====== Nginx as Reverse Proxy for Docker Containers ======

**Important Notice:**

This is an example for a Reverse Proxy. I will be using Traefik to [[engineering:computer_science:docker:application_guides:traefik_docker_https_ssl_for_containers|Implementing HTTPS / SSL with Traefik on Docker Containers]] down the line. So use this guide if you want to keep to nginx, else I would recommend going with Traefik.

----

My setup for the docker env. is the same as described on [[engineering:computer_science:docker:application_guides:docker_dokuwiki_portable|my DokuWiki Docker Container Portable]], even though this should have almost zero effect even if the system is different (yay, docker!).

The materials that I used to learn / troubleshoot / implement this setup:

  * [[https://docs.docker.com/|https://docs.docker.com/]]
  * [[https://www.domysee.com/blogposts/reverse-proxy-nginx-docker-compose|https://www.domysee.com/blogposts/reverse-proxy-nginx-docker-compose]]

===== Why use a Reverse-Proxy? =====

I will be using a Nginx Server as a Reverse Proxy, so that a) I can host multiple containers which need to be available in the same ports, b) I don't have to access the containers by memorizing ports therefore being able to use carlossousa.tech/wiki or wiki.carlossousa.tech instead of the port and c) easy expandability for new services / containers.

===== Requirements for Reverse Proxy with Nginx in a Docker Container =====

For Nginx as a Reverse Proxy inside Docker we only need 3 basic things:

  - Mapping of the host ports to the container ports
  - Mapping a config file to the default Nginx config file - /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  - A Nginx config

===== Sample Nginx Reverse Proxy - nginx.conf - configuration =====

A sample nginx reverse proxy config file - nginx.conf - would like something like this:

<code bash>
http {
  server {
    server_name your.server.url;

    location /yourService1 {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:80;
      rewrite ^/yourService1(.*)$ $1 break;
    }

    location /yourService2 {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
      rewrite ^/yourService1(.*)$ $1 break;
    }
  }

  server {
    server_name another.server.url;

    location /yourService1 {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:80;
      rewrite ^/yourService1(.*)$ $1 break;
    }

    location /yourService3 {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:5001;
      rewrite ^/yourService1(.*)$ $1 break;
    }
  }
}


</code>

===== A Nginx Reverse-Proxy sample docker-compose.yml =====

would be something like:

<code bash>
version: '3'
services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    container_name: production_nginx
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
      - ./nginx/error.log:/etc/nginx/error_log.log
      - ./nginx/cache/:/etc/nginx/cache
      - /etc/letsencrypt/:/etc/letsencrypt/
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 443:443

  your_app_1:
    image: your_app_1_image:latest
    container_name: your_app_1
    expose:
      - "80"

  your_app_2:
    image: your_app_2_image:latest
    container_name: your_app_2
    expose:
      - "80"

  your_app_3:
    image: your_app_3_image:latest
    container_name: your_app_3
    expose:
      - "80"


</code>

===== Pratical Example =====

==== Making the Reverse Proxy ====

Let's go ahead and create our folder and create our 2 required files, the docker-compose.yml and the nginx.conf. Navigate to your desired folder and run:

<code bash>
mkdir nging-reverseproxy
touch docker-compose.yml
touch nginx.conf


</code>

Using your favourite method, deploy your **docker-compose.yml **setup. I will be using the good old 'nano'.

My configuration would be as follows:

<code bash>
version: '3'
volumes:
    dokuwiki_data:
        external: true
    dokuwiki_conf:
        external: true
    dokuwiki_lib-plugins:
        external: true
    dokuwiki_lib-tpl:
        external: true
    dokuwiki_logs:
        external: true

services:
    nginx:
        image: nginx:latest
        container_name: nginx_reverseproxy
        volumes:
          - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
          - ./nginx/error.log:/etc/nginx/error_log.log
          - ./nginx/cache/:/etc/nginx/cache
          - /etc/letsencrypt/:/etc/letsencrypt/
        ports:
          - 80:80
          - 443:443

    dokuwiki:
        image: 'mprasil/dokuwiki'
        container_name: 'dokuwiki_zebra'
        expose:
            - '80'
        volumes:
            - dokuwiki_data:/dokuwiki/data
            - dokuwiki_conf:/dokuwiki/conf
            - dokuwiki_lib-plugins:/dokuwiki/lib/plugins
            - dokuwiki_lib-tpl:/dokuwiki/lib/tpl
            - dokuwiki_logs:/var/log


</code>

And now we edit the **nginx.conf **to point back to our DokuWiki. Note that I will already configure a sub-domain and a main domain, which at the moment would both point to the same container, but once we make [[refractor_computer_science:docker:docker_wordpress_homepage_portable|Wordpress Homepage ToGo with Docker]] we can change just the service name and everything should work properly.

<code bash>
events {

}

http {
  #error_log /etc/nginx/error_log.log warn;
  client_max_body_size 20m;

  proxy_cache_path /etc/nginx/cache keys_zone=one:500m max_size=1000m;

  server {
    server_name wiki.carlossousa.tech;

    location / {
      include /etc/nginx/includes/proxy.conf;
      proxy_pass http://dokuwiki:80/;
    }
  }

  server {
    server_name carlossousa.tech;

    location / {
      include /etc/nginx/includes/proxy.conf;
      proxy_pass http://dokuwiki:80/;
    }
  }
}


</code>

And finally we will once again create a **backup_to_tar.sh **so we can backup our nginx Reverse Proxy setup:

<code bash>
#!/bin/bash
SOURCE_PATH="/home/docker-user/nginx-reverseproxy"
BACKUP_PATH="/home/docker-user/backups"
BACKUP_NAME="nginx-reverseproxy"
tar cvf "$BACKUP_PATH"/"$BACKUP_NAME"-$(date +"%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M").tar -C "$SOURCE_PATH" .


</code>