Nginx Reverse Proxy – How to Use Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Multiple Servers

nginxreverse-proxy

I am trying to configure nginx as a reverse proxy for multiple servers on my LAN. They should go out on my WAN with different subdomains. My configuration looks like this:

@ReverseProxy:/etc/nginx/sites-enabled$ cat reverseproxy 
server { 
  server_name DOMAIN.eu;

  # app1 reverse proxy follow
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  proxy_pass http://10.0.2.5:80;

}

server { 
  server_name Subdomain.domain.eu;

  # app2 reverse proxy settings follow
  proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  proxy_set_header Host $host;
  proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
  proxy_pass http://10.0.2.33:80;
}

But I am getting this error and can't get any further….

@ReverseProxy:/etc/nginx/sites-enabled$ nginx -t
nginx: [alert] could not open error log file: open() "/var/log/nginx/error.log" failed (13: Permission denied)
2009/01/04 12:22:13 [warn] 1302#0: the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1
2009/01/04 12:22:13 [emerg] 1302#0: "proxy_pass" directive is not allowed here in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/reverseproxy:8

nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

Best Answer

Your problem is that you are using proxy_pass inside server block, which is not allowed. Try using:

server {
    server_name Subdomain.domain.eu;

    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_pass http://10.0.2.33:80;
    }
}

inside your server block. Proxy options cannot be set on server level, as nginx documentation tells.

The other problems in your log happen because you have somehow your nginx starting up as a regular user, although it is supposed to start up as root.

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