Deploy Relay (Tunnel Relay)

You will learn: TunnelRelay node responsibilities, openflare-relay config items and env vars, running Relay with Docker, and building/deploying Relay manually from source.

In OpenFlare's intranet penetration system, the TunnelRelay node plays a key role. Unlike regular edge nodes, besides running the traditional Agent (hosting OpenResty for HTTPS/WAF processing), it also runs the Relay (frps tunnel manager) service on the same machine, listening for tunnel connections from intranet clients (OpenFlared) and relaying traffic.

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Prerequisites

Before deploying a TunnelRelay node, make sure:

1. Registered as a TunnelRelay-type node: in OpenFlare admin「Node Management」, add a node of type tunnel_relay and get its dedicated agent_token, or use the global discovery_token.
2. Network ports:
   • bindPort (frpc connection port, default 7000) must be reachable by public/intranet clients.
   • vhostHTTPPort (HTTP Vhost port, default 8080) must be free; the Agent exchanges traffic with frps on this port.
3. Software dependency (host deployment only):
   • an executable frps binary locally, or an explicitly specified path via parameter.

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Config File and Env Vars

openflare-relay reads relay.json in the current directory by default at startup, fully overridable via env vars.

Config Field Details

JSON field	Env var	Description	Default
server_url	OPENFLARE_SERVER_URL	OpenFlare Server API service address	none (required)
agent_token	OPENFLARE_AGENT_TOKEN	node-specific Token	one of these two
discovery_token	OPENFLARE_DISCOVERY_TOKEN	auto-registration Token	one of these two
node_name	OPENFLARE_NODE_NAME	node identifier name	local hostname by default
node_ip	OPENFLARE_NODE_IP	node egress/listen IP	auto-detected real egress IP
frps_path	OPENFLARE_FRPS_PATH	frps executable binary path	"frps"
data_dir	OPENFLARE_DATA_DIR	local data and generated frps.toml directory	"./data"
state_path	-	local state JSON record file path	"{data_dir}/relay-state.json"
heartbeat_interval	-	heartbeat period (ms int or Go Duration string)	10000 (10s)
request_timeout	-	API request timeout	10000 (10s)

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Running with Docker

Docker is the most convenient deployment for a TunnelRelay node. The official image bundles the openflare-relay controller and the frps runtime — out of the box.

docker pull ghcr.io/rain-kl/openflare-relay:latest
docker rm -f openflare-relay 2>/dev/null || true

docker run -d --name openflare-relay --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 7000:7000 \
  -p 17500:17500 \
  -e OPENFLARE_SERVER_URL=http://your-server:3000 \
  -e OPENFLARE_AGENT_TOKEN=YOUR_AGENT_TOKEN \
  -v openflare-relay-data:/app/data \
  ghcr.io/rain-kl/openflare-relay:latest

TIP

The -p 7000:7000 mapping is the port frpc clients connect to for relaying. If the admin panel configures a custom relay_bind_port, adjust the host port mapping accordingly.

NOTE

Enable the embedded frps Web UI: If the Server control panel enables the relay traffic monitoring panel (i.e. relay_frps_web_ui_enabled set to true in DB/system settings), you need to map the Web port (default 17500, controlled by relay_frps_web_ui_port in system settings) to the host via -p 17500:17500. The Web UI username is fixed to admin, and the password is the relay node's agent_token.

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Startup and Verification

1. View Process Logs

# Docker container logs
docker logs -f openflare-relay

2. Verify Runtime State

After starting successfully, the Relay will:

• Send HTTP heartbeats to the control plane to register/go online.
• Fetch the latest frps base config from the control plane (including bindPort, vhostHTTPPort, and the auto-generated tunnel auth credential auth_token).
• Render the local data/frps.toml config file.
• Spawn the child process frps -c data/frps.toml.
• If the process exits unexpectedly, the Relay auto-restarts frps with exponential backoff (initial 1s, cap 60s).

3. Confirm in the Admin Panel

Log in to the admin panel, navigate to 「Node Management」, and confirm:

• The TunnelRelay node status is marked 「Online」.
• The node type is correctly marked as Relay node and the frps runtime state is Healthy.