• Last Updated: 10 Sep 2024
• Category
• Suraj Prajapati

Nginx proxy, reverse proxy setup in ubuntu

Nginx is a popular web server that can also function as a powerful reverse proxy. Setting up an Nginx proxy server on Ubuntu allows you to route traffic between your users and your backend servers, handle load balancing, or cache content to improve performance. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the steps to set up an Nginx proxy on Ubuntu.

Prerequisites

Before diving in, ensure you have:

• An Ubuntu or Ubuntu based OS
• A user account with sudo privileges.
• Basic knowledge of using the terminal.

Now, let's get started with proxy setup.

Step 1. Install the nginx on the system (Skip if already done).

Paste and run the command sudo apt update && apt install nginx in the terminal.

Step 2. Start the ngnix server and enable auto starting

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

The first will start the nginx service.

The second enables the nginx service to auto start each time system is booted.

Step 3. Create your nginx proxy file using the below command

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

This will create and open the file www.example.com on the terminal.

Step 4. Add the below code to the file

server { 
	listen 80; server_name www.example.com; # Requested url 
 	location / { 
		proxy_pass http://localhost:4300; # Proxy url pointed by requested url
        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; 
  	}
  }

Press ctrl + o, then enter and then ctrl + x to save the file and exit.

Step 5. Enable the configuration by creating symlink

To create the symbolic link from the configuration file in sites-available to sites-enabled, run the below command in terminal.

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

Step 6. Test the nginx configuration using the command

sudo nginx -t

If is no error in the configuration it will show output similar to the below output:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Now your proxy setup is completed, you can reload the nginx server with the below command.

sudo systemctl reload nginx 

With the above steps, the nginx proxy setup is completed