy:build-config [--parallel count] [--all|<app>] # (Re)builds config for given app
proxy:clear-config [--all|<app>] # Clears config for given app
proxy:disable [--parallel count] [--all|<app>]      # Disable proxy for app
proxy:enable [--parallel count] [--all|<app>]       # Enable proxy for app
proxy:report [<app>] [<flag>]                       # Displays a proxy report for one or more apps
proxy:set [<app>|--global] <proxy-type>                        # Set proxy type for app

In Dokku 0.5.0, port proxying was decoupled from the nginx-vhosts plugin into the proxy plugin. Dokku 0.6.0 introduced the ability to map host ports to specific container ports. In the future this will allow other proxy software - such as HAProxy or Caddy - to be used in place of nginx.

Usage

Changing the proxy

The default proxy shipped with Dokku is nginx. It can be changed via the proxy:set command.

dokku proxy:set node-js-app caddy
-----> Setting config vars
       DOKKU_APP_PROXY_TYPE:  caddy

The proxy may also be set on a global basis. This is usually preferred as running multiple proxy implementations may cause port collision issues.

dokku proxy:set --global caddy
-----> Setting config vars
       DOKKU_PROXY_TYPE:  caddy

Changing the proxy does not stop or start any given proxy implementation. Please see the documentation for your proxy implementation for details on how to perform a change.

Regenerating proxy config

In certain cases, your app proxy configs may drift from the correct config for your app. You may regenerate the config at any point via the proxy:build-config command. This command will trigger a rebuild for the configured proxy implementation (default: nginx) for a given app. The command may fail if there are no current web listeners for your app.

dokku proxy:build-config node-js-app

All apps may have their proxy config rebuilt by using the --all flag.

dokku proxy:build-config --all

By default, rebuilding proxy configs for all apps happens serially. The parallelism may be controlled by the --parallel flag.

dokku proxy:build-config --all --parallel 2

Finally, the number of parallel workers may be automatically set to the number of CPUs available by setting the --parallel flag to -1

dokku proxy:build-config --all --parallel -1

Clearing the generated proxy config

New

Introduced in 0.27.0

Generated proxy configurations can also be cleared using the proxy:clear-config command.

dokku proxy:clear-config node-js-app

All apps may have their proxy config cleared by using the --all flag.

dokku proxy:clear-config --all

Clearing a proxy configuration has different effects depending on the proxy plugin in use. Consul the documentation for your proxy implementation for further details.

Displaying proxy reports for an app

New

Introduced in 0.8.1

You can get a report about the app's proxy status using the proxy:report command:

dokku proxy:report
=====> node-js-app proxy information
       Proxy enabled:       true
       Proxy type:          nginx
=====> python-sample proxy information
       Proxy enabled:       true
       Proxy type:          nginx
=====> ruby-sample proxy information
       Proxy enabled:       true
       Proxy type:          nginx

You can run the command for a specific app also.

dokku proxy:report node-js-app
=====> node-js-app proxy information
       Proxy enabled:       true
       Proxy type:          nginx

You can pass flags which will output only the value of the specific information you want. For example:

dokku proxy:report node-js-app --proxy-type

Proxy Port Scheme

See the port scheme documentation for more information on the port mapping scheme used by dokku.

Proxy port mapping

See the port management documentation for more information on how port mappings are managed for an application.

Container network interface binding

Info

Changed as of 0.11.0

From Dokku versions 0.5.0 until 0.11.0, enabling or disabling an application's proxy would also control whether or not the application was bound to all interfaces - e.g. 0.0.0.0. As of 0.11.0, this is now controlled by the network plugin. Please see the network documentation for more information.

Implementing a Proxy

Custom plugins names must have the suffix -vhosts or scheduler overriding via proxy:set may not function as expected.

At this time, the following dokku commands are used to interact with a complete proxy implementation.

  • domains:add: Adds a given domain to an app.
    • triggers: post-domains-update
  • domains:clear: Clears out an app's associated domains.
    • triggers: post-domains-update
  • domains:disable: Disables domains for an app.
    • triggers: pre-disable-vhost
  • domains:enable: Enables domains for an app.
    • triggers: pre-enable-vhost
  • domains:remove: Removes a domain from an app.
    • triggers: post-domains-update
  • domains:set: Sets all domains for a given app.
    • triggers: post-domains-update
  • proxy:build-config: Builds - or rebuilds - external proxy configuration.
    • triggers: proxy-build-config
  • proxy:clear-config: Clears out external proxy configuration.
    • triggers: proxy-clear-config
  • proxy:disable: Disables the proxy configuration for an app.
    • triggers: proxy-disable
  • proxy:enable: Enables the proxy configuration for an app.
    • triggers: proxy-enable
  • ports:add: Adds one or more port mappings to an app
    • triggers: post-proxy-ports-update
  • ports:clear: Clears out all port mappings for an app.
    • triggers: post-proxy-ports-update
  • ports:remove: Removes one or more port mappings from an app.
    • triggers: post-proxy-ports-update
  • ports:set: Sets all port mappings for an app.
    • triggers: post-proxy-ports-update

Proxy implementations may decide to omit some functionality here, or use plugin triggers to supplement config with information from other plugins.

Individual proxy implementations may trigger app rebuilds, depending on how proxy metadata is exposed for the proxy implementation.

Finally, proxy implementations may install extra software needed for the proxy itself in whatever manner deemed fit. Proxy software can run on the host itself or within a running Docker container with either exposed ports or host networking.