15 KiB
Concepts
Let's take our example from the overview again:
Imagine that you have deployed a bunch of microservices on your infrastructure. You probably used a service registry (like etcd or consul) and/or an orchestrator (swarm, Mesos/Marathon) to manage all these services. If you want your users to access some of your microservices from the Internet, you will have to use a reverse proxy and configure it using virtual hosts or prefix paths:
- domain
api.domain.com
will point the microserviceapi
in your private network- path
domain.com/web
will point the microserviceweb
in your private network- domain
backoffice.domain.com
will point the microservicesbackoffice
in your private network, load-balancing between your multiple instances
Let's zoom on Træfɪk and have an overview of its internal architecture:
- Incoming requests end on entrypoints, as the name suggests, they are the network entry points into Træfɪk (listening port, SSL, traffic redirection...).
- Traffic is then forwarded to a matching frontend. A frontend defines routes from entrypoints to backends.
Routes are created using requests fields (
Host
,Path
,Headers
...) and can match or not a request. - The frontend will then send the request to a backend. A backend can be composed by one or more servers, and by a load-balancing strategy.
- Finally, the server will forward the request to the corresponding microservice in the private network.
Entrypoints
Entrypoints are the network entry points into Træfɪk. They can be defined using:
- a port (80, 443...)
- SSL (Certificates, Keys, authentication with a client certificate signed by a trusted CA...)
- redirection to another entrypoint (redirect
HTTP
toHTTPS
)
Here is an example of entrypoints definition:
[entryPoints]
[entryPoints.http]
address = ":80"
[entryPoints.http.redirect]
entryPoint = "https"
[entryPoints.https]
address = ":443"
[entryPoints.https.tls]
[[entryPoints.https.tls.certificates]]
certFile = "tests/traefik.crt"
keyFile = "tests/traefik.key"
- Two entrypoints are defined
http
andhttps
. http
listens on port80
andhttps
on port443
.- We enable SSL on
https
by giving a certificate and a key. - We also redirect all the traffic from entrypoint
http
tohttps
.
And here is another example with client certificate authentication:
[entryPoints]
[entryPoints.https]
address = ":443"
[entryPoints.https.tls]
clientCAFiles = ["tests/clientca1.crt", "tests/clientca2.crt"]
[[entryPoints.https.tls.certificates]]
certFile = "tests/traefik.crt"
keyFile = "tests/traefik.key"
- We enable SSL on
https
by giving a certificate and a key. - One or several files containing Certificate Authorities in PEM format are added.
- It is possible to have multiple CA:s in the same file or keep them in separate files.
Frontends
A frontend is a set of rules that forwards the incoming traffic from an entrypoint to a backend. Frontends can be defined using the following rules:
Headers: Content-Type, application/json
: Headers adds a matcher for request header values. It accepts a sequence of key/value pairs to be matched.HeadersRegexp: Content-Type, application/(text|json)
: Regular expressions can be used with headers as well. It accepts a sequence of key/value pairs, where the value has regex support.Host: traefik.io, www.traefik.io
: Match request host with given host list.HostRegexp: traefik.io, {subdomain:[a-z]+}.traefik.io
: Adds a matcher for the URL hosts. It accepts templates with zero or more URL variables enclosed by{}
. Variables can define an optional regexp pattern to be matched.Method: GET, POST, PUT
: Method adds a matcher for HTTP methods. It accepts a sequence of one or more methods to be matched.Path: /products/, /articles/{category}/{id:[0-9]+}
: Path adds a matcher for the URL paths. It accepts templates with zero or more URL variables enclosed by{}
.PathStrip
: Same asPath
but strip the given prefix from the request URL's Path.PathPrefix
: PathPrefix adds a matcher for the URL path prefixes. This matches if the given template is a prefix of the full URL path.PathPrefixStrip
: Same asPathPrefix
but strip the given prefix from the request URL's Path.AddPrefix
: Add prefix to the request URL's Path.
You can use multiple values for a rule by separating them with ,
.
You can use multiple rules by separating them by ;
.
You can optionally enable passHostHeader
to forward client Host
header to the backend.
In order to use path regular expressions, you must declare an arbitrarily named variable followed by the colon-separated regular expression, all enclosed in curly braces. Any pattern supported by Go's regexp package may be used. Example: /posts/{id:[0-9]+}
.
