devilbox/docs/custom-container/enable-varnish.rst

Enable and configure Varnish

This section will guide you through getting Varnish integrated into the Devilbox.

As Varnish itself does not handle HTTPS, its Docker Compose override definition also defines an optional HAProxy that can be started and run in front of Varnish to provide HTTPS support and take care of the SSL offloading before requests hit Varnish.

* * * custom_container_enable_all_additional_container * docker_compose_override_yml_how_does_it_work

Table of Contents

local

Overview

Available overwrites

Stack settings

In case of Varnish, the file is compose/docker-compose.override.yml-varnish. This file must be copied into the root of the Devilbox git directory.

What	How and where
Example compose file	compose/docker-compose.override.yml-all or compose/docker-compose.override.yml-varnish

Varnish

What	How and where
Container IP address	172.16.238.230
Container host name	varnish
Container name	varnish
Mount points	none
Exposed port	6081 (can be changed via .env)
Available at	http://localhost:6081 (or via http:<project>.<TLD>:6081)
Further configuration	none

HAProxy

What	How and where
Container IP address	172.16.238.231
Container host name	haproxy
Container name	haproxy
Mount points	none
Exposed port	8080 for HTTP and 8443 for HTTPS (can be changed via .env)
Available at	http://localhost:8080, http://localhost:8443 (or via http:<project>.<TLD>:8080|8443)
Further configuration	none

Stack env variables

Additionally the following .env variables can be created for easy configuration:

Varnish

Variable	Default value	Description
HOST_PORT_VARNISH	6081	Controls the host port on which Varnish will be available at.
VARNISH_SERVER	6	Controls the Varnish version to use.
VARNISH_CONFIG	/etc/varnish/default.vcl	Path to Varnish configuration file (custom config can be mounted).
VARNICS_CACHE_SIZE	128m	Varnish Cache size.
VARNISH_PARAMS	-p default_ttl=3600 -p default_grace=3600	Additional Varnish startup parameter.

HAProxy

Variable	Default value	Description
HOST_PORT_HAPROXY	8080	Controls the host port on which HTTP requests will be available for HAProxy.
HOST_PORT_HAPROXY_SSL	8443	Controls the host port on which HTTPS requests will be available for HAProxy.

Instructions

1. Copy docker-compose.override.yml

Copy the Varnish Docker Compose overwrite file into the root of the Devilbox git directory. (It must be at the same level as the default docker-compose.yml file).

host> cp compose/docker-compose.override.yml-varnish docker-compose.override.yml

* docker_compose_override_yml * add_your_own_docker_image * overwrite_existing_docker_image

2. Adjust .env settings (optional)

Varnish and HAProxy are using sane defaults, which can be changed by adding variables to the .env file and assigning custom values.

Add the following variables to .env and adjust them to your needs:

# Varnish version to choose
#VARNISH_SERVER=4
#VARNISH_SERVER=5
VARNISH_SERVER=6

# Varnish settings
VARNISH_CONFIG=/etc/varnish/default.vcl
VARNICS_CACHE_SIZE=128m
VARNISH_PARAMS=-p default_ttl=3600 -p default_grace=3600
HOST_PORT_VARNISH=6081

# HAProxy settings
HOST_PORT_HAPROXY=8080
HOST_PORT_HAPROXY_SSL=8443

env_file

3. Custom Varnish config (optional)

Varnish comes with a pretty generic default configuration that should fit most frameworks or CMS's. If you do however want to provide your own custom Varnish configuration, you can do so for each Varnish version separately.

1. Place any *.vcl files in to the Varnish configuration directories (found in cfg/).

host> tree -L 1 cfg/ | grep varnish
├── varnish-4
├── varnish-5
├── varnish-6

2. The varnish-X/ directory will be mounted into /etc/varnish.d/ into the running Varnish container
3. Adjust the VARNISH_CONFIG variable to point to your custom Varnish config file.

3.1 Example

For this example we will assume you are using Varnish 6

1. Add my-varnish.vcl into cfg/varnish-6/
2. Set VARNISH_CONFIG to /etc/varnish.d/my-varnish.vcl
3. Ensure that the Backend server points to httpd in your custom varnish config
4. Ensure that the Backend port points to 80 in your custom varnish config

4. Start the Devilbox

The final step is to start the Devilbox with Varnish.

start_the_devilbox

4.1 Varnish only

Let's assume you want to start php, httpd, bind, varnish.

host> docker-compose up -d php httpd bind varnish

4.2 HTTPS offloading with HAProxy in front of Varnish

If you also want full HTTPS support, simply start HAproxy as well with Varnish.

host> docker-compose up -d php httpd bind haproxy varnish

TL;DR

For the lazy readers, here are all commands required to get you started. Simply copy and paste the following block into your terminal from the root of your Devilbox git directory:

# Copy compose-override.yml into place
cp compose/docker-compose.override.yml-varnish docker-compose.override.yml

# Create .env variable
echo "# Varnish version to choose"                               >> .env
echo "#VARNISH_SERVER=4"                                         >> .env
echo "#VARNISH_SERVER=5"                                         >> .env
echo "VARNISH_SERVER=6"                                          >> .env
echo "# Varnish settings"                                        >> .env
echo "VARNISH_CONFIG=/etc/varnish/default.vcl"                   >> .env
echo "VARNICS_CACHE_SIZE=128m"                                   >> .env
echo "VARNISH_PARAMS=-p default_ttl=3600 -p default_grace=3600"  >> .env
echo "HOST_PORT_VARNISH=6081"                                    >> .env
echo "# HAProxy settings"                                        >> .env
echo "HOST_PORT_HAPROXY=8080"                                    >> .env
echo "HOST_PORT_HAPROXY_SSL=8443"                                >> .env

# Start container
docker-compose up -d php httpd bind varnish