Docker container for Nginx Proxy Manager

This is a Docker container for Nginx Proxy Manager.

Nginx Proxy Manager enables you to easily forward to your websites running at home or otherwise, including free SSL, without having to know too much about Nginx or Letsencrypt.

Table of Content

Docker container for Nginx Proxy Manager

Quick Start

NOTE: The Docker command provided in this quick start is given as an example and parameters should be adjusted to your need.

Launch the Nginx Proxy Manager docker container with the following command:

docker run -d \
    --name=nginx-proxy-manager \
    -p 8181:8181 \
    -p 8080:8080 \
    -p 4443:4443 \
    -v /docker/appdata/nginx-proxy-manager:/config:rw \
    jlesage/nginx-proxy-manager

Where:

/docker/appdata/nginx-proxy-manager: This is where the application stores its configuration, log and any files needing persistency.

Browse to http://your-host-ip:8181 to access the Nginx Proxy Manager web interface.

Usage

docker run [-d] \
    --name=nginx-proxy-manager \
    [-e <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>]... \
    [-v <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS]]... \
    [-p <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>]... \
    jlesage/nginx-proxy-manager

Parameter	Description
-d	Run the container in the background. If not set, the container runs in the foreground.
-e	Pass an environment variable to the container. See the Environment Variables section for more details.
-v	Set a volume mapping (allows to share a folder/file between the host and the container). See the Data Volumes section for more details.
-p	Set a network port mapping (exposes an internal container port to the host). See the Ports section for more details.

Environment Variables

To customize some properties of the container, the following environment variables can be passed via the -e parameter (one for each variable). Value of this parameter has the format <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>.

Variable	Description	Default
`USER_ID`	ID of the user the application runs as. See User/Group IDs to better understand when this should be set.	`1000`
`GROUP_ID`	ID of the group the application runs as. See User/Group IDs to better understand when this should be set.	`1000`
`SUP_GROUP_IDS`	Comma-separated list of supplementary group IDs of the application.	(unset)
`UMASK`	Mask that controls how file permissions are set for newly created files. The value of the mask is in octal notation. By default, this variable is not set and the default umask of `022` is used, meaning that newly created files are readable by everyone, but only writable by the owner. See the following online umask calculator: http://wintelguy.com/umask-calc.pl	(unset)
`TZ`	TimeZone of the container. Timezone can also be set by mapping `/etc/localtime` between the host and the container.	`Etc/UTC`
`KEEP_APP_RUNNING`	When set to `1`, the application will be automatically restarted if it crashes or if a user quits it.	`0`
`APP_NICENESS`	Priority at which the application should run. A niceness value of -20 is the highest priority and 19 is the lowest priority. By default, niceness is not set, meaning that the default niceness of 0 is used. NOTE: A negative niceness (priority increase) requires additional permissions. In this case, the container should be run with the docker option `--cap-add=SYS_NICE`.	(unset)
`CLEAN_TMP_DIR`	When set to `1`, all files in the `/tmp` directory are deleted during the container startup.	`1`
`DISABLE_IPV6`	When set to `1`, IPv6 support is disabled. This is needed when IPv6 is not enabled/supported on the host.	`0`

Data Volumes

The following table describes data volumes used by the container. The mappings are set via the -v parameter. Each mapping is specified with the following format: <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS].

Container path	Permissions	Description
`/config`	rw	This is where the application stores its configuration, log and any files needing persistency.

Ports

Here is the list of ports used by the container. They can be mapped to the host via the -p parameter (one per port mapping). Each mapping is defined in the following format: <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>. The port number inside the container cannot be changed, but you are free to use any port on the host side.

Port	Mapping to host	Description
8181	Mandatory	Port used to access the web interface of the application.
8080	Mandatory	Port used to serve HTTP requests.
4443	Mandatory	Port used to serve HTTPs requests.

Changing Parameters of a Running Container

As can be seen, environment variables, volume and port mappings are all specified while creating the container.

The following steps describe the method used to add, remove or update parameter(s) of an existing container. The general idea is to destroy and re-create the container:

Stop the container (if it is running):

docker stop nginx-proxy-manager

Remove the container:

docker rm nginx-proxy-manager

Create/start the container using the docker run command, by adjusting parameters as needed.

NOTE: Since all application's data is saved under the /config container folder, destroying and re-creating a container is not a problem: nothing is lost and the application comes back with the same state (as long as the mapping of the /config folder remains the same).

Docker Compose File

Here is an example of a docker-compose.yml file that can be used with Docker Compose.

