https in multiple docker containers

Question

I have problems figuring out how to properly set up a web server with https which contains multiple Docker containers.

I have a main container running apache by using the "httpd" docker-image. For simplicity lets call this website "main.com". SSL works perfectly here. I have set up the httpd.conf configuration file to redirect all calls to port 80 to port 443 and loaded SSL and proxy modules. (Port 80 and 443 are both exposed).

I have another Docker container which runs an API to serve geodata to "main.com". We can call this container for "side-container". In the Dockerfile for "side-container" I expose port 8080 from this. Then I can call "main.com:8080" to make a query to my "side-container" which runs the API.

Problem --> At least I could until I changed "main.com" to only use https.

I am stuck trying to get "side-container" to work again. When trying to connect to "main.com:8080" I get a timeout error.

My "docker ps" looks like this:

IMAGE  COMMAND PORTS NAMES        
main-container     "httpd-foreground"  0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9010->9010/tcp  main
side-container:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"  0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp side-container

I use docker-compose to control the containers, so perhaps I need to set something there? I have made an attempt to get it working by using a reverse proxy setting in apache (see http.conf below), by using port 9010 on the "main" container to point to port 8080 on the "side-container". I can get it to reply with an "internal server error" due to a failed SSL handshake, but no more than that.

My background is in pure physics and not software and webservers so maybe I am missing something obvious. Any hint is greatly appreciated.

From httpd.conf:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    Listen 443
    Listen 8080
    Listen 0.0.0.0:9010 https
    LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
    SSLProtocol all -SSLv3
    SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
    SSLHonorCipherOrder     on
    SSLCompression          off
    SSLSessionTickets       off
    SSLRandomSeed startup file:/dev/urandom 512
    SSLRandomSeed connect file:/dev/urandom 512
    SSLSessionCache shmcb:/dev/ssl_gcache_data(512000)
</IfModule>


<Virtualhost *:443>
   ServerName main.com
   SSLEngine on
   #Primary Certificate file
   SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/certificate.crt
   #Private Key
   SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/private.key
   #Chain bundle file
   SSLCertificateChainFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/ca_bundle.crt
</VirtualHost>

<Virtualhost 0.0.0.0:9010>
   ServerName main.com

   SSLEngine on
   SSLProxyEngine on
   SSLProxyVerify none
   SSLProxyCheckPeerCN off
   SSLProxyCheckPeerName off
   SSLProxyCheckPeerExpire off

   SSLCertificateFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/certificate.crt
   SSLCertificateKeyFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/private.key
   SSLCertificateChainFile /usr/local/apache2/conf/ca_bundle.crt

   ProxyPass /apptest http://0.0.0.0:8080/
   ProxyPassReverse /apptest https://0.0.0.0:8080/

</VirtualHost>

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3'
services:
  main-container:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: "main"
    restart: "always"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
      - "9010:9010"
    links:
      - side-container
    networks:
      - fu
  side-container:
    image: side-container:latest
    container_name: "side-container"
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ${HOME}/data:/data
    restart: "always"
    networks:
      - fu
networks:
  fu:
    driver: bridge

Answer 1

When linking docker containers within the same network with docker compose you need to reference them by the docker service name, thus instead of 0.0.0.0 use side-container:

ProxyPass /apptest http://side-container:8080/
ProxyPassReverse /apptest https://side-container:8080/

NOTE: the server running in the side container must be listening into 0.0.0.0:8080 in its httpd configuration.

Now you can remove from the docker compose file the ports declaration altogether, because both containers are in the same docker network, therefore you don't need to expose any ports. Exposing ports are only necessary if you want to reach the side-container from localhost in the host machine or from the internet.

So from the side container remove:

ports:
      - "8080:8080"

Also in the docker compose file you should replace links with the new syntax depends_on:

depends_on:
      - side-container

---

Ports declaration

For educational purpose.

Please bear in mind that when specifying the port like 8080:8080 is the same as 0.0.0.0:8080:8080 and 0.0.0.0 listens in all requests from the internet, thus to restrict them to localhost 127.0.0.1 of the machine running docker you would do 127.0.0.1:8080:8080.