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selfhost:nginx [2024/02/01 10:43] – [Base URLs and sub-domains] willyselfhost:nginx [2025/03/13 09:29] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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-====== The Reverse Proxy concept ======+====== F) The Reverse Proxy concept ======
  
 The use of a **reverse proxy** is the key at the foundation of ensuring security, isolation and flexibility in accessing your self-hosted services. The use of a **reverse proxy** is the key at the foundation of ensuring security, isolation and flexibility in accessing your self-hosted services.
  
-A reverse-proxy is a web server that sits in the middle and handles all requests toward your services adding, on top, layers of encyrption (HTTPS/SSL), authentication, load-balancing and security. If your services are properly written (not too many, but the best ones are) they will accept your reverse-proxy authentication directly without even the need to create users for each service, in this case your reverse-proxy will also be your SSO (Single Sign On) solution.+A reverse-proxy is a web server that sits in the middle and handles all requests toward your services adding, on top, layers of encryption (HTTPS/SSL), authentication, load-balancing and security. If your services are properly written (not too many, but the best ones are) they will accept your SSO authentication directly without even the need to create users for each service, in this case your reverse-proxy will also cater for your SSO (Single Sign On) solution . More on this on the dedicated page [[selfhost:sso|Single Sign On]], but keep reading this page first.
  
-The reverse-proxy will also take care of handling HTTP/SSL certificates in one centralized place making it much easier to configure all your services without HTTPS then converting seamlessly all the HTTP traffic to HTTPS. It's much easier to manage one certificate in one place rather than depending on each service capability to handle HTTPS independently.+The reverse-proxy will take care of handling HTTPS/SSL certificates in one centralized place making it much easier to configure all your services without HTTPS then converting seamlessly all the HTTP traffic to HTTPS. It's much easier to manage all the certificates in one place rather than depending on each service capability to handle HTTPS independently.
  
 Also, using a well known, solid and proven web server will alleviate the risk that each service might expose a poorly written, non-scalable or worse, internal web server to end users.  Also, using a well known, solid and proven web server will alleviate the risk that each service might expose a poorly written, non-scalable or worse, internal web server to end users. 
  
-And as a final note, using a reverse-proxy you can organize easily all your services under one single domain. There are limitations, mostly due to poorly written services or peculiar protocols, that might require independent sub-domains, but i will show you how to handle also these cases easily with the reverse-proxy.+And as a final note, using a reverse-proxy you can organize easily all your services either under one single domain or with sub-domains, according to your specific needs.
  
 ===== NGINX ===== ===== NGINX =====
  
 My choice for a web server in this case is [[https://nginx.org|NGINX]] between the many available as Open Source because:  My choice for a web server in this case is [[https://nginx.org|NGINX]] between the many available as Open Source because: 
-  * It's much easier than [[https://www.apache.org|Apache]] to setup as a reverse-proxy, also less resource hungry. +  * It's much easier than [[https://www.apache.org|Apache]] to setup as a reverse-proxy, also less resource hungry, and works with more SSOs than Apache
-  * It has more features than [[https://caddyserver.com/|Caddy]] +  * It has more features than [[https://caddyserver.com/|Caddy]]
   * It is fully integrated in [[https://letsencrypt.org|Let's Encrypt]] SSL infrastructure / CertBot script   * It is fully integrated in [[https://letsencrypt.org|Let's Encrypt]] SSL infrastructure / CertBot script
  
-In general NGINX is fully featured but still very lightweight and secure HTTP server that shines as reverse-proxy. If you need to add more features, like [[https://www.php.net|PHP]] support or FastCGI, NGINX will support you without the need for an additional service on your server+In general NGINX is fully featured but still very lightweight and secure HTTP server that shines as reverse-proxy. If you need to add more features, like [[https://www.php.net|PHP]] support or FastCGI, NGINX will support you but with a little bit more effort than Apache.
  
 ===== Base URLs and sub-domains ===== ===== Base URLs and sub-domains =====
  
-There are two different philosophies on how to host services. The one i like best, i think it's simpler and more elegant, is to use one single domain and expose each service in it's own //sub-path// or better call it **Base URL**. The alternative is to allocate one sub-domain for each service.+There are two different philosophies on how to host services: serve as a sub-path of a domain, or use sub-domainsI used to like best the //sub-path// approach, but indeed a good mix of the two ways is preferable.
  
