Use SWAG for Reverse Proxy behind a VPN container

[Syked69]

Running Ubuntu 24.04 and deployed SWAG using Docker compose with DNS validation and wildcard subdomains.

Is it possible to use SWAG for reverse proxy of subdomains for containers using gluetun VPN container. The subdomain containers use network_mode: service:gluetun to use the VPN connection.

The SWAG container and my other docker containers are in the same compose.yaml file but essentially have different networks so the container names of the subdomain containers cannot be used in subdomain.conf files.

If I start a shell within the SWAG container, I can ping the other containers using the container IDs but not the container names however, using container IDs in the subdomain.conf file does not work.

[j0nnymoe]

You need to point all the proxy configs at the containername of gluetun then change the port accordingly.

[Syked69]

I've tested it and it works as you suggested but does that mean I have to publish all my public facing container ports in gluetun instead of just port 443 for SWAG?

If so, what if I made SWAG use network_mode: service:gluetun also?

[j0nnymoe]

no you shouldn't need to do anything else. Port forward 443 on router to swag then it'll handle the rest.

No, putting swag behind gluetun will cause other issues.

[Syked69]

It's a VPS so no actual router but If I publish port 443 on gluetun container, it doesnt work.

I then configured SWAG to use network_mode: service:gluetun and it works but like you said this may cause other issues. I'll do some testing for now.

BTW, in the gluetun container configuration I have the below

networks:
- gluetun
- shared

And also in my compose file I have the networks defined as

networks:
gluetun:
external: true
shared: