Caddy Server v2 Reverse Proxy Setup Guide

Self-Hosting Nov 19, 2020

Last Updated: 11th May 2023

What is Caddy?

Caddy has a wide range of use cases including:

Web Server
Reverse Proxy
Sidecar Proxy
Load Balancer
API Gateway
Ingress Controller
System Manager
Process Supervisor
Task Scheduler

Today we will be installing and setting up Caddy as a Reverse Proxy. This will be on a Debian 10 system but this will also work with Ubuntu 20.

Install - Official Install Docs: https://caddyserver.com/docs/download
1.

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list

sudo apt update
sudo apt install caddy

Check status: sudo systemctl status caddy
You should see something similar to this:

● caddy.service - Caddy
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/caddy.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-11-15 20:00:00 UTC; 2min 35s ago
     Docs: https://caddyserver.com/docs/
 Main PID: 6969 (caddy)
    Tasks: 7 (limit: 1167)
   Memory: 15.5M
   CGroup: /system.slice/caddy.service
           └─4028 /usr/bin/caddy run --environ --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Now head to your server's IP e.g. http://127.0.0.1
You should see:

Reverse Proxy Setup

Create Caddyfile: nano Caddyfile

Use the following template:

example.com {
    reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8080
}

Basic Repsond Template:

hello.example.com {
    repsond "Hello World!"
}

Restart Caddy and adopt the new config
caddy reload

HTTPS
Once the new config is loaded, a Let's Encrypt HTTPS certificate is automatically generated for the domain. Just make sure the A record points to the Caddy server!

Cool Fact: If Let's Encrypt is down, Caddy will automatically fall over to obtain a free HTTPS certificate form ZeroSSL.

Additional Settings