 Let's assume you have your own domain **mydomain.com** and you want to expose a service called //jellyfin// (a well known media-server). You can expose it: Let's assume you have your own domain **mydomain.com** and you want to expose a service called //jellyfin// (a well known media-server). You can expose it:
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 As a **sub-path**:  As a **sub-path**: 
-  * Pro: only one domain needed, no need to create sub-domains (not always possible) +  * Pros: only one domain needed, no need to create sub-domains 
-  * Pro: easy to organize services in virtual sub-folders +  * Pros: the service existence is unknown to anybody not authorized 
-  * Pro: the service existence is unknown to anybody not authorized +  * Cons: each service must support Base URL setting (well, not all do!) 
-  * Con: each service must support Base URL setting+  * Cons: SSO support must be somehow consistent to avoid headaches (well, SSO support is still spotty today!) 
 +  * Cons: security wise, cookies and CORS can bring unintended vulnerabilities between services, because they all share the same subdomain. 
 +  * Cons: all services share the same HTTPS certificate.
  
 As a **sub-domain**: As a **sub-domain**:
-  * Pro: any service will work, no need to support Base URL +  * Pros: any service will work, no need to support Base URL 
-  * Conrequire additional certificates for HTTPS/SSL for each sub-domain +  * Proseach service can have it's own HTTPS certificate  
-  * Concannot easily organize toghether +  * Pros: each service is neatly organized in it's own subdomain 
-  * Con: exposed to public knowledge (DNS records are public) that the service exist+  * Proscookies are not shared between services, and CORS protection works 
 +  * Cons: exposed to public knowledge (DNS records are public) that the service exist 
 +  * Cons: also public knowledge because there are services indexing all existing certificates.
  
-I prefer the sub-path whenever possible, but in some cases you will be forced to use sub-domains. And what if you cannot spin your sub-domains? Well, forget those services that require a subdomain.+__Note:__ you can create //wildcard// certificates that will match any subdomain, but there are drawbacks to this and it's not a good idea, security wise. You can still mitigate the one certificate per subdomain by adding each subdomain to the same certificate of course, but you will still need to extend your certificate each time you add a subdomain: this is my approach.
  
-Then using sub-paths, the use of reverse-proxy like NGINX allows you a little bit of flexibility because you can, to an extend, perform rewrite operations on URL's and also on the response to the browser, but this all come to a cost in processing power and, moreover, it'not always feasible. In general for sub-paths to work properly it has to be supported by the service.+To make a story short, i go with subdomains for well separated services, while going with sub-paths when sharing stuff that kind belongs together. Also, a deciding factor is whether the selected services do support SSO properly or not.
  
  
-===== Installing NGINX ===== +===== Reverse Proxy propagation =====
-NGINX installation on the home server is pretty straightforward, but we need to enable one specific authentication module, the //pam// authentication module, because i will show you how to link NGINX authentication to your home server users directly, without the need to create more users and passwords. If you prefer to use a different authentication, like basic_auth, i leave this out to you.+
  
-So create the file **/etc/portage/package.use/nginx** with the following lines: +The reverse proxy is installed on the local server, i assume your local server is reachable from remote (see [[networking:external_access|Remote Access to your Home Server]])
-<code> +
-app-misc/mime-types nginx +
-www-servers/nginx NGINX_MODULES_HTTP: auth_pam dav dav_ext gunzip sub xslt +
-</code>+
  
-The **dav****dav_ext** and **xslt** modules are required for WebDAV support later on.+The reverse proxy will need to be accessible to both the internal users and the external users. You could setup two different proxiesbut i prefer to have only one listening to both worlds. I will assume that there might be differences between internal and external users in terms of authentication or service availability. The underlying idea is that you will have your reverse proxy listening to different ports: one for internal access and one for external access.
  
