How to setup Nginx with reverse proxy

Nginx (pronounced "engine-x") is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy server. It is known for its ability to handle a large number of simultaneous connections with low memory usage, making it an ideal choice for high-traffic websites and applications.

While Nginx can be used in a container during development, it's better to run a single instance on the server and write rules to handle all applications on the server.

It makes much more ease to handle multiple domains or services running on a single machine, and you can avoid Networking hell between Docker containers.

Write following commands into the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Verify install:

systemctl status nginx

Restart:

systemctl restart nginx

Verify settings before apply:

sudo nginx -t

Open Nginx config with the following command:

nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Hint: You can save with CRTL + O and exit with CRTL + X on Mac Command + O / Command + X

This is an example to reverse Proxy HTTP traffic:

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 768;
}

http {

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        client_max_body_size 10M;
        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;
        gzip on;
        gzip_disable "msie6";


    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name selfhost.guru;
        location / {
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:1234;
            proxy_redirect off;
        }
    }
}

For Websocket connections the following configuration needed:

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name websocket.selfhost.guru;
 location / {
      proxy_http_version 1.1;
      proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
      proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
      proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
      proxy_pass  http://localhost:123456/;
    }
}

Here is an advanced example how you can use multiple service and multiple domain in a single config:

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
    worker_connections 768;
}

http {
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        client_max_body_size 10M;
        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;
        gzip on;
        gzip_disable "msie6";


    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name selfhost.guru;
        location / {
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:1234;
            proxy_redirect off;
        }
    }

  # Subdomain domain
  server {
        listen 80;
        server_name subdomain.selfhost.guru;
        location / {
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:12345;
            proxy_redirect off;
        }
    }
     
   # Multiple domain point to same service
   server {
        listen 80;
        server_name subdomain2.selfhost.guru, subdomain3.selfhost.guru;
        location / {
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5678;
            proxy_redirect off;
        }
    }
}