I2P in Docker
There is a copy of my working compose file at the bottom of the post
Details about I2P can be found here.
Very quick start
If you just want to give I2P a quick try or are using it on a home network, follow these steps:
1.) Create two directories i2pconfig and i2ptorrents
2.) Copy the following text and save it in a file docker-compose.yml
version: "3.5"
services:
i2p:
image: geti2p/i2p
network_mode: host
volumes:
- ./i2pconfig:/i2p/.i2p
- ./i2ptorrents:/i2psnark
3.) Execute docker-compose up
4.) Start a browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:7657 to complete the setup wizard.
Note that this quick-start approach is not recommended for production deployments on remote servers. Please read the rest of this document for more information.
Building an image
There is an i2P image available over at DockerHub (hub.docker.com). If you do not want to use that one, you can build one yourself:
docker build -t i2p .
Running a container
Volumes
The container requires a volume for the configuration data to be mounted. Optionally, you can mount a separate volume for torrent ("i2psnark") downloads. See the example below.
Memory usage
By the default the image limits the memory available to the Java heap to 512MB. You can override that with the JVM_XMX environment variable.
Ports
There are several ports which are exposed by the image. You can choose which ones to publish depending on your specific needs.
| Port |
Interface |
Description |
TCP/UDP |
| 4444 |
127.0.0.1 |
HTTP Proxy |
TCP |
| 4445 |
127.0.0.1 |
HTTPS Proxy |
TCP |
| 6668 |
127.0.0.1 |
IRC Proxy |
TCP |
| 7654 |
127.0.0.1 |
I2CP Protocol |
TCP |
| 7656 |
127.0.0.1 |
SAM Bridge TCP |
TCP |
| 7657 |
127.0.0.1 |
Router console |
TCP |
| 7658 |
127.0.0.1 |
I2P Site |
TCP |
| 7659 |
127.0.0.1 |
SMTP Proxy |
TCP |
| 7660 |
127.0.0.1 |
POP Proxy |
TCP |
| 7652 |
LAN interface |
UPnP |
TCP |
| 7653 |
LAN interface |
UPnP |
UDP |
| 12345 |
0.0.0.0 |
I2NP Protocol |
TCP and UDP |
You probably want at least the Router Console (7657) and the HTTP Proxy (4444). If you want I2P to be able to receive incoming connections from the internet, and hence not think it's firewalled, publish the I2NP Protocol port (12345) - but make sure you publish to a different random port, otherwise others may be able to guess you're running I2P in a Docker image.
Networking
A best-practices guide for cloud deployments is beyond the scope of this document, but in general you should try to minimize the number of published ports, while exposing only the I2NP ports to the internet. That means that the services in the list above which are bound to 127.0.0.1 (which include the router console) will need to be accessed via other methods like ssh tunneling or be manually configured to bind to a different interface.
Example
Here is an example container that mounts i2phome as home directory, i2ptorrents for torrents, and opens HTTP Proxy, IRC, Router Console and I2NP Protocols. It also limits the memory available to the JVM to 256MB.
docker run \
-e JVM_XMX=256m \
-v i2phome:/i2p/.i2p \
-v i2ptorrents:/i2psnark \
-p 4444:4444 \
-p 6668:6668 \
-p 7657:7657 \
-p 54321:12345 \
-p 54321:12345/udp \ # I2NP port needs TCP and UDP. Change the 54321 to something random, greater than 1024.
i2p:latest
docker-compose.yml
version: "3.5"
services:
i2p:
image: geti2p/i2p:latest
container_name: i2p
network_mode: host
volumes:
- </your/path/here>:/i2p/.i2p
- </your/path/here>:/i2psnark
ports:
- 4444:4444
- 6668:6668
- 7657:7657
- 12345:12345
- 12345:12345/udp
restart: unless-stopped
Replace </your/path/here> with your own paths minus < and >
If you plan to open the image to the internet it is recomended to change
14817 is not required. Any random port will do
(post is archived)