---
title: Remote Host Setup
---

# Remote Host Setup <Badge type="warning" text="Deprecated" />

Dozzle supports connecting to remote Docker hosts. This is useful when running Dozzle in a container and you want to monitor a different Docker host.

However, with Dozzle agents, you can connect to remote hosts without exposing the Docker socket. See the [agent](/guide/agent) page for more information.

> [!WARNING]
> Remote hosts will soon be deprecated in favor of agents. Agents provide a more secure way to connect to remote hosts. See the [agent](/guide/agent) page for more information. If you want keep using remote hosts then follow this discussion on [GitHub](https://github.com/amir20/dozzle/issues/3066).

## Connecting to remote hosts with TLS

Remote hosts can be configured with `--remote-host` or `DOZZLE_REMOTE_HOST`. All certs must be mounted to `/certs` directory. The `/certs` directory expects to have `/certs/{ca,cert,key}.pem` or `/certs/{host}/{ca,cert,key}.pem` in case of multiple hosts.

Note the `{host}` value referred to here is the IP or FQDN configured and not the [optional label](#adding-labels-to-hosts).

Multiple `--remote-host` flags can be used to specify multiple hosts. However, using `DOZZLE_REMOTE_HOST` the value should be comma separated.

::: code-group

```sh [cli]
$ docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /path/to/certs:/certs -p 8080:8080 amir20/dozzle --remote-host tcp://167.99.1.1:2376 --remote-host tcp://167.99.1.2:2376
```

```yaml [docker-compose.yml]
services:
  dozzle:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - /path/to/certs:/certs
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      DOZZLE_REMOTE_HOST: tcp://167.99.1.1:2376,tcp://167.99.1.2:2376
```

:::

## Connecting with a socket proxy

If you are in a private network then you can use [Docker Socket Proxy](https://github.com/Tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy) which expose `docker.sock` file without the need of TLS. Dozzle will never try to write to Docker but it will need access to list APIs. The following command will start a proxy with minimal access.

```sh
docker container run --privileged -e CONTAINERS=1 -e INFO=1 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -p 2375:2375 tecnativa/docker-socket-proxy
```

> [!TIP]
> Using `CONTAINERS=1` is required to list running containers. `EVENTS` is also needed but it is enabled by default. `INFO=1` is optional but it will provide more information on host meta data.

Running Dozzle without any certs should work. Here is an example:

```sh
docker run --volume=/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -p 8080:8080 amir20/dozzle --remote-host tcp://123.1.1.1:2375
```

> [!WARNING]
> Docker Socket Proxy is not recommended for production use. It is only for private networks.

## Adding labels to hosts

`--remote-host` supports host labels by appending them to the connection string with `|`. For example, `--remote-host tcp://123.1.1.1:2375|foobar.com` will use foobar.com as the label in the UI. A full example of this using the CLI or compose are:

::: code-group

```sh
docker run --volume=/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -p 8080:8080 amir20/dozzle --remote-host tcp://123.1.1.1:2375|foobar.com
```

```yaml [docker-compose.yml]
services:
  dozzle:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - /path/to/certs:/certs
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    environment:
      DOZZLE_REMOTE_HOST: tcp://167.99.1.1:2376|foo.com,tcp://167.99.1.2:2376|bar.com
```

:::

> [!WARNING]
> Dozzle uses the Docker API to gather information about hosts. Each aget needs a unique host ID. They use Docker's system ID or node ID to identify the host. If you are using swarm, then the node ID is used. If you don't see all hosts, then you may have duplicate hosts configured that have the same host ID. To fix this, remove `/var/lib/docker/engine-id` file. See [FAQ](/guide/faq#i-am-seeing-duplicate-hosts-error-in-the-logs-how-do-i-fix-it) for more information.

## Changing localhost label

`localhost` is a special connection and uses different configuration than `--remote-host`. Changing the label for localhost can be done using the `--hostname` or `DOZZLE_HOSTNAME` env variable. See [hostname](/guide/hostname) page for examples on how to use this flag.