Skip to main content

Forwarding the clients ip

Introduction

This manual provides instructions on how to configure Traefik to forward the client's IP address correctly. By adding a specific middleware, you can ensure that the actual client's IP address is included in the request headers.

Prerequisites

  • Traefik installed and running.
  • Access to the Traefik configuration files.
  • Basic understanding of YAML configuration syntax.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Locate Your Traefik Configuration File: Find the traefik.yml or traefik.toml file, depending on the format you are using. This file contains the main configuration for your Traefik setup.

  2. Edit the Configuration File: Open the Traefik configuration file with your preferred text editor.

  3. Add the belowMiddleware Configuration: Add the following middleware configuration to ensure the client's IP address is forwarded correctly:correctly. This middleware will set the X-Forwarded-For header to be populated by Traefik with the actual client's IP address.

http:


 
middlewares:

    forwardClientIPHeaders:

      headers:

        customRequestHeaders:

          X-Forwarded-For: ""  # Traefik will populate this with the actual client IP address

  • Save the Configuration File: Save the changes to the configuration file.

  • Apply the Middleware to Your Services: To use this middleware, you need to reference it in your service's router configuration. Below is an example of how to apply this middleware to a service.

http:

  routers:
    my-service-router:
      rule: "Host(`my-service.example.com`)"
      service: my-service
      middlewares:
        - forwardClientIPHeaders

Restart Traefik: After updating the configuration, restart Traefik to apply the changes. This can be done using Docker or your service manager if running Traefik as a system service.

Verify the Configuration: To verify that the client's IP address is being forwarded correctly, you can check the logs or inspect the headers of the requests reaching your service.

Example using curl to inspect headers:

curl -I -H "Host: my-service.example.com" http://your-traefik-ip

  1. You should see the X-Forwarded-For header populated with the client's IP address.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you ensure that the client's IP address is forwarded correctly to your backend services using Traefik. This is useful for logging, security, and ensuring that your services have accurate information about the client's IP address.

For further customization or troubleshooting, refer to the official Traefik documentation or seek support from the Traefik community.

Back to top