By default, this playbook installs its own [Traefik](https://traefik.io/) reverse-proxy server (in a Docker container) which listens on ports 80 and 443.
[Traefik](https://traefik.io/) is the default reverse-proxy for the playbook since [2023-02-26](../CHANGELOG.md/#2023-02-26) and serves **2 purposes**:
- serving public traffic and providing SSL-termination with certificates obtained from [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/). See [Adjusting SSL certificate retrieval](./configuring-playbook-ssl-certificates.md).
- assists internal communication between addon services (briges, bots, etc.) and the homeserver via an internal entrypoint (`matrix-internal-matrix-client-api`).
Below is some configuration for running Traefik yourself, although we recommend using [Traefik managed by the playbook](#traefik-managed-by-the-playbook).
Note that this configuration on its own does **not** redirect traffic on port 80 (plain HTTP) to port 443 for HTTPS. If you are not already doing this in Traefik, it can be added to Traefik in a [file provider](https://docs.traefik.io/v2.0/providers/file/) as follows:
- (recommended) [Fronting the integrated reverse-proxy webserver with another reverse-proxy](#fronting-the-integrated-reverse-proxy-webserver-with-another-reverse-proxy) - using the playbook-managed reverse-proxy (Traefik), but disabling SSL termination for it, exposing this reverse-proxy on a few local ports (e.g. `127.0.0.1:81`, etc.) and forwarding traffic from your own webserver to those few ports
- (difficult) [Using no reverse-proxy on the Matrix side at all](#using-no-reverse-proxy-on-the-matrix-side-at-all) disabling the playbook-managed reverse-proxy (Traefik), exposing services one by one using `_host_bind_port` variables and forwarding traffic from your own webserver to those ports
### Fronting the integrated reverse-proxy webserver with another reverse-proxy
This method is about leaving the integrated reverse-proxy webserver be, but making it not get in the way (using up important ports, trying to retrieve SSL certificates, etc.).
If you wish to use another webserver, the integrated reverse-proxy webserver usually gets in the way because it attempts to fetch SSL certificates and binds to ports 80, 443 and 8448 (if Matrix Federation is enabled).
This is the recommended way for using another reverse-proxy, because the integrated one would act as a black box and wire all Matrix services correctly. You would then only need to reverse-proxy a few individual domains and ports over to it.
Such a configuration would expose all services on a local port `81` and Matrix Federation on a local port `8449`.
Your reverse-proxy configuration needs to send traffic to these ports. The [`examples/reverse-proxies` directory](../examples/reverse-proxies/) contains sample configuration for various webservers (Apache2, Caddy, HAproxy, nginx).
It's important that these webservers proxy-pass requests to the correct place and also set the `Host` HTTP header appropriately.
If you don't pass the `Host` header correctly, you would get a 404 not found error from Traefik.
To put it another way, `curl http://127.0.0.1:81` would give you a 404, but `curl -H 'Host: matrix.DOMAIN' http://127.0.0.1:81` should work.
Instead of [Fronting the integrated reverse-proxy webserver with another reverse-proxy](#fronting-the-integrated-reverse-proxy-webserver-with-another-reverse-proxy), you can also go another way -- completely disabling the playbook-managed Traefik reverse-proxy. You would then need to reverse-proxy from your own webserver directly to each individual Matrix service.
This is more difficult, as you would need to handle the configuration for each service manually. Enabling additional services would come with extra manual work you need to do.
Also, the Traefik reverse-proxy, besides fronting everything is also serving a 2nd purpose of allowing addons services to communicate with the Matrix homeserver thanks to its `matrix-internal-matrix-client-api` entrypoint (read more about it above). Disabling Traefik completely means the playbook would wire services to directly talk to the homeserver. This can work for basic setups, but not for more complex setups involving [matrix-media-repo](./configuring-playbook-matrix-media-repo.md), [matrix-corporal](./configuring-playbook-matrix-corporal.md) or other such services that need to "steal routes" from the homeserver.
If your webserver is on the same machine, ensure your web server user (something like `http`, `apache`, `www-data`, `nginx`) is part of the `matrix` group. You should run something like this: `usermod -a -G matrix nginx`. This allows your webserver user to access files owned by the `matrix` group, so that it can serve static files from `/matrix/static-files`.