-(the first line is needed at the time of writing this pageYMMV)+The setup i am describing uses three different ports: 
 +  * Port 80: both to local and remotewill just be a redirect to HTTPS 
 +  * Port 443: standard HTTPS for **internal** access 
 +  * Port 8443: HTTPS for **external** access 
  
-Note: you might want to tweak the second line to your needs, see the [[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Nginx|flags for nginx]] and adapt.+**Note:** for Let's Encrypt CertBot to work properly you **need** to redirect **both** port 80 and 443 from your external server to your internal serverCertBot will shutdown your NGINX and spin a custom NGINX server that you cannot tweak so it's critical that your SSH tunnels are properly forwarding ports 80 and 443 from the external server to the internal one, or it will not work. 
 + 
 + 
 +===== Installing NGINX =====
  
-A brief explanation of the above USE flags+NGINX installation on the home server is pretty straightforward, but you need to enable some specific modules: 
-  * //auth_pam// is used to enable PAM based authentication+  * //auth_request//: needed for SSO like authelia 
 +  * //auth_pam//: needed for PAM SSO
   * //sub// is used to allow substitutions inside the pages proxied, to fix web applications that don't play well with reverse-proxies   * //sub// is used to allow substitutions inside the pages proxied, to fix web applications that don't play well with reverse-proxies
   * //gunzip// is used to unzip the requests and let the //sub// module works also on compressed requests   * //gunzip// is used to unzip the requests and let the //sub// module works also on compressed requests
 +  * //realip// is needed by SSO like authelia
 +
 +While NGINX support WebDAV, i strongly suggest you __dont__ enable it as you will not be using it. NGINX WebDAV support is lacking and not really recomended.
 +
 +So create the file **/etc/portage/package.use/nginx** with the following lines:
 +<file - nginx>
 +app-misc/mime-types nginx
 +www-servers/nginx NGINX_MODULES_HTTP: auth_request auth_pam dav dav_ext gunzip sub realip xslt 
 +</file>
 +
 +Note: you might want to tweak the second line to your needs, see the [[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Nginx|flags for nginx]] and adapt. 
  
 Now install nginx: Now install nginx:
 <code bash> <code bash>
- > emerge -v nginx+emerge -v nginx
 </code> </code>
  
-==== NGINX pam_auth ====+You can start it after you have configured it.
  
-I think it's nice that with NGINX you can authenticate your users directly with your home server users. This means you don't need to add a second set of users, and that the users will only need one password, and no sync is required between HTTP users and server users. This is achieved using the **pam_auth** module on Linux. You have already built nginx with pam_auth support, but you need to configure it. 
  
-Create the file **/etc/pam.d/nginx** with these lines: +===== NGINX main configuration =====
-<code> +
-auth required pam_unix.so +
-account required pam_unix.so +
-</code>+
  
 +There are many ways to write nice NGINX config files, i will show you mine which i find quite effective, organized and simple. It make use of the //import// directive and splits the configuration to at least one file per service and one file per sub-domain.
  
-==== NGINX main configuration ====+Assumptions: 
 +  * Your domain is **mydomain.com**, and it has a static landing page under __/var/www/html/index.html__ 
 +  * Your service X is reachable under **https://mydomain.com/serviceX** (subpath) 
 +  * Your service Y is reachable under **https://y.mydomain.com** (subdomain) 
 +  * All HTTP traffic is redirected to HTTPS 
 +  * You have a single Let's Encrypt SSL certificate which covers all the subdomains of your domain (either a wildcard or a comulative cert it's up to you) 
 +  * You might have more than one main domain
  
-You need two different NINX configurationsOne facing the home networkwhich will serve on HP onlyand one facing the external worldwhich will serve HTTPS only with HTTP as a redirect to HTTPS+The top-level **mydomain.com** will have it's own folderthen you will create a set of sub-folders stemming from the main domain, one folder for each sub-domainsand inside each folder one configuration file for each sub-path served on that sub-domain.
  
-NGINX is very flexible in configuration,will show you how to properly separate it's configuration file so that the main core is shared between home and remote access+So you will need the following files: 
 +  * **/etc/nginx/nginx.conf**: main config file, entry point. 
 +  * **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/certbot.conf**: SSL certificates configuration for //mydomain.com// 
 +  * **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/mydomain.conf**: global config for //mydomain.com// 
 +  * **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/serviceX.conf**: config for //serviceX// on //mydomain.com// 
 +  * **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/y/y.conf**: config for //serviceY// on //y.mydomain.com// 
 +  * plus any other SSO specific config files.
  
