Traefik Proxy - Cloud-Native Reverse Proxy

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## Overview

Traefik Proxy is a modern, cloud-native reverse proxy and load balancer that makes publishing services simple. This AMI delivers Traefik Proxy fully installed and configured as a systemd service so you have a production-grade edge router running within minutes of launch - eliminating the manual work of writing systemd units, configuring ACME resolvers, partitioning data disks, and generating secure credentials that a self-managed installation requires.

## Why This AMI vs. Self-Managed Traefik

Deploying Traefik from scratch requires creating a dedicated service account with minimal privileges, writing a systemd unit with restart policies, partitioning a data disk for config and certificate persistence, configuring an ACME resolver, and generating hashed credentials for dashboard access. This AMI handles all of that at build time and first boot, so your team focuses on defining routes and backends rather than infrastructure plumbing. Combined with 24/7 cloudimg support, you get expert guidance on router configuration, middleware tuning, and edge hardening without maintaining in-house Traefik expertise.

## Application Stack

The Traefik static binary is installed under /usr/local/bin and run by a dedicated unprivileged service account granted only the capability to bind privileged ports. A systemd service starts Traefik on boot and restarts it on failure. The static configuration, dynamic configuration directory, and Let's Encrypt certificate store reside on a dedicated data disk so configuration and certificates are independently resizable and survive instance replacement.

## Reverse Proxy and Load Balancer

The web entrypoint listens on port 80 and the websecure entrypoint on port 443. Drop router and middleware definitions into the watched dynamic config directory and Traefik hot-reloads them with no restart required. Define backends, weighted load balancing, health checks, sticky sessions, rate limiting, headers, redirects, circuit breakers and more. An automatic Let's Encrypt certificate resolver is pre-configured so HTTPS is one DNS record and one router rule away.

## Secure First Boot

The Traefik dashboard ships with no default authentication, so it is never exposed unprotected. The dashboard and API are published only through a router protected by HTTP Basic authentication middleware. On first boot a one-shot service generates a fresh dashboard password unique to that instance, writes the bcrypt-hashed credential into the dynamic config, and stores the plaintext in a file readable only by root. No shared or default credentials ship in the image.

## Security Recommendations

For production deployments, cloudimg recommends enabling EBS encryption on the dedicated data disk to protect certificates and configuration at rest. Configure your VPC security group to allow inbound traffic only on ports 80 and 443 from your expected client ranges, and restrict SSH access to a bastion host or Systems Manager. These measures complement the application-level hardening already built into the AMI.

## Ready To Use

The dashboard is served on port 80 under the /dashboard path. Sign in with the generated administrator credentials to inspect routers, services, middlewares, entrypoints, and TLS certificates in real time. Point a DNS record at the instance, add a router for your backend in the dynamic config directory, and Traefik routes and secures it automatically.

## Example Scenario

A team running a SaaS application with three microservices behind a single domain launches this AMI, points their domain's DNS A record at the instance, and drops three router definitions into the dynamic config directory. Traefik automatically obtains a Let's Encrypt certificate, terminates TLS, and routes requests to each backend based on path prefixes - all without a restart or manual certificate renewal.

## cloudimg Support

24/7 technical support by email and live chat with a one-hour average response for critical issues. Our engineers help with deployment, router and middleware configuration, provider setup, automatic TLS and Let's Encrypt, load balancing strategies, and edge hardening.

## Use Cases

• Edge router and reverse proxy in front of web applications and APIs
• Automatic HTTPS with Let's Encrypt for any number of domains
• Load balancer across multiple backend instances with health checks
• Single ingress point for microservices with path-based or host-based routing
• TLS termination and HTTP-to-HTTPS redirection

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