Using an existing network

[mwolfaardt]

I have an existing docker network where all my containers run on called tools, I'm having trouble understanding if I can just add the labels to my container or do I also need to add another network (dockflare) to my container in order to make the container available over the cloudflare tunnel as well as ip adress and port number. Please can you assist.

[ChrispyBacon-dev]

Hi,

the easiest most straight forward would be to add the existing containers that you have to the docker network "cloudflare-net" and add labels to quickly have them exposed via cloudflare tunnel. DockFlare will just see the containers with the labels and do the rest via the API.

the minimum labels as an example would be:

labels:
- "dockflare.enable=true"
- "dockflare.hostname=my-app.example.com"
- "dockflare.service=http://my-app:80"

furthermore there are more information in the help docs in DockFlare app.

PS: no IP address needed when the containers are in the Docker network they can use the just the container names very easy.

Any other questions?

[mwolfaardt]

Thank you for the prompt response, got it working by adding
networks:
tools:
external: true
cloudflare-net:
name: cloudflare-net
external: true

to both my dockflare container and also to my custom app container, that way I can access it via the IP and also the external url. But is this correct?
I've got a lot of deployed containers already on the tools network, so it will take a bit to convert them all over to the dockflare-net network.

[mwolfaardt]

Any feedback @ChrispyBacon-dev on the above?

[ChrispyBacon-dev]

Hi @mwolfaardt Yes, your setup is correct! Quick clarification on external: true it does not control whether containers are accessible on your LAN or from the internet. In Docker Compose, external: true simply means "this network already exists, don't create it." The cloudflare-net network is created by DockFlare itself, so any other compose file joining it needs external: true to avoid Docker trying to create a duplicate.

Your two-network setup is a valid pattern:

• tools network keeps your existing LAN/local access working as before
• cloudflare-net DockFlare detects the labels and routes the container through the Cloudflare Tunnel

Both work simultaneously. Here is a minimal example with an nginx container for your setup:

services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"  # controls LAN accessibility remove Ports to make tunnel-only
    networks:
      - tools
      - cloudflare-net
    labels:
      - "dockflare.enable=true"
      - "dockflare.hostname=nginx.example.com"
      - "dockflare.service=http://nginx:80"

networks:
  tools:
    external: true
  cloudflare-net:
    name: cloudflare-net
    external: true

Want tunnel-only (no LAN access)?
Remove ports and the tools network the container will then only be reachable via the Cloudflare Tunnel.

For more details see the Basic Usage and How DockFlare Works sections in the in-app Help docs.

[mwolfaardt]

Thank you, yeah after working with it a bit, I realise that the cloudflare-net is used to pick up the app and the tools network is for inter container connectivity