-The main configuration file is located at **/etc/nginx/nginx.conf**, the default one is fine for the standard stuff, i will let you tweak and adapt it to your needs for everything outside the **server** sections. You will need to remove all server sections of your file and replace with the following: +The **certbot.conf** file will be created later on, the specific SSO config files are described in the [[selfhost:sso|Authentication]] page.
-<code nginx> +
-        server { +
-                # Home facing server, HTTP only +
-                listen 127.0.0.1:80; +
-                server_name 192.168.0.1;+
  
-                include "folders/main.conf"; 
  
-                access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.access_log main; +==== Top-level configuration  ====
-                error_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.error_log info; +
-        }+
  
 +So, here is the content for the main **/etc/nginx/nginx.conf**:
 +<file - nginx.conf>
 +user nginx nginx;
 +
 +error_log /var/log/nginx/error_log info;
 +
 +events {
 +        worker_connections 1024;
 +        use epoll;
 +}
 +
 +http {
 +        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
 +        # Unknown stuff is considered to be binaries
 +        default_type application/octet-stream;
 +        # Set a reasonably informing log format
 +        log_format main
 +                '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
 +                '"$request" $status $bytes_sent '
 +                '"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" '
 +                '"$gzip_ratio"';
 +        # Improve file upload to client by avoiding userspace copying
 +        tcp_nopush on;
 +        sendfile on;
 +        # Indexes are html by default
 +        index index.html;
 +
 +        # General catch-all for HTTPS redirection, we don't like serving plain HTTP
         server {         server {
-                # remote facing server, HTTPS  +                listen 80 default_server
-                server_name my_remote_server_name+                return 301 https://$host$request_uri
-                auth_pam "Home"+        }
-                auth_pam_service_name "nginx";+
  
-                include "folders/main.conf";+        # Using Authelia SSO can lead to longer headers, better increase buffers 
 +        proxy_headers_hash_max_size 512; 
 +        proxy_headers_hash_bucket_size 128;
  
-                access_log /var/log/nginx/remote.access_log main+        # Add domains here (only the main config file for each domain!) 
-                error_log /var/log/nginx/remote.error_log info;+        include com.mydomain/mydomain.conf
 +         
 +        # This is for SSL and needs to be included only once for all the domains 
 +        include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; 
 +
 +</file>
  
-                listen 127.0.0.1:8443 ssl; # managed by Certbot +This will set your defaults for every service and site served by this reverse proxy, then will load the //mydomain.com// specific configuration file.
-                ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/my_remote_server_name/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot +
-                ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/my_remote_server_name/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot +
-                include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot +
-                ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot+
  
-                location .well-known/acme-challenge/ { 
-                        auth_pam off; 
-                        autoindex on; 
-                } 
  
-        }+==== mydomain.com configuration  ====
  
 +Now, for the specific **mydomain.com**, you need the following config file under **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/mydomain.conf**:
 +<file - mydomain.conf>
  
-        server { +access_log /var/log/nginx/mydomain.com_access_log main; 
-                # remote facing server, HTTP to HTTPS redirection +error_log /var/log/nginx/mydomain.com_error_log info; 
-                listen 8080; + 
-                access_log /var/log/nginx/remote.access_log main; +# simple catch-all server for the domain 
-                error_log /var/log/nginx/remote.error_log info; +server { 
-                return 301 https://$host$request_uri;+       # You might want to specify also the internal  
 +        server_name mydomain.com; 
 +        # Port for users from outside 
 +        listen 8443 ssl; 
 +        # Port for users from inside 
 +        listen 443 ssl; 
 +        http2 on; 
 + 
 +        # unauthenticated static landing page (maybe a "get off my lawn" GIF...) 
 +        location / { 
 +               root /var/www/html;
         }         }
-</code> 
  
-I will walk you trough it a bit.+       # include all sub-paths for mydomain.com: 
 +       include serviceX.conf;
  
-You have one simple section for the home serverit listen on port 80 and logs to some specific home only filesI choose not to use HTTPS inside the home network because it would be complicated to automatically generate the required certificates. If you still want HTTPS on the home side, you should use self-signed certificates, but i leave this exercise to you.+       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +}
  
-The remote HTTP server is even simplerjust a redirect to the remote HTTPS server, listening on port 8080 since port 80 is already taken by the home server. You never, ever, want to go not encrypted on the outside world. The remote HTTPS server is on port 8443 and adds all the specific HTTPS certificate stuffDo not bother with it yet, i will explain a bit more later on.+# include all sub-domains entry points: 
 +include com.mydomain/y/y.conf; 
 +</file>
  
-Please note that due to the HTTPS certificates (which at this point are still to be created) you cannot yet start NGINX.+This will create the basic setup for your base domain name. I have assumed you want a static landing page, but you might put a //redirect// to service Y or service X... Or add a dashboard, of course protected by your SSO...
  
