NGINX cheat sheet

Basics

Configuration directories:

ls /etc/nginx/sites-available

ls /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available

cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Setup new site

1. Create a new site in sites-available:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

2. Validate Configs:

sudo nginx -t

3. Enable site by creating a symlink to sites-enabled:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com

4. Reload NGINX:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Setup with SSL

1. Install certbot and Nginx plugin temporarily:

sudo apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

2. Set up your basic Nginx configuration

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:9093;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

3. Run certbot to generate a cert:

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com

4. Remove the Nginx plugin:

sudo apt remove python3-certbot-nginx

I had an incident where it installed a new domain config for a subdomain without me asking. Remove it to prevent any unwanted configurations in the future.

Templates

Proxy pass template

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    listen [::]:443 ssl;
    
    server_tokens off;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    include /etc/nginx/snippets/ssl.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/snippets/letsencrypt.conf;

    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8987;
    }
}

Web socket Proxy pass template

server {
    server_name example.com;
    listen 7070 ssl;
    listen [::]:7070 ssl;

    server_tokens off;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    include /etc/nginx/snippets/ssl.conf;

    location / {
            proxy_pass http://localhost:7077;
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

Generating a cert with Lets Encrypt

Use the following NGINX template before generating the cert:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;
    server_name example.com;

    include /etc/nginx/snippets/letsencrypt.conf;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8084;
    }
}

Generate the cert:

certbot certonly --webroot --agree-tos --no-eff-email --email letsencrypt@vsi.systems -w /var/www/letsencrypt -d example.com

Guide followed

Wildcard cert (expects wildcard domain e.g. *.mysites.com):

certbot certonly --manual --agree-tos --no-eff-email --preferred-challenges=dns --email letsencrypt@vsi.systems -w /var/www/letsencrypt -d example.com

Renew

certbot --nginx certonly -n -d example.com

certbot renew

Remember to reload nginx after a cert update.

Static HTML

/var/www/html

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Logs

Default Logs locations:

/var/log/nginx/access.log

/var/log/nginx/error.log