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Signal Proxy Signal Proxy

Stack

Messaging

A TLS proxy relay for the Signal privacy messenger app.

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Services

nginx-terminate

Configuration

Command
/bin/sh -c 'while :; do sleep 6h & wait $${!}; /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload; done & /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf -g "daemon off;"'
Ports
443:44380:80
Volumes
/etc/nginx/conf.d : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-terminate/etc/letsencrypt : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/conf/var/www/certbot : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/www
Restart
unless-stopped
Build
./nginx-terminate/

nginx-relay

Configuration

Command
/bin/sh -c 'while :; do sleep 6h & wait $${!}; /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload; done & /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf -g "daemon off;"'
Volumes
/etc/nginx/conf.d : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-relay
Restart
unless-stopped
Build
./nginx-relay/

certbot

Configuration

Image
certbot/certbot
Entrypoint
/bin/sh -c 'trap exit TERM; while :; do certbot renew; sleep 12h & wait $${!}; done;'
Volumes
/etc/letsencrypt : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/conf/var/www/certbot : /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/www
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 334.3M
User: certbot
Created: Mar 14, 2017
Updated: 23 hours ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Signal Proxy

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Signal Proxy, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  nginx-terminate:
    build: ./nginx-terminate/
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-terminate:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/www:/var/www/certbot
    ports:
      - "443:443"
      - "80:80"
    command: "/bin/sh -c 'while :; do sleep 6h & wait $${!}; /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload; done & /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf -g \"daemon off;\"'"
  nginx-relay:
    build: ./nginx-relay/
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-relay:/etc/nginx/conf.d
    command: "/bin/sh -c 'while :; do sleep 6h & wait $${!}; /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -s reload; done & /opt/nginx/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx.conf -g \"daemon off;\"'"
  certbot:
    image: certbot/certbot
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/www:/var/www/certbot
    entrypoint: "/bin/sh -c 'trap exit TERM; while :; do certbot renew; sleep 12h & wait $${!}; done;'"

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/signal.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Container Documentation

certbot Documentation

Official build of EFF's Certbot tool for obtaining TLS/SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt.

Serve Signal Proxy on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying signal-proxy.example.com to https://nginx-terminate:443

Add this to your Caddyfile

signal-proxy.example.com {
	reverse_proxy https://nginx-terminate:443 {
		transport http {
			tls_insecure_skip_verify
		}
	}
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:443 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :443
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 443:443 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: https://your-server-ip:443. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, signal can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 443

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

  • Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-terminate (and the same for the other mapped folders)

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull certbot/certbot

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

Signal Proxy is a Compose stack, a set of containers (3 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 3 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • nginx-terminate
  • nginx-relay
  • certbot runs certbot/certbot

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 443:443 means it's reachable on port 443 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. Once it's running, open https://your-server-ip:443 in a browser. It opens:

  • 443:443, likely the web interface
  • 80:80, likely the web interface

Volumes

A volume is where Signal Proxy keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /etc/nginx/conf.d from /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-terminate on the host
  • /etc/letsencrypt from /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/conf on the host
  • /var/www/certbot from /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/certbot/www on the host
  • /etc/nginx/conf.d from /portainer/Files/AppData/Configs/nginx-relay on the host

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts Signal Proxy after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like nginx-terminate) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Signal Proxy up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Signal Proxy is a click rather than a wall of config.