-You can see that i used the **include** directive to point to a common **folders/main.conf** configuration file that will contain the gist of the common configuration. So, create the **/etc/inginx/folders** subfolder and put the following in the **main.conf**: 
-<code nginx> 
-# This might be needed to direct upload of NZB files  
-client_max_body_size 200M; 
-# This is required sometimes by Deluge web GUI giant cookies 
-large_client_header_buffers 4 32k; 
  
-# Here you will put your dashboard +==== sub-domains configuration  ====
-root /data/daemons/htdocs;+
  
-# Specific service configurations +It should be clear now that each sub-domain will have it's own sub-folder and contain at least one (or more) configuration files inside for each sub-path, like the one for serviceY.  
-include "folders/deluge.conf"+ 
-include "folders/transmission.conf"+I will assume that //serviceY// perform it's own authentication and cannot use SSO: 
-include "folders/nzbget.conf"+<file - y.conf
-include "folders/radarr.conf"+server { 
-include "folders/readarr_books.conf"+       server_name y.mydomain.com
-include "folders/readarr_audiobooks.conf"; +       listen 8443 ssl; # external access 
-include "folders/sonarr.conf"+       listen 443 ssl; # internal access 
-include "folders/lidarr.conf"+       access_log /var/log/nginx/y.mydomain.com_access_log main
-include "folders/jellyfin.conf"+       error_log /var/log/nginx/y.mydomain.com_error_log info
-include "folders/ombi.conf"+       location 
-include "folders/bazarr.conf";+               #Generic proxy pass to proxied service 
 +               proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000
 +       } 
 +       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +
 +</file> 
 + 
 +I suggest you split all sub-paths for each sub-domain in a separate config file and //include// them inside the //server// block, like i did above for //mydomain.com//
 + 
 + 
 +==== Differentiate between Internal or External access for services ==== 
 + 
 +In my setup i have some differences when a service is accessed from //within// the home network, or from //outside// the home network. 
 + 
 +The key point is that //external// access comes trough port 8443, while //internal// aces comes trough port 443. This allows you to differentiate your setup with __server__ blocks. 
 + 
 +So, for example, a service _only_ available inside the home network will have something like: 
 +<code> 
 +server { 
 +        server_name internal_only.mydomain.com
 +        listen 443 ssl; # internal access 
 +        http2 on; 
 +        access_log /var/log/nginx/internal_only.mydomain.com_access_log main
 +        error_log /var/log/nginx/inernal_only.mydomain.com_error_log info
 +        location / { 
 +                #Generic proxy pass to proxied service 
 +                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000
 +        } 
 +       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +}
 </code> </code>
  
-As you can see, beside few settings on top, it includes each service specific config as a separate fileThis will give you lots of flexibility in adding or removing single servicesThe content of each specific service config file will be described in each service page.+While a service that can be accessed both from internal and external: 
 +<code> 
 +server { 
 +        server_name serviceZ.mydomain.com; 
 +        listen 8443 ssl; # external access 
 +        listen 443 ssl; # internal access 
 +        http2 on; 
 +        access_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_access_log main; 
 +        error_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_error_log info; 
 +        location / { 
 +                #Generic proxy pass to proxied service 
 +                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; 
 +        } 
 +       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +
 +</code>
  
-The //root// directive is where you will need to put your dashboard to put all services together in a nice linked page, more details on this later on.+A service where you want to differentiate between internal and external, for example adding SSO authentication only for external access: 
 +<code> 
 +server { 
 +        server_name serviceZ.mydomain.com; 
 +        listen 443 ssl; # internal access 
 +        http2 on; 
 +        access_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_access_log main; 
 +        error_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_error_log info; 
 +        location / { 
 +                #Generic proxy pass to proxied service 
 +                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; 
 +        } 
 +       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +
 +server { 
 +        server_name serviceZ.mydomain.com; 
 +        listen 8443 ssl; # external access 
 +        http2 on; 
 +        [[[ put here your SSO lines ]]] 
 +        access_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_access_log main; 
 +        error_log /var/log/nginx/serviceZ.mydomain.com_error_log info; 
 +        location / { 
 +                #Generic proxy pass to proxied service 
 +                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000; 
 +        } 
 +       # include HTTPS certs stuff: 
 +       include org.gardiol/certbot.conf; 
 +
 +</code>
  
 +In this case, you can even optimize more by moving the **location** lines, which are identical, inside another file that you __include__ twice. Better to avoid redundancy!
  
