How to setup Netmaker using docker-compose in under 15 minutes

In this post, we’ll build a simple setup for running netmaker with PostgreSQL backend using docker-compose with an external Trik

First, create a directory for the Netmaker files to reside in, e.g.:

mkdir /opt/netmaker

cd to that directory:

cd /opt/netmaker

At this point we’ll download the Mosquitto config from Github and enable the ports in the firewall ufw. I reserved 1000 ports 51821:52821 in order to facilitate having a lot of networks (more than the default 9). My traefik config is the one from Simple Traefik docker-compose setup with Lets Encrypt Cloudflare DNS-01 & TLS-ALPN-01 & HTTP-01 challenges which allows having a single *.netmaker.mydomain.com Let’s Encrypt wildcard certificate.

Now, create docker-compose.yml in that directory

version: "3.4"

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      - POSTGRES_DB=netmaker
      - POSTGRES_USER=netmaker
  netmaker: # The Primary Server for running Netmaker
    image: gravitl/netmaker:v0.14.5
    depends_on:
      - postgres
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
      - NET_RAW
      - SYS_MODULE
    sysctls:
      - net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
      - net.ipv4.conf.all.src_valid_mark=1
      - net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=0
      - net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1
    restart: always
    volumes: # Volume mounts necessary for sql, coredns, and mqtt
      - ./netmaker_dnsconfig:/root/config/dnsconfig
      - ./netmaker_sqldata:/root/data
      - ./netmaker_shared_certs:/etc/netmaker
    environment: # Necessary capabilities to set iptables when running in container
      SERVER_NAME: "broker.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}" # The domain/host IP indicating the mq broker address
      SERVER_HOST: "${NETMAKER_PUBLIC_IP}" # Set to public IP of machine.
      SERVER_HTTP_HOST: "api.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}" # Overrides SERVER_HOST if set. Useful for making HTTP available via different interfaces/networks.
      SERVER_API_CONN_STRING: "api.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}:443"
      # COREDNS_ADDR: "${NETMAKER_PUBLIC_IP}" # Address of the CoreDNS server. Defaults to SERVER_HOST
      DNS_MODE: "off" # Enables DNS Mode, meaning all nodes will set hosts file for private dns settings.
      API_PORT: "8081" # The HTTP API port for Netmaker. Used for API calls / communication from front end. If changed, need to change port of BACKEND_URL for netmaker-ui.
      CLIENT_MODE: "on" # Depricated. CLIENT_MODE should always be ON
      REST_BACKEND: "on" # Enables the REST backend (API running on API_PORT at SERVER_HTTP_HOST). Change to "off" to turn off.
      DISABLE_REMOTE_IP_CHECK: "off" # If turned "on", Server will not set Host based on remote IP check. This is already overridden if SERVER_HOST is set. Turned "off" by default.
      TELEMETRY: "on" # Whether or not to send telemetry data to help improve Netmaker. Switch to "off" to opt out of sending telemetry.
      RCE: "off" # Enables setting PostUp and PostDown (arbitrary commands) on nodes from the server. Off by default.
      MASTER_KEY: "${NETMAKER_MASTER_KEY}" # The admin master key for accessing the API. Change this in any production installation.
      CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGIN: "*" # The "allowed origin" for API requests. Change to restrict where API requests can come from.
      DISPLAY_KEYS: "on" # Show keys permanently in UI (until deleted) as opposed to 1-time display.
      DATABASE: "postgres" # Database to use - sqlite, postgres, or rqlite
      SQL_HOST: "postgres"
      SQL_DB: "netmaker"
      SQL_USER: "netmaker"
      SQL_PASS: "${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}"
      NODE_ID: "${SERVER_NAME}" # used for HA - identifies this server vs other servers
      MQ_HOST: "mq"  # the address of the mq server. If running from docker compose it will be "mq". Otherwise, need to input address. If using "host networking", it will find and detect the IP of the mq container.
      MQ_SERVER_PORT: "1883" # the reachable port of MQ by the server - change if internal MQ port changes (or use external port if MQ is not on the same machine)
      MQ_PORT: "443" # the reachable port of MQ - change if external MQ port changes (port on proxy, not necessarily the one exposed in docker-compose)
      HOST_NETWORK: "off" # whether or not host networking is turned on. Only turn on if configured for host networking (see docker-compose.hostnetwork.yml). Will set host-level settings like iptables.
      VERBOSITY: "1" # logging verbosity level - 1, 2, or 3
      MANAGE_IPTABLES: "on" # deprecated
      # PORT_FORWARD_SERVICES: "ssh,mq" # decide which services to port forward ("dns","ssh", or "mq")
      # this section is for OAuth
      AUTH_PROVIDER: "" # "<azure-ad|github|google|oidc>"
      CLIENT_ID: "" # "<client id of your oauth provider>"
