Improving Documentation for Non-Containerized Environments

[bertogravscale]

Welcome!

• Yes, I've searched similar issues on GitHub and didn't find any.
• Yes, I've searched similar issues on the Traefik community forum and didn't find any.

What did you expect to see?

Hello Traefik Team,

I recently faced significant challenges while configuring Traefik directly on a Linux server without Docker. It took me many hours to discover that the file provider requires dynamic configuration for routing, which is not explicitly clear in the current documentation. After much debugging and searching through community questions such as on Stack Overflow, I found a community post that led me to realize the issue stemmed from placing route configurations in the static file.

This situation is particularly troublesome for users deploying Traefik directly on servers without container orchestration platforms like Docker or Kubernetes, where documentation is less abundant.

I propose to create a new section in the "Getting Started" guide titled "Getting Started with Linux Service." I am willing to author this documentation using MkDocs and submit a PR. I aim to discuss this topic here first to gather feedback and suggestions.

In this new documentation, I plan to cover:

How to install and configure Traefik on Ubuntu 24.
Steps to set up Traefik using the systemd service file available here.
A note explaining that when not using providers like Docker or Kubernetes, one should use the file provider, which requires all route configurations to be placed in the dynamic configuration file.
Unfortunately, there are no apt packages for Traefik, which would simplify the process further. However, I have created an Ansible role for this setup and can provide it as part of the example in the contrib directory.

I believe these additions will greatly aid users who are new to Traefik and are working in non-containerized environments.

Thank you for considering this enhancement to your documentation. I look forward to your feedback and am eager to contribute to making Traefik even more accessible.

[bertogravscale]

I also plan to enhance the documentation on the File Provider page by adding clear information that routes, middlewares, and services should be placed within the files specified in providers.file.directory or providers.file.filename, and not in the static traefik.yml file.

Additionally, in the Configuration Overview section, under "Configuration File," which mentions traefik.yml (or traefik.yaml or traefik.toml), I intend to clarify that the sections for routers, services, and middlewares should not be placed in this file if using dynamic configuration. Instead, these configurations should reside in providers.file.directory or providers.file.filename.

Could someone please confirm if my understanding of the configuration process is correct, or if there are any details I might have overlooked?

[robertoberto]

Created deb package for ubuntu using Dockerfile in #10713

[nmengin]

Hello @bertogravscale,

Thank you for the proposition, we think it makes a lot of sense.

When you start to build it, let us know, and we will work with you to make sure you have all the information needed so that it can be merged.

[mloiseleur]

I also plan to enhance the documentation on the File Provider page by adding clear information that routes, middlewares, and services should be placed within the files specified in providers.file.directory or providers.file.filename, and not in the static traefik.yml file.

Additionally, in the Configuration Overview section, under "Configuration File," which mentions traefik.yml (or traefik.yaml or traefik.toml), I intend to clarify that the sections for routers, services, and middlewares should not be placed in this file if using dynamic configuration. Instead, these configurations should reside in providers.file.directory or providers.file.filename.

Could someone please confirm if my understanding of the configuration process is correct, or if there are any details I might have overlooked?

Your understanding seems correct to me. I can add there is no if using dynamic configuration. Traefik always works with dynamic configuration coming from providers (enabled in static configuration).