 +Of course, refer to the [[selfhost:sso|SSI]] page for more details on SSO.
  
  
 +===== Generate SSL certificates for HTTPS =====
  
 +Nowadays HTTPS is a must for many reasons, including privacy and security. I assume this is a mandatory requirement. A lot of services will not even work without HTTPS.
  
 +Enabling HTTPS requires the generation of valid SSL certificates for your domain(s). You can do that with self-signed certificates but that will still flag as insecure on your browser and some client apps might even not work properly. A better solution is to use the [[https://letsencrypt.org|Let's Encrypt]] certification authority which is an open-source, public and free Certificate Authority that let's you generate and manage your certificates.
  
-==== Generate SSL certificates for HTTPS ====+How does it work?
  
-Enabling HTTPS requires the generation of valid SSL certificates for your server, and you want HTTPS to have full end-to-end encryption for security and privacy. You can do that with self-signed certificates but that will still flag as insecure on your browser and some client apps might even not work properly. A better solution is to use the [[https://letsencrypt.org|Let's Encrypt]] certification authority which is an open-source, public and free Certificate Authority that let's you generate and manage your certificates.+first of all: 
 +  - You ask Let's Encrypt to create a certificate for each one of your sub-domains (automated by CertBot) 
 +  - You setup the certificate (automated by CertBot) 
 +  You renew periodically the certificate (automated by CertBot)
  
-Let's Encrypt depends on Certbot, which is a python script pretty powerful and efficient that can generate and renew all your certificates magically and automatically. It works by sending requests to Let's Encrypt infrastructure then place some response tokens inside your web server //htdocs// folder, in this way Let's Encrypt can verify that you really have access to your server (to prevent spoofing and other security issues), so you need to ensure that the root path of your nginx is accessible from outside in a specific subfolder. The above configuration file for nginx takes care of this. You can then install certbot:+Then: 
 +  - You connect with browser to **https://mydomain.com** 
 +  - Your server provide the certificate 
 +  - Your browser verify that the certificate is valid against the Let's Encrypt Root Certificate 
 +  - You are good to go!
  
 +Using //self-signed// certificates works too, but since for the browser to validate the certificate needs to already know the associated Certificate Authority, the site will still appear as untrusted. Since Let's Encrypt is **A nonprofit Certificate Authority providing TLS certificates** with the mission to provide everybody with security and trust, there is no reason not to use it.
 +
 +Luckly, Let's Encrypt provides a neat software called **CertBot** that can automate all the steps for the major web servers, including NGINX. CertBot will send requests to Let's Encrypt, spin up an NGINX server for you and store the certificate. The only thing you need to do is including the proper config file into NGINX and restart it.
 +
 +Install CertBot and the NGINX plugin:
 <code bash> <code bash>
  > emerge -v certbot-nginx certbot  > emerge -v certbot-nginx certbot
Line 191: Line 336:
  
 <code bash> <code bash>
- > certbot --nginx certonly -d remote_server_name+ > certbot --nginx certonly -d mydomain.com -d y.mydomain.com -d xxxx
 </code> </code>
  
-this will generate the certificate +Now, you **must** generate certificates that chains toghether all the subdomains you useThis means that if you add, later on, another sub-domain to host a new service you will **need to** re-run the above //certbot// command adding //-d newsubdomain.mydomain.com//. And do not forget all the older ones! Luckly, domain names can be chained to on single certificate, so you do not have to edit your NGINX config ever again for CertBot to work. 
-Make sure that certbot runs at least once daily to update the certificates. You can put it into crontab, as user root:+ 
 +Put this content into your **/etc/nginx/com.mydomain/certbot.conf**: 
 +<file - certbot.conf> 
 +ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/fullchain.pem; 
 +ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/privkey.pem; 
 +include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; 
 +ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; 
 +</file> 
 + 
 +Of course, adapt the paths for your specific case. 
 + 
 +Let's Encrypt certificates last 90 days, then they need to be renewed. This is automated by CertBot but you need to call it periodically. You can use crontab for this. Edit root crontab:
 <code bash> <code bash>
- > crontab -e+crontab -e
 </code> </code>
  
Line 205: Line 361:
 31 16 * * * certbot renew  &>> /var/log/certbot.log 31 16 * * * certbot renew  &>> /var/log/certbot.log
 </code> </code>
 +
 +there you go!
  
