[GUIDE] Automatic downloading & updating of the GeoLite2 database to implement geoblocking

[txwgnd]

Hello All,

because the self-hosted version recently got gifted the geoblocking feature from the Pangolin team I thought I could share my recent implementation of automating this.

Maxmind is offering a tool for automatically downloading/updating their IP databases called geoipupdate.
First you need to create an account on Maxmind.
After You created an account you can obtain access to the GeoLite2 IP databases here
When you got access to the everything go to Manage License Keys in your Maxmind dashboard and create a new key for Pangolin.

Name the Key Pangolin and save your account ID as well as your key. The key can only be seen once after creation!

After you saved your key you need to modify your pangolin docker-compose.yaml stack.
Shut down your stack and open your docker-compose.yaml in your favorite text editor.
Append this service to your stack

  geoipupdate:
    container_name: geoipupdate
    image: ghcr.io/maxmind/geoipupdate
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - 'GEOIPUPDATE_ACCOUNT_ID='                                      # Put your account ID here
      - 'GEOIPUPDATE_LICENSE_KEY='                                      #Put your license key here
      - 'GEOIPUPDATE_EDITION_IDS=GeoLite2-Country'
      - 'GEOIPUPDATE_FREQUENCY=72'                                    # This is the update interval of the database in hours. Default is 72
    volumes:
      - './config/GeoLite2:/usr/share/GeoIP'

Check out the geoipupdate docs for some optional environment variables.
You can store the ID and key as well as other settings in a config file or Docker secrets.

Save the file but don't start your pangolin stack just yet.
Open config.yml found in the config folder. (/pangolin/config)

Add this line to the server object: maxmind_db_path: "./config/GeoLite2/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb"

server:
maxmind_db_path: "./config/GeoLite2/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb"

This tells pangolin where to find the database. -> Docs

Start your stack back up again and et voilà you are now able to define country rules for your ressources!
BTW: You now can link this database to Traefik too -> Community Guide

Thanks to the Pangolin Team for reconsidering the direction of the project.
This is what keeps me going on spending some free time on projects like this.

Our goal is to stay true to our open‑source principles, enable most of our large community to benefit from the full suite of features, and build a sustainable business that funds ongoing development.

Cheers
Tom

[oschwartz10612]

Hi Tom! Thanks for the post! We would be super grateful if you would be able to write this up and submit it as a PR on the docs-v2 repo to include in the documentation? I think a page under community guides would be great and we could link to it from the geoblocking pages.

[txwgnd]

Hi Owen, thanks. That sounds like a great idea.
I would like to do it. Give me a couple of days and I'll submit it next week.

Cheers

[Lokowitz]

Works like a charm! Thanks for the guide