OwnTracks
OwnTracks allows you to keep track of your own location. You can build your private location diary or share it with your family and friends. OwnTracks is open-source and uses open protocols for communication so you can be sure your data stays secure and private.
Using a smartphone app, OwnTracks allows you to collect and analyse your own location data without sharing this data with a cloud provider (i.e. Apple, Google). Potential use cases are:
- Sharing family locations without relying on Apple Find-My-friends
- Performing automated actions in HomeAssistant when you arrive/leave home
OwnTracks Requirements
Ingredients
Already deployed:
- Docker swarm cluster with persistent shared storage
- Traefik configured per design
- DNS entry for the hostname you intend to use (or a wildcard), pointed to your keepalived IP
Related:
- Traefik Forward Auth or Authelia to secure your Traefik-exposed services with an additional layer of authentication
Preparation
Setup data locations
We'll need a directory so store OwnTracks' data , so create /var/data/owntracks:
mkdir /var/data/owntracks
Prepare OwnTracks environment
Create owntracks.env, and populate with the following variables
OTR_USER=recorder
OTR_PASS=yourpassword
OTR_HOST=owntracks.example.com
OwnTracks Docker Swarm config
Create a docker swarm config file in docker-compose syntax (v3), something like the example below:
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version: "3.0"
services:
owntracks-app:
image: funkypenguin/owntracks
env_file : /var/data/config/owntracks/owntracks.env
volumes:
- /var/data/owntracks:/owntracks
networks:
- internal
- traefik_public
ports:
- 1883:1883
- 8883:8883
- 8083:8083
deploy:
labels:
# traefik common
- traefik.enable=true
- traefik.docker.network=traefik_public
# traefikv1
- traefik.frontend.rule=Host:owntracks-app.example.com
- traefik.port=8083
# traefikv2
- "traefik.http.routers.owntracks.rule=Host(`owntracks-app.example.com`)"
- "traefik.http.services.owntracks.loadbalancer.server.port=8083"
- "traefik.enable=true"
# Remove if you wish to access the URL directly
- "traefik.http.routers.owntracks.middlewares=forward-auth@file"
networks:
traefik_public:
external: true
internal:
driver: overlay
ipam:
config:
- subnet: 172.16.15.0/24
Note
Setup unique static subnets for every stack you deploy. This avoids IP/gateway conflicts which can otherwise occur when you're creating/removing stacks a lot. See my list here.
Serving
Launch OwnTracks stack
Launch the OwnTracks stack by running docker stack deploy owntracks -c <path -to-docker-compose.yml>
Log into your new instance at https://YOUR-FQDN, with user "root" and the password you specified in gitlab.env.
Chef's notes 📓
-
If you wanted to expose the Owntracks UI directly, you could remove the traefik-forward-auth from the design. ↩
-
I'm using my own image rather than owntracks/recorderd, because of a potentially swarm-breaking bug I found in the official container. If this gets resolved (or if I was mistaken) I'll update the recipe accordingly. ↩
-
By default, you'll get a fully accessible, unprotected MQTT broker. This may not be suitable for public exposure, so you'll want to look into securing mosquitto with TLS and ACLs. ↩
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