 You can now start your nginx server: You can now start your nginx server:
  
 <code bash> <code bash>
- > rc-update add nginx default +rc-update add nginx default 
- /etc/init.d/nginx start+/etc/init.d/nginx start
 </code> </code>
  
 +
 +
 +==== Quick and dirty script for new subdomains ====
 +
 +When you need to **add** a new subbomain to your certificate, you can copy (and adapt) the following script i use:
 +<file - certbot_script.sh>
 +#!/bin/bash
 +
 +DOMAINS="mydomain.con y.mydomain.com other.mydomain.com"
 +
 +domains=
 +for i in ${DOMAINS}
 +do
 +        domains="${domains} -d ${i}"
 +done
 +
 +certbot certonly --expand --nginx ${domains}
 +</file>
 +
 +So __FIRST__ you **update** the script adding the new domain at the end of the DOMAINS line, then you run the script and restart your NGINX.
 +
 +
 +===== Enable CGI support with NGINX =====
 +
 +To be able to run system scripts and, in general, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGI|CGIs]] on NGINX you need to do some additional configuration. NGINX is not capable of running CGI scripts at all. It has only support for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastCGI|FastCGI]] protocol, which is **quite different** and **not directly compatible** with standard CGI.
 +
 +For using CGI directly with NGINX (another option could be to run Apache or another web server in addition, but why?) you can install and setup [[https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/examples/fcgiwrap/|fcgiwrap]] and it's companion spawn package:
 +<code bash>
 +emerge www-misc/fcgiwrap www-servers/spawn-fcgi
 +</code>
 +
 +Spawn-fcgi allows you to run one instance of fcgiwrap for each service you need to run. This is an excellent approach to keep services separated and each one in it's own user.
 +
 +Since you want to run //fcgiwrap// set up like this:
 +  * Setup your //spawn-fcgi// config file in **/etc/conf.d/spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap**
 +  * Create a start script in **/etc/init.d/spawn-fcgi.my-cgi**.
 +
 +The contents of the config file sohuld be:
 +<file - spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap>
 +# The "-1" is added on my system, check on your YMMV!
 +FCGI_SOCKET=/var/run/fcgiwrap.sock-1
 +FCGI_PORT=
 +# The -f send stderr to nginx log
 +FCGI_PROGRAM="/usr/sbin/fcgiwrap -f"
 +FCGI_USER=nginx
 +FCGI_GROUP=nginx
 +FCGI_EXTRA_OPTIONS="-M 0700"
 +ALLOWED_ENV="PATH"
 +</file>
 +
 +And to do all the above:
 +<code bash>
 +cp /etc/conf.d/spawn-fcgi /etc/conf.d/spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap
 + ln -s /etc/init.d/spawn-fcgi /etc/init.d/spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap
 +rc-update add spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap default
 +/etc/init.d/spawn-fcgi.fcgiwrap start
 +</code>
 +
 +Then enable it in your NGINX config by adding the following directives 
 +<file - cgi.conf>
 +       location /my_cgi {
 +            fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT /path/to/gci/executable/folder/;
 +            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME   my_cgi;
 +            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/fcgiwrap.sock;
 +       }
 +</file>
 +
 +
 +===== In short: add & enable a service =====
 +
 +Assuming you want to add a new service to your Reverse Proxy and the relative configuration has been written in **service.conf** file, you need to **include** it inside your URL's configuration file. If the service needs to be under **https://mydomain.com** you will need to add it like:
 +<code>
 +include "com.mydomain/service.conf";
 +</code>
 +
 +and then restart nginx:
 +<code bash>
 +/etc/init.d/nginx restart
 +</code>
  

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