(Note that the variable has no special meaning; however, it is required by gorilla/mux which embeds the regular expression and defines the syntax.)
Here is an example of frontends definition:
[frontends]
[frontends.frontend1]
backend = "backend2"
[frontends.frontend1.routes.test_1]
rule = "Host:test.localhost,test2.localhost"
[frontends.frontend2]
backend = "backend1"
passHostHeader = true
priority = 10
entrypoints = ["https"] # overrides defaultEntryPoints
[frontends.frontend2.routes.test_1]
rule = "HostRegexp:localhost,{subdomain:[a-z]+}.localhost"
[frontends.frontend3]
backend = "backend2"
[frontends.frontend3.routes.test_1]
rule = "Host:test3.localhost;Path:/test"
- Three frontends are defined:
frontend1
,frontend2
andfrontend3
frontend1
will forward the traffic to thebackend2
if the ruleHost:test.localhost,test2.localhost
is matchedfrontend2
will forward the traffic to thebackend1
if the ruleHost:localhost,{subdomain:[a-z]+}.localhost
is matched (forwarding clientHost
header to the backend)frontend3
will forward the traffic to thebackend2
if the rulesHost:test3.localhost
ANDPath:/test
are matched
Combining multiple rules
As seen in the previous example, you can combine multiple rules. In TOML file, you can use multiple routes:
[frontends.frontend3]
backend = "backend2"
[frontends.frontend3.routes.test_1]
rule = "Host:test3.localhost"
[frontends.frontend3.routes.test_2]
rule = "Path:/test"
Here frontend3
will forward the traffic to the backend2
if the rules Host:test3.localhost
AND Path:/test
are matched.
You can also use the notation using a ;
separator, same result:
[frontends.frontend3]
backend = "backend2"
[frontends.frontend3.routes.test_1]
rule = "Host:test3.localhost;Path:/test"
Finally, you can create a rule to bind multiple domains or Path to a frontend, using the ,
separator:
[frontends.frontend2]
[frontends.frontend2.routes.test_1]
rule = "Host:test1.localhost,test2.localhost"
[frontends.frontend3]
backend = "backend2"
[frontends.frontend3.routes.test_1]
rule = "Path:/test1,/test2"
Priorities
By default, routes will be sorted (in descending order) using rules length (to avoid path overlap):
PathPrefix:/12345
will be matched before PathPrefix:/1234
that will be matched before PathPrefix:/1
.
You can customize priority by frontend:
[frontends]
[frontends.frontend1]
backend = "backend1"
priority = 10
passHostHeader = true
[frontends.frontend1.routes.test_1]
rule = "PathPrefix:/to"
[frontends.frontend2]
priority = 5
backend = "backend2"
passHostHeader = true
[frontends.frontend2.routes.test_1]
rule = "PathPrefix:/toto"
Here, frontend1
will be matched before frontend2
(10 > 5
).
Backends
A backend is responsible to load-balance the traffic coming from one or more frontends to a set of http servers. Various methods of load-balancing are supported:
wrr
: Weighted Round Robindrr
: Dynamic Round Robin: increases weights on servers that perform better than others. It also rolls back to original weights if the servers have changed.
A circuit breaker can also be applied to a backend, preventing high loads on failing servers. Initial state is Standby. CB observes the statistics and does not modify the request. In case the condition matches, CB enters Tripped state, where it responds with predefined code or redirects to another frontend. Once Tripped timer expires, CB enters Recovering state and resets all stats. In case the condition does not match and recovery timer expires, CB enters Standby state.
It can be configured using:
- Methods:
LatencyAtQuantileMS
,NetworkErrorRatio
,ResponseCodeRatio
- Operators:
AND
,OR
,EQ
,NEQ
,LT
,LE
,GT
,GE
For example:
NetworkErrorRatio() > 0.5
: watch error ratio over 10 second sliding window for a frontendLatencyAtQuantileMS(50.0) > 50
: watch latency at quantile in milliseconds.ResponseCodeRatio(500, 600, 0, 600) > 0.5
: ratio of response codes in range [500-600) to [0-600)
To proactively prevent backends from being overwhelmed with high load, a maximum connection limit can also be applied to each backend.
