Varnish Docker image

Varnish docker image with support for dynamic backends, Rancher DNS, auto-configure and reload.

This image is generic, thus you can obviously re-use it within your non-related EEA projects.

• Debian Jessie
• Varnish 4.1.8
• Varnish agent 2 4.1.3
• Varnish dashboard
• EXPOSE 6081 6085

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

• :latest Dockerfile (Debian Jessie, Varnish 4.1)

Stable and immutable tags

• :4.1-6.2 Dockerfile - Varnish: 4.1 Release: **6.2

See older versions

Changes

• CHANGELOG.md

Base docker image

• hub.docker.com

Source code

• github.com

Installation

1. Install Docker.

Usage

Run with Docker Compose

Here is a basic example of a docker-compose.yml file using the eeacms/varnish docker image:

version: "2"
services:
  varnish:
    image: eeacms/varnish
    ports:
    - "80:6081"
    - "6085:6085"
    depends_on:
    - anon
    - auth
    - download
    environment:
      BACKENDS: "anon auth download"
      BACKENDS_PORT: "8080"
      DNS_ENABLED: "true"
      BACKENDS_PROBE_INTERVAL: "3s"
      BACKENDS_PROBE_TIMEOUT: "1s"
      BACKENDS_PROBE_WINDOW: "3"
      BACKENDS_PROBE_THRESHOLD: "2"
      DASHBOARD_USER: "admin"
      DASHBOARD_PASSWORD: "admin"
      DASHBOARD_SERVERS: "varnish"
      DASHBOARD_DNS_ENABLED: "true"
  anon:
    image: eeacms/hello
    environment:
      PORT: "8080"
  auth:
    image: eeacms/hello
    environment:
      PORT: "8080"
  download:
    image: eeacms/hello
    environment:
      PORT: "8080"

The application can be scaled to use more server instances as backends, with docker-compose scale:

$ docker-compose up -d
$ docker-compose scale anon=4 auth=2 varnish=2

An example of a more complex application using the eeacms/varnish with docker-compose image is EEA WWW.

Extend the image with a custom varnish.vcl file

The default.vcl file provided with this image is bare and only contains the marker to specify the VCL version. If you plan on using a more elaborate base configuration in your container and you want it shipped with your image, you can extend the image in a Dockerfile, like this:

FROM eeacms/varnish
COPY varnish.vcl /etc/varnish/conf.d/

and then run

$ docker build -t varnish-custom /path/to/Dockerfile

Support for specifying probe request headers

Two environment variables support defining specific probe request headers. The primary warning / tricky part is around the delimiter used for separating the individual headers. Below is an example:

BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST: 'GET / HTTP/1.1|Host: example.com|Connection: close|User-Agent: Varnish Health Probe'
BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST_DELIMITER: '|'

The above will result in the probe being specified using the probe.request attribute and will replace the default probe.url attribute completely. The important point, of course, is that you need to pick an appropriate delimiter that is not contained within any headers that you wish to pass.

The hostname of the current backend being probed can be specify using the %(hostname)s placeholder:

BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST: 'GET / HTTP/1.1|Host: %(hostname)s|Connection: close|User-Agent: Varnish Health Probe'
BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST_DELIMITER: '|'

Change and reload configuration without restarting the container

If the configuration directory is mounted as a volume, you can modify it from outside the container. In order for the modifications to be loaded by the varnish daemon, you have to run the reload command, as following:

$ docker exec <container-name-or-id> reload

The command will load the new configuration, compile it, and if compilation succeeds replace the old one with it. If compilation of the new configuration fails, the varnish daemon will continue to use the old configuration. Keep in mind that the only way to restore a previous configuration is to restore the configuration files and then reload them.

Support for stripping cookies for better caching

By default, if any cookies are present, the cache is bypassed. This section describes new support for configuration of various cookie-based cache options. Configuration is enabled with the COOKIES environment variable. If set, additional code is executed that builds a cookie_config.vcl file containing additions to the generated default.vcl file. The following cookie options are currently supported.

1. Whitelist of cookies - Allows stripping all but a small list of cookies
2. (Future) Remove cookies for listed static file types, so caching works

Whitelist of cookies

With this option you provide a regular expression describing those cookies that should be passed through to the backend. All cookies not described by the expression will be stripped from the headers. Here is an example.

COOKIES=true
COOKIES_WHITELIST=(SESS[a-z0-9]+|SSESS[a-z0-9]+|NO_CACHE)

Upgrade

$ docker pull eeacms/varnish

Supported environment variables

As varnish has close to no purpose by itself, this image should be used in combination with others with Docker Compose. The varnish daemon can be configured by modifying the following environment variables:

• PRIVILEDGED_USER Priviledge separation user id (e.g. varnish)
• CACHE_SIZE Size of the RAM cache storage (default 2G)
• CACHE_STORAGE Override default RAM cache (e.g. file,/var/lib/varnish/varnish_storage.bin,1G)
• ADDRESS_PORT HTTP listen address and port (default :6081)
• ADMIN_PORT HTTP admin address and port (e.g. :6082)
• PARAM_VALUE A list of parameter-value pairs, each preceeded by the -p flag
• BACKENDS A list of host[:port] pairs separated by space (e.g. BACKENDS="127.0.0.1 74.125.140.103:8080")
• BACKENDS_PORT Default port to be used for backends (defalut 80)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_ENABLED Enable backend probe (default True)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_URL Backend probe URL (default /)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_TIMEOUT Backend probe timeout (defalut 1s)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_INTERVAL Backend probe interval (defalut 1s)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_WINDOW Backend probe window (defalut 3)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_THRESHOLD Backend probe threshold (defalut 2)
• DNS_ENABLED DNS lookup provided BACKENDS. Use this option when your backends are resolved by an internal/external DNS service (e.g. Rancher)
• DNS_TTL DNS lookup backends every $DNS_TTL minutes. Default 1 minute.
• BACKENDS_SAINT_MODE Register backends using saintmode module
• BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST Backend probe request header list (default empty)
• BACKENDS_PROBE_REQUEST_DELIMITER Backend probe request headers delimiter (default |)
• DASHBOARD_SERVERS Include varnish services, space separated, within varnish dashboard. Useful when you want to scale varnish and see them all within varnish dashboard (e.g.: DASHBOARD_SERVERS=varnish and docker-compose scale varnish=2)
• DASHBOARD_DNS_ENABLED Convert DASHBOARD_SERVERS to ips in order to discover multiple varnish instances. (default false)
• DASHBOARD_PORT Run Varnish dashboard on this port inside container (default 6085)
• DASHBOARD_USER User to access the varnish dashboard exposed on DASHBOARD_PORT (default admin)
• DASHBOARD_PASSWORD Password for the user to access the varnish dashboard exposed on DASHBOARD_PORT. (default admin)
• COOKIES Enables cookie configuration
• COOKIES_WHITELIST A regular expression describing cookies that are passed through, all others are stripped

Copyright and license

The Initial Owner of the Original Code is European Environment Agency (EEA). All Rights Reserved.

The Original Code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Funding

European Environment Agency (EU)