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Additional security: Secure Web Proxy

You can use the "traefik" secure web proxy to get to the Grafana Dashboard and Prysm Web UI via https:// instead of insecure http://. It can also be used to encrypt the RPC and WS ports of your execution client, so they are reachable via https:// and wss:// respectively. In addition, it can be used to separate the consensus client and validator client to different machines.

You will require a domain name for this to work. Where you buy it is up to you.

As a 450m overview, traefik will be reachable via port 443 / https from the Internet (configurable, could be 8443 if you prefer). All browsing attempts to it will be checked by traefik for their hostname, and it steers traffic to the right container thereby: To Grafana, to Prysm Web UI, and to the execution client. Grafana, Prysm web UI, Siren, RPC and WS ports and for cl-only.yml REST ports will be reachable on their configured hostname if traefik is configured. If you want Grafana and not RPC, for example, simply do not create a DNS (CNAME) entry for RPC.

For example, say I have a domain example.com, left the _HOST and port settings in .env at default, and am running Prysm with Grafana and Web UI. https://grafana.example.com/ will get me to my Grafana dashboard, and https://prysm.example.com to my Prysm Web UI.

Cloudflare for DNS management​

With this option, CloudFlare will provide DNS management as well as DDoS protection. Traefik uses CloudFlare to issue a Let's Encrypt certificate for your domain. This also automatically updates the IP address of the domain, which is useful if you are on a dynamic address, such as domestic Internet. This only works for a subdomain such as grafana.example.com, not for the domain itself like example.com.

You'll add traefik-cf.yml to your COMPOSE_FILE in .env, for example: lighthouse.yml:geth.yml:grafana.yml:traefik-cf.yml

Create a (free) CloudFlare account and set up your domain, which will require pointing nameservers for your domain to Cloudflare's servers. How this is done depends on your domain registrar.

You will need a "scoped API token" from CloudFlare's API page. Create a token with Zone.DNS:Edit, Zone.Zone:Read and Zone.Zone Settings:Read permissions, for all zones. Make a note of the token secret, it will only be shown to you once.

If you want to be more specific, you can create two scoped API tokens: One with Zone.DNS:Edit for just the domain you wish to manage, and one with Zone.Zone:Read and Zone.Zone Settings:Read for all zones.

With that, in the .env file:

  • Set DOMAIN to your domain.
  • Set ACME_EMAIL to the email address Let's Encrypt will use to communicate with you.
  • Set CF_ZONE_ID to the Zone ID of the domain, visible in the Overview page of your domain, on the right-hand side
  • Set CF_DNS_API_TOKEN to the API token with Edit rights you just created under "API".
  • Optionally set CF_ZONE_API_TOKEN to the API token with Read rights, only if you created split permissions.
  • Set DDNS_SUBDOMAIN to the specific A/AAAA record you want to see created. If you want to update the domain itself, make this @.
  • Set DDNS_PROXY to false if you do not want CloudFlare to proxy traffic to the subdomain

CNAMEs and proxy settings​

You need CNAMEs or A records for the services you make available. Assuming you have set the subdomain grafana with the IP address of your host, and keeping the default names in .env, set the CNAMEs for only the services you use:

  • grafana is automatically created, proxied, for the Grafana dashboard
  • prysm CNAME to grafana.example.com, proxied, for the Prysm Web UI
  • el CNAME to grafana.example.com, DNS only, for the execution client RPC https:// port
  • elws CNAME to grafana.example.com, DNS only, for the execution client WS wss:// port

If you are using CloudFlare to proxy Grafana / Prysm web, you'll also want to set these:

  • SSL/TLS, Overview: "Full" or "Full (strict)" encryption mode
  • SSL/TLS, Edge Certificates: Always use HTTPS on, Minimum TLS version to 1.2, Opportunistic Encryption on, TLS 1.3 on, Automatic HTTPS Rewrites on, Certificate Transparency Monitoring on

AWS for DNS management​

With this option, AWS Route53 will provide DNS management, there is no DDoS protection built in. Traefik uses Route53 to issue a Let's Encrypt certificate for your domain. It does not create an A record for you, that is left up to you.

You'll add traefik-aws.yml to your COMPOSE_FILE in .env, for example: lighthouse.yml:geth.yml:grafana.yml:traefik-aws.yml

This setup assumes that you already have an AWS CLI named user profile in ~/.aws on the node itself. If not, please create one. Be sure to specify a default region during aws configure. This is not optional.

The IAM user will need to have the AWS-managed AmazonRoute53ReadOnlyAcces, AmazonRoute53AutoNamingFullAccess and AmazonRoute53DomainsFullAccess policies attached to it.

With that, in the .env file:

  • Set DOMAIN to your domain.
  • Set ACME_EMAIL to the email address Let's Encrypt will use to communicate with you.
  • Set AWS_PROFILE to the profile you want to use. This is the profile name as shown in ~/.aws/config and ~/.aws/credentials, e.g. default or whichever name you gave it, not the access key id. The profile must contain a region.
  • Set AWS_HOSTED_ZONE_ID to the Route53 zone you are going to use

A records and CNAMEs​

Assuming you use the default names in .env:

  • An A record for your first service such as grafana.example.com, or on the domain itself example.com to use for CNAMEs. The A record will be the IP address of your node
  • Optionally, additional CNAMEs for grafana, prysm, el and elws, depending on which services you want to reverse-proxy on the node

Traefik common settings​

Optionally, you can change the names that services are reachable under, and adjust CNAMEs to match. These are the _HOST variables.

Separating consensus client and validator client​

Eth Docker supports separating the consensus client and validator client on different machines, with TLS encryption between them.

Consensus client machine​

On the machine that runs the consensus client, you'll need CLIENT-cl-only.yml with CLIENT one of teku, lighthouse, nimbus, lodestar or prysm, as well as one of the traefik-XXX.yml files. For example, with Lighthouse and CloudFlare: COMPOSE_FILE=lighthouse-cl-only.yml:traefik-cf.yml.

Traefik needs to be configured as per the above. Make sure you have a DNS entry for the machine, something like cl.example.com if CL_HOST is at default and your DOMAIN is example.com. If you use CloudFlare, you can proxy this entry.

Make sure port 443/tcp is reachable from the outside. Note this is the CL REST port even for Prysm, what Prysm calls the "grpc-gateway". The Prysm GRPC port 4000 is not available externally.

In both cases it is prudent to restrict communications to just the IP address of the validator client machine.

Validator client machine​

On the machine that runs the validator client, you'll need CLIENT-vc-only.yml with CLIENT one of teku, lighthouse, nimbus or lodestar. For example, for Lighthouse: COMPOSE_FILE=lighthouse-vc-only.yml

VCs should be interoperable with any CL. Teku and Lighthouse teams test this mutually; for other combinations you'll want to do some testing yourself.

The CL_NODE variable needs to be set to point to the consensus client.

For Teku and Lighthouse: CL_NODE=https://cl.example.com , assuming you left the CL_HOST variable at default on the consensus client, the Traefik port at default, and your domain is example.com.
Lighthouse and Teku also support failover nodes, which means you could configure CL_NODE=https://cl.example.com,https://cl2.example.com