Correct way in new versions of nginx

Turn out my first answer to this question was correct at certain time, but it turned into another pitfall - to stay up to date please check Taxing rewrite pitfalls

I have been corrected by many SE users, so the credit goes to them, but more importantly, here is the correct code:

server {
       listen         80;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       return         301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
       listen         443 ssl;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       # add Strict-Transport-Security to prevent man in the middle attacks
       add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always; 

       [....]
}

Here's what may be an issue. Imagine you have following network:

address pool: 10.1.1.0/255.255.255.0
router: 10.1.1.1
internal interface on internal vpn server: 10.1.1.2
some external machine that VPNs to network: 10.2.2.2
some internal client machine: 10.1.1.90

When you trying to access SIC from external VPN box, then traffic route goes like this:

• 10.2.2.2
• vpn (internet)
• 10.1.1.2
• 10.1.1.90
• OK

Seems fine, HOWEVER, in order for traffic to flow, the 10.1.1.90 machine should be able to respond and that means that packets from it must be routable to 10.2.2.2 too. Internal client has obviously ip: 10.1.1.90, mask: 255.255.255.0 and router: 10.1.1.90. Therefore, packets would be routed like this:

• 10.1.1.90
• 10.1.1.1 (sine it is router, and 10.2.2.2 is not directly addressable)
• internet
• NOT FOUND

Basically, reply packets will not even reach VPN. What can you do? Obviously, what will work is to add route to internal client to route all packets to 10.2.2.2 not to VPN box instead of router, such as (Windows box):

route add 10.2.2.0 mask 255.255.255.0 10.1.1.2

this will resolve the problem on single-machine level. Reply packets will go:

• 10.1.1.90
• 10.1.1.2 (explicit route)
• vpn (internet)
• 10.2.2.2

To resolve issue on the network level, you must modify router in a same matter to redirect all traffic going to 10.2.2.0 to 10.1.1.2. This way reply packet will go:

• 10.1.1.90
• 10.1.1.1
• 10.1.1.2
• vpn (internet)
• 10.2.2.2

Another solution is: make your VPN box to NAT on 10.1.1.2 interface. This way for internal machines it will look as if all the traffic originates from 10.1.1.2, and replies will go to 10.1.1.2. I would advise to go through routing though, since NAT will require additional resources on VPN box for connection tracker