I have an nginx instance set up behind multiple load balancing proxies, and I am using real_ip to get the clients IP address in remote_addr for processing by my Python application.
However in my logs I would like to log the proxy server that actually made the request, but $remote_addr has now been overwritten, and I can't find anything that says a copy of it is made.
How would I be able to accomplish this?
Best Answer
Your setup may have changed since you posted this question, but I had the same problem and there is finally a solution available. I'll post it here in case Google brings someone else to this page.
As @Michael Hampton♦ indicates in his answer to my own version of this question, nginx has added the variable
$realip_remote_addrto the Real_IP module. It holds the original value of$remote_addr, allowing you to use/log both the originating client's IP and the IP of the server that sent the actual request to nginx. This was added to version 1.9.7, as of November 2015.