Traefik Ingress Example

Demo using the Traefik ingress controller in AKS.

Assumptions:

Path based routing for a single domain (shouldn't be too hard to extend this sample to handle multiple domains)
Steps shown here are Azure-centric but Traefik works in any Kubernetes cluster
Tested in Bash on Ubuntu (WSL2 on Windows 10) -- some adjustments to commands may be needed for other platforms

Also shows:

TLS using Let's Encrypt certificates
Using BasicAuth middleware to protect a service

Steps

Create AKS cluster and ACR (optional)

Follow these steps to create an AKS cluster: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/kubernetes-walkthrough

TL;DR steps:

RESOURCE_GROUP=<myresourcegroup>
LOCATION=australiaeast
ACR_NAME=<myacrname>
CLUSTER_NAME=traefikdemo
AKS_VERSION=1.14.8
NODE_COUNT=3

az group create -n ${RESOURCE_GROUP} -l ${LOCATION}
az acr create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} -n ${ACR_NAME} --sku Basic
ACR_ID=$(az acr show -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} -n ${ACR_NAME} --query id -o tsv)

az aks create \
  -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
  -n ${CLUSTER_NAME} \
  -c ${NODE_COUNT} \
  -k ${AKS_VERSION} \
  --vm-set-type VirtualMachineScaleSets \
  --load-balancer-sku standard \
  --attach-acr ${ACR_ID} \
  -a monitoring \
  --generate-ssh-keys

sudo az aks install-cli # if you don't have `kubectl` installed
az aks get-credentials -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} -n ${CLUSTER_NAME}

Install Traefik via Helm into the cluster

Install Helm v3

See: https://v3.helm.sh/docs/intro/install/

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 > get_helm.sh
chmod 700 get_helm.sh
./get_helm.sh

Or to use Helm3 side-by-side with Helm v2:

# See https://github.com/helm/helm/releases for latest release
curl https://get.helm.sh/helm-v3.0.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz -o helm3.tgz
tar xvf helm3.tgz
sudo mv linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm3  # assumes Linux or WSL on Windows
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/helm3

Edit the field acme.email in the file traefik-values.yaml with a valid email address (or override the value with --set acme.email=your@email.com on the helm3 install commandline).

Now, install the Traefik Ingress chart:

helm3 repo add stable https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com/
helm3 repo update
helm3 install traefik-ingress stable/traefik -n kube-system --values traefik-values.yaml
# Wait for the external IP to be assigned by watching the traefik service (CTRL+C to exit)
kubectl get svc traefik -n kube-system -w
# Wait for the traefik pod to be 'Running' (CTRL+C to exit)
kubectl get pod -n kube-system -w

If you want to update any of the values for Traefik, edit the file traefik-values.yaml and run a helm upgrade:

helm3 upgrade traefik-ingress stable/traefik -n kube-system --values traefik-values.yaml

See the Traefik helm chart configuration for explanation of options.

Set DNS name for the public IP of the Traefik controller:

Get the IP address of the traefik ingress controller service using kubectl get.

kubectl get svc traefik -n kube-system
# *** EXTERNAL IP  ***
# *** XXX.XX.XX.XX ***

Update the DNS name for the public IP of the Traefik ingress

# Public IP address
IP="<your_public_ip>"

# Name to associate with public IP address
DNSNAME=<unique-prefix-name> # e.g. traefik7242

# Get the resource-id of the public ip
PUBLICIPID=$(az network public-ip list --query "[?ipAddress!=null]|[?contains(ipAddress, '$IP')].[id]" --output tsv)

# Update public ip address with dns name
az network public-ip update --ids $PUBLICIPID --dns-name $DNSNAME

Deploy a sample app that uses Traefik ingress

Retrieve FQDN (<DNSNAME>.<LOCATION>.cloudapp.azure.com) mapped to the Ingress controller's public IP:

az network public-ip show --ids $PUBLICIPID --query dnsSettings.fqdn -o tsv
# DNSNAME.LOCATION.cloudapp.azure.com

Update the host field in the Ingress resource of azure-vote-app.yaml to match your Traefik public IP FQDN retrieve above:

  host: <DNSNAME>.<LOCATION>.cloudapp.azure.com

Now deploy the sample app resources:

kubectl create ns azure-vote
kubectl apply -f azure-vote-app.yaml -n azure-vote

Wait until all resources have been created:

kubectl get all -n azure-vote

Browse to: https://DNSNAME.LOCATION.cloudapp.azure.com

The TLS certificate should be valid in your browser.

Adding basic auth to the sample app

Create the basic auth secret:

sudo apt install apache2-utils  # Needed for htpasswd tool; otherwise install this another way
htpasswd -c auth myuser
kubectl create secret generic mysecret --from-file=auth -n azure-vote

Redeploy the sample app using basic auth:

Uncomment the following lines in the Ingress resource of azure-vote-app.yaml and apply the changes:

  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: traefik
    # ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-type: basic
    # ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret: mysecret

so that it looks like:

  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: traefik
    ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-type: basic
    ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret: mysecret

kubectl apply -f azure-vote-app.yaml -n azure-vote

Reloading the sample app in the browser should now prompt you for a username and password.

Troubleshooting

Ensure you updated the placeholder values in any input files
Ensure you use unique domain names
Ensure your email for LEt's encrypt is valid
For Traefik or Let's Encrypt issues, check the logs on your Traefik pod:

kubectl get pods -n kube-system
# traefik-847d6b54f9-x5btx
kubectl logs traefik-847d6b54f9-x5btx -n kube-system

srmds/traefik-ingress-example