Make sure to adjust according to your needs. Note that only mandatory network ports are part of the example.

version: '3'
services:
  nginx-proxy-manager:
    image: jlesage/nginx-proxy-manager
    ports:
      - "8181:8181"
      - "8080:8080"
      - "4443:4443"
    volumes:
      - "/docker/appdata/nginx-proxy-manager:/config:rw"

Docker Image Update

Because features are added, issues are fixed, or simply because a new version of the containerized application is integrated, the Docker image is regularly updated. Different methods can be used to update the Docker image.

The system used to run the container may have a built-in way to update containers. If so, this could be your primary way to update Docker images.

An other way is to have the image be automatically updated with Watchtower. Watchtower is a container-based solution for automating Docker image updates. This is a "set and forget" type of solution: once a new image is available, Watchtower will seamlessly perform the necessary steps to update the container.

Finally, the Docker image can be manually updated with these steps:

Fetch the latest image:

docker pull jlesage/nginx-proxy-manager

Stop the container:

docker stop nginx-proxy-manager

Remove the container:

docker rm nginx-proxy-manager

Create and start the container using the docker run command, with the the same parameters that were used when it was deployed initially.

Synology

For owners of a Synology NAS, the following steps can be used to update a container image.

Open the Docker application.
Click on Registry in the left pane.
In the search bar, type the name of the container (jlesage/nginx-proxy-manager).
Select the image, click Download and then choose the latest tag.
Wait for the download to complete. A notification will appear once done.
Click on Container in the left pane.
Select your Nginx Proxy Manager container.
Stop it by clicking Action->Stop.
Clear the container by clicking Action->Reset (or Action->Clear if you don't have the latest Docker application). This removes the container while keeping its configuration.
Start the container again by clicking Action->Start. NOTE: The container may temporarily disappear from the list while it is re-created.

unRAID

For unRAID, a container image can be updated by following these steps:

Select the Docker tab.
Click the Check for Updates button at the bottom of the page.
Click the update ready link of the container to be updated.

User/Group IDs

When using data volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can occur between the host and the container. For example, the user within the container may not exist on the host. This could prevent the host from properly accessing files and folders on the shared volume.

To avoid any problem, you can specify the user the application should run as.

This is done by passing the user ID and group ID to the container via the USER_ID and GROUP_ID environment variables.

To find the right IDs to use, issue the following command on the host, with the user owning the data volume on the host:

id <username>

Which gives an output like this one:

uid=1000(myuser) gid=1000(myuser) groups=1000(myuser),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin)

The value of uid (user ID) and gid (group ID) are the ones that you should be given the container.

Accessing the GUI

Assuming that container's ports are mapped to the same host's ports, the interface of the application can be accessed with a web browser at:

http://<HOST IP ADDR>:8181

Shell Access

To get shell access to the running container, execute the following command:

docker exec -ti CONTAINER sh

Where CONTAINER is the ID or the name of the container used during its creation (e.g. crashplan-pro).

Default Administrator Account

After a fresh install, use the following credentials to login:

Email address: admin@example.com
Password: changeme

After you login with this default user, you will be asked to modify your details and change your password.

Accessibility From The Internet

NOTE: This section assumes that the container is using the default bridge network type.

For this container to be accessible from the Internet, port forwarding must be configured on your router. This allows HTTP (port 80) and HTTPs (port 443) traffic from the Internet to reach this container on your private network.

Configuration of port forwarding differs from one router to another, but in general the same information must be configured:

External port: The Internet-side port to be forwarded.
Internal port: The port to forward to. Also called private port.
Destination IP address: The IP address of the device on the local network to forward to. Also called private IP address.

The IP address to forward to should be the IP address of the host running the container. The port to forward to should be the port mapped to the container during its creation (via the -p parameter of the docker run command).

Since the container needs to handle both HTTP and HTTPs traffic, two ports need to be forwarded:

Traffic type	Container port	Host port mapped to container	External port	Internal port	Internal IP address
HTTP	8080	XXXX	80	XXXX	IP address of the host running the container.
HTTPs	4443	YYYY	443	YYYY	IP address of the host running the container.

XXXX and YYYY are configurable port values. Unless they conflict with other used ports on the host, they can simply be set to the same value as the container port.

NOTE: Some routers don't offer the ability to configure the internal port to forward to. This means that internal port is the same as the external one. In a such scenario, XXXX must be set to 80 and YYYY to 443.

For more details about port forwarding, see the following links:

Troubleshooting

Password Reset

The password of a user can be reset to changeme with the following command:

docker exec CONTAINER_NAME /opt/nginx-proxy-manager/bin/reset-password USER_EMAIL