Maximum connections can be configured by specifying an integer value for maxconn.amount
and
maxconn.extractorfunc
which is a strategy used to determine how to categorize requests in order to
evaluate the maximum connections.
For example:
[backends]
[backends.backend1]
[backends.backend1.maxconn]
amount = 10
extractorfunc = "request.host"
backend1
will returnHTTP code 429 Too Many Requests
if there are already 10 requests in progress for the same Host header.- Another possible value for
extractorfunc
isclient.ip
which will categorize requests based on client source ip. - Lastly
extractorfunc
can take the value ofrequest.header.ANY_HEADER
which will categorize requests based onANY_HEADER
that you provide.
Sticky sessions are supported with both load balancers. When sticky sessions are enabled, a cookie called _TRAEFIK_BACKEND
is set on the initial
request. On subsequent requests, the client will be directed to the backend stored in the cookie if it is still healthy. If not, a new backend
will be assigned.
For example:
[backends]
[backends.backend1]
[backends.backend1.loadbalancer]
sticky = true
Healthcheck URL can be configured with a relative URL for healthcheck.URL
.
Interval between healthcheck can be configured by using healthcheck.interval
(default: 30s)
For example:
[backends]
[backends.backend1]
[backends.backend1.healthcheck]
URL = "/health"
interval = "10s"
Servers
Servers are simply defined using a URL
. You can also apply a custom weight
to each server (this will be used by load-balancing).
Here is an example of backends and servers definition:
[backends]
[backends.backend1]
[backends.backend1.circuitbreaker]
expression = "NetworkErrorRatio() > 0.5"
[backends.backend1.servers.server1]
url = "http://172.17.0.2:80"
weight = 10
[backends.backend1.servers.server2]
url = "http://172.17.0.3:80"
weight = 1
[backends.backend2]
[backends.backend2.LoadBalancer]
method = "drr"
[backends.backend2.servers.server1]
url = "http://172.17.0.4:80"
weight = 1
[backends.backend2.servers.server2]
url = "http://172.17.0.5:80"
weight = 2
- Two backends are defined:
backend1
andbackend2
backend1
will forward the traffic to two servers:http://172.17.0.2:80"
with weight10
andhttp://172.17.0.3:80
with weight1
using defaultwrr
load-balancing strategy.backend2
will forward the traffic to two servers:http://172.17.0.4:80"
with weight1
andhttp://172.17.0.5:80
with weight2
usingdrr
load-balancing strategy.- a circuit breaker is added on
backend1
using the expressionNetworkErrorRatio() > 0.5
: watch error ratio over 10 second sliding window
Configuration
Træfɪk's configuration has two parts:
- The static Træfɪk configuration which is loaded only at the beginning.
- The dynamic Træfɪk configuration which can be hot-reloaded (no need to restart the process).
Static Træfɪk configuration
The static configuration is the global configuration which is setting up connections to configuration backends and entrypoints.
Træfɪk can be configured using many configuration sources with the following precedence order. Each item takes precedence over the item below it:
It means that arguments override configuration file, and Key-value Store overrides arguments.
Configuration file
By default, Træfɪk will try to find a traefik.toml
in the following places:
/etc/traefik/
$HOME/.traefik/
.
the working directory
You can override this by setting a configFile
argument:
$ traefik --configFile=foo/bar/myconfigfile.toml
Please refer to the global configuration section to get documentation on it.
Arguments
Each argument (and command) is described in the help section:
$ traefik --help
Note that all default values will be displayed as well.
Key-value stores
Træfɪk supports several Key-value stores:
Please refer to the User Guide Key-value store configuration section to get documentation on it.
Dynamic Træfɪk configuration
The dynamic configuration concerns :
Træfɪk can hot-reload those rules which could be provided by multiple configuration backends.
We only need to enable watch
option to make Træfɪk watch configuration backend changes and generate its configuration automatically.
Routes to services will be created and updated instantly at any changes.
Please refer to the configuration backends section to get documentation on it.
Commands
Usage: traefik [command] [--flag=flag_argument]
List of Træfɪk available commands with description :
version
: Print versionstoreconfig
: Store the static traefik configuration into a Key-value stores. Please refer to the Store Træfɪk configuration section to get documentation on it.
Each command may have related flags. All those related flags will be displayed with :
$ traefik [command] --help
Note that each command is described at the beginning of the help section:
$ traefik --help