      CLIENT_SECRET: "" # "<client secret of your oauth provider>"
      FRONTEND_URL: "" # "https://dashboard.<netmaker base domain>"
      AZURE_TENANT: "" # "<only for azure, you may optionally specify the tenant for the OAuth>"
      OIDC_ISSUER: "" # https://oidc.yourprovider.com - URL of oidc provider
    ports:
      - "51821-52821:51821-52821/udp" # wireguard ports
    expose:
      - "8081" # api port
    labels: # only for use with traefik proxy (default)
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.entrypoints=websecure
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.rule=Host(`api.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}`)
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.service=netmaker-api
      - traefik.http.services.netmaker-api.loadbalancer.server.port=8081
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.tls.certresolver=cloudflare"
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.tls.domains[0].main=${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-api.tls.domains[0].sans=*.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"
  netmaker-ui:  # The Netmaker UI Component
    container_name: netmaker-ui
    image: gravitl/netmaker-ui:v0.14.5
    depends_on:
      - netmaker
    links:
      - "netmaker:api"
    restart: always
    environment:
      BACKEND_URL: "https://api.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}" # URL where UI will send API requests. Change based on SERVER_HOST, SERVER_HTTP_HOST, and API_PORT
    expose:
      - "80"
    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.accessControlAllowOriginList=*.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.stsSeconds=31536000
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.browserXssFilter=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.customFrameOptionsValue=SAMEORIGIN
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.customResponseHeaders.X-Robots-Tag=none
      - traefik.http.middlewares.nmui-security.headers.customResponseHeaders.Server= # Remove the server name
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.entrypoints=websecure
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.middlewares=nmui-security@docker
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.rule=Host(`dashboard.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}`)
      - traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.service=netmaker-ui
      - traefik.http.services.netmaker-ui.loadbalancer.server.port=80
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.tls.certresolver=cloudflare"
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.tls.domains[0].main=${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"
      - "traefik.http.routers.netmaker-ui.tls.domains[0].sans=*.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"
  mq: # the MQTT broker for netmaker
    container_name: mq
    image: eclipse-mosquitto:2.0.11-openssl
    depends_on:
      - netmaker
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./mosquitto.conf:/mosquitto/config/mosquitto.conf # need to pull conf file from github before running (under docker/mosquitto.conf)
      - ./mosquitto_data:/mosquitto/data
      - ./mosquitto_logs:/mosquitto/log
      - ./netmaker_shared_certs:/mosquitto/certs
    expose:
      - "8883"
    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.rule=HostSNI(`broker.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}`)
      - traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.tls.passthrough=true
      - traefik.tcp.services.mqtts-svc.loadbalancer.server.port=8883
      - traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.service=mqtts-svc
      - traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.entrypoints=websecure
      - "traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.tls.certresolver=cloudflare"
      - "traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.tls.domains[0].main=${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"
      - "traefik.tcp.routers.mqtts.tls.domains[0].sans=*.${NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN}"

After that, create .env in said directory containing some info about your node:

SERVER_NAME=netmaker-01
NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN=netmaker.mydomain.com
NETMAKER_MASTER_KEY=geeveeBaeQuie1cie6aaz6eepahleo
NETMAKER_PUBLIC_IP=101.252.11.54
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=ahph8Jih4aesheel7id1uyo0gietai

Adjust the NETMAKER_BASE_DOMAIN and the NETMAKER_PUBLIC_IP accordingly. Also, you need to choose a randomNETMAKER_MASTER_KEY and POSTGRES_PASSWORD.

Now we’ll use the script from Create a systemd service for your docker-compose project in 10 seconds in order to create a systemd service to automatically run the service:

curl -fsSL https://techoverflow.net/scripts/create-docker-compose-service.sh | sudo bash /dev/stdin

This script will also automatically start the service (i.e. docker-compose up).