Using Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

Why nginx

It’s not any better/worse at serving static files than Apache. However, the big difference is that nginx can serve a lot more users without using up additional resources.

Example Setup

Firstly, you need to create a site configuration at /etc/nginx/sites-available

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
sudo [vim/nano(any editor)] yoursite.com.conf

Then you can ready to prototype your coding

Below are the example server coding setup and will be describe deeply later.

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    listen 443 ssl [ssl section] http2 (Optional);
    // you can decide whethere to use the HTTP/2 Protocol
    listen [::]:443 ssl [ssl section] http2 (Optional);

    server_name http://example.com;
    // The server name that you registered in domain provider

    set $target_url http://example:xxx;
    // The target location that you want. e.g. http://192.168.1.31:8000;

    include /etc/nginx/laravel_params (Optional);
    include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf (Optional);
    include snippets/signed.conf; [ssl section]
    include snippets/ssl-params.conf; [ssl section]
}

Save your setting and create a symlink at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.com.conf

Then test your setting is correctly by typing

sudo nginx -t

Finally, reload nginx server

sudo service nginx reload

Default parameters

You can defind any default action to make your own purpose, there are a variety of methods that you can do :)

You can find one example default .conf located at /etc/nginx/default.d/phpmyadmin.conf

Since phpmyadmin contain credential contents, so I will make a default conf to disable worldwild access.

location /phpmyadmin {
    return 403;
    // return 403 to all user who try to access phpmyadmin.
    // you can also write a whitelist to enable a group of users.

    location ~ ^/phpmyadmin/(.+\.php)$ {
        return 403;
    }
}

location /phpMyAdmin {
    rewrite ^/* /phpmyadmin last;
}

Remember to add your config from server config.

server {
    [...]

    include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf
    // you can specific name.conf instead of all config

    [...]
}

PHP parameters

Below are the example php coding setup if you are using PHP.

rewrite ^/(.*)/$ /$1 permanent;
// rewrite any "/" at the end of the url.

location / {
    proxy_pass $target_url;
    // proxy pass the target_url that we had definded before
    include /etc/nginx/proxy_params;
    limit_req zone=one burst=5;
    // rate limitation
}

location @proxy {
    proxy_pass $target_url;
    include /etc/nginx/proxy_params;
}

location ~* \.php$ {
    proxy_pass $target_url;
    include /etc/nginx/proxy_params;
}

Signed certificate

You must include two file to enable secure HTTP

server {
    listen 443 ssl [http2];
    listen [::]:443 ssl [http2];

    [...]
    include snippets/signed.conf; [ssl section]
    include snippets/ssl-params.conf; [ssl section]
    [...]
}

SSL parameters

You can learn more ssl parameters below if you want. Click here