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NGinx Proxy Manager and Domain Routing to Docker Services on Specific Ports (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So, while this is not exactly a typical "self-hosting" question as many users might not be using domains, I would be curious if anyone else has any experience with this.

I have NGinx Proxy Manager installed on a vps and a few docker instances that host various services (wordpress, a gitlab, etc etc) that I have bound to specific ports (wordpress to port 80, gitlab to port 3000, to give made up arbitrary examples.)

I also have a domain and a few subdomains registered as Type A resource records that look like:
[www.]somedomain[.com]
[gitlab.]somedomain[.com]

The essence of the question: When I go to NGinx Proxy Manager and register a "Proxy Host" for the gitlab subdomain, like:

Domain: gitlab.somedomain.com
Scheme: http
Forward Hostname: <IP ADDRESS HERE>
Forward Port: 3000 (AKA the port gitlab is hosted on)

This works, but it comes with the drawback that the port number is then exposed in the url bar like so:

gitlab.somedomain.com:3000

So is there some way to fix this on the NGINX proxy manager side of things? Or is this a case where I'm doing this completely wrong and someone with web-dev experience can help me see the light. While it's not a huge hindrance to my use-case, it would still be nice to understand how this is supposed to work so that I can host more services myself that require domain names without having to shell out for isolated IPs. So if I hosted a lemmy or kbin, for example, I could actually configure it to use my subdomains correctly.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When you created your containers, did you create a “frontend” and “backend” docker network? Typically I create those two networks (or whatever name you want) and connect all my services (gitlab, Wordpress, etc) to the “backend” network then connect nginx to that same “backend” network (so it can talk to the service containers) but I also add nginx to the “frontend” network (typically of host type).

What this does is it allows you to map docker ports to host ports to that nginx container ONLY and since you have added nginx to the network that can talk to the other containers you don’t have to forward or expose any ports that are not required (3000 for gitlab) to talk from the outside world into your services. Your containers will still talk to each other through native ports but only within that “backend” network (which does not have forwarded/mapped ports).

You would want to setup your proxy hosts exactly like you have them in your post except that in your Forward Hostname you would use the container name (gitlab for example) instead of IP.

So basically it goes like this

Internet > gitlab.domain.com > DNS points to your VPS > Nginx receives requests (frontend network with mapped ports like 443:443 or 80:80) > Nginx checks proxy hosts list > forwards request to gitlab container on port 3000 (because nginx and gitlab are both in the same “backend” network) > Log in to Gitlab > Code until your fingers smoke! > Drink coffee

Hope this help!

Edit: Fix typos

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So for example nginx 'sees' the request for gitlab.website.www or game.website.www and forwards it to either the gitlab docker or the game (whatever that service might be)?

I had a hard time to configure nginx for dockerized Lemmy (as I started out from scratch), your explanation makes it make so much sense now :-) !

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You got it! As long as nginx can reach that service container, it will forward the request to it.

service1.example.com is configured in nginx with a proxy host of service1:1234, service2.example.com is proxied to service2:8080 and so on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks!