nginx-proxy sets up a container running nginx and [docker-gen][1]. docker-gen generates reverse proxy configs for nginx and reloads nginx when containers are started and stopped.
The containers being proxied must [expose](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/#expose-incoming-ports) the port to be proxied, either by using the `EXPOSE` directive in their `Dockerfile` or by using the `--expose` flag to `docker run` or `docker create` and be in the same network. By default, if you don't pass the --net flag when your nginx-proxy container is created, it will only be attached to the default bridge network. This means that it will not be able to connect to containers on networks other than bridge.
Provided your DNS is setup to forward foo.bar.com to the host running nginx-proxy, the request will be routed to a container with the VIRTUAL_HOST env var set.
This image is based on the nginx:alpine image. Use this image to fully support HTTP/2 (including ALPN required by recent Chrome versions). A valid certificate is required as well (see eg. below "SSL Support using letsencrypt" for more info).
If your container exposes multiple ports, nginx-proxy will default to the service running on port 80. If you need to specify a different port, you can set a VIRTUAL_PORT env var to select a different one. If your container only exposes one port and it has a VIRTUAL_HOST env var set, that port will be selected.
If you need to support multiple virtual hosts for a container, you can separate each entry with commas. For example, `foo.bar.com,baz.bar.com,bar.com` and each host will be setup the same.
### Wildcard Hosts
You can also use wildcards at the beginning and the end of host name, like `*.bar.com` or `foo.bar.*`. Or even a regular expression, which can be very useful in conjunction with a wildcard DNS service like [xip.io](http://xip.io), using `~^foo\.bar\..*\.xip\.io` will match `foo.bar.127.0.0.1.xip.io`, `foo.bar.10.0.2.2.xip.io` and all other given IPs. More information about this topic can be found in the nginx documentation about [`server_names`](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html).
With the addition of [overlay networking](https://docs.docker.com/engine/userguide/networking/get-started-overlay/) in Docker 1.9, your `nginx-proxy` container may need to connect to backend containers on multiple networks. By default, if you don't pass the `--net` flag when your `nginx-proxy` container is created, it will only be attached to the default `bridge` network. This means that it will not be able to connect to containers on networks other than `bridge`.
If you want your `nginx-proxy` container to be attached to a different network, you must pass the `--net=my-network` option in your `docker create` or `docker run` command. At the time of this writing, only a single network can be specified at container creation time. To attach to other networks, you can use the `docker network connect` command after your container is created:
In this example, the `my-nginx-proxy` container will be connected to `my-network` and `my-other-network` and will be able to proxy to other containers attached to those networks.
If you allow traffic from the public internet to access your `nginx-proxy` container, you may want to restrict some containers to the internal network only, so they cannot be accessed from the public internet. On containers that should be restricted to the internal network, you should set the environment variable `NETWORK_ACCESS=internal`. By default, the *internal* network is defined as `127.0.0.0/8, 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16`. To change the list of networks considered internal, mount a file on the `nginx-proxy` at `/etc/nginx/network_internal.conf` with these contents, edited to suit your needs:
```
# These networks are considered "internal"
allow 127.0.0.0/8;
allow 10.0.0.0/8;
allow 192.168.0.0/16;
allow 172.16.0.0/12;
# Traffic from all other networks will be rejected
deny all;
```
When internal-only access is enabled, external clients with be denied with an `HTTP 403 Forbidden`
> If there is a load-balancer / reverse proxy in front of `nginx-proxy` that hides the client IP (example: AWS Application/Elastic Load Balancer), you will need to use the nginx `realip` module (already installed) to extract the client's IP from the HTTP request headers. Please see the [nginx realip module configuration](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_realip_module.html) for more details. This configuration can be added to a new config file and mounted in `/etc/nginx/conf.d/`.
> Note: If you use `VIRTUAL_PROTO=https` and your backend container exposes port 80 and 443, `nginx-proxy` will use HTTPS on port 80. This is almost certainly not what you want, so you should also include `VIRTUAL_PORT=443`.
To run nginx proxy as a separate container you'll need to have [nginx.tmpl](https://github.com/jwilder/nginx-proxy/blob/master/nginx.tmpl) on your host system.
[letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion](https://github.com/JrCs/docker-letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion) is a lightweight companion container for the nginx-proxy. It allows the creation/renewal of Let's Encrypt certificates automatically.
Set `DHPARAM_GENERATION` environment variable to `false` to disabled Diffie-Hellman parameters completely. This will also ignore auto-generation made by `nginx-proxy`.
The default SSL cipher configuration is based on the [Mozilla intermediate profile](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Intermediate_compatibility_.28recommended.29) version 5.0 which
should provide compatibility with clients back to Firefox 27, Android 4.4.2, Chrome 31, Edge, IE 11 on Windows 7,
Java 8u31, OpenSSL 1.0.1, Opera 20, and Safari 9. Note that the DES-based TLS ciphers were removed for security.
The configuration also enables HSTS, PFS, OCSP stapling and SSL session caches. Currently TLS 1.2 and 1.3
If you don't require backward compatibility, you can use the [Mozilla modern profile](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Modern_compatibility)
Other policies available through the `SSL_POLICY` environment variable are [`Mozilla-Old`](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Old_backward_compatibility)
and the [AWS ELB Security Policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/classic/elb-security-policy-table.html)
`AWS-TLS-1-2-2017-01`, `AWS-TLS-1-1-2017-01`, `AWS-2016-08`, `AWS-2015-05`, `AWS-2015-03` and `AWS-2015-02`.
Note that the `Mozilla-Old` policy should use a 1024 bits DH key for compatibility but this container generates
a 2048 bits key. The [Diffie-Hellman Groups](#diffie-hellman-groups) section details different methods of bypassing
You'll need apache2-utils on the machine where you plan to create the htpasswd file. Follow these [instructions](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/programs/htpasswd.html)
If you need to configure Nginx beyond what is possible using environment variables, you can provide custom configuration files on either a proxy-wide or per-`VIRTUAL_HOST` basis.
If you want to replace the default proxy settings for the nginx container, add a configuration file at `/etc/nginx/proxy.conf`. A file with the default settings would
***NOTE***: If you provide this file it will replace the defaults; you may want to check the .tmpl file to make sure you have all of the needed options.
***NOTE***: The default configuration blocks the `Proxy` HTTP request header from being sent to downstream servers. This prevents attackers from using the so-called [httpoxy attack](http://httpoxy.org). There is no legitimate reason for a client to send this header, and there are many vulnerable languages / platforms (`CVE-2016-5385`, `CVE-2016-5386`, `CVE-2016-5387`, `CVE-2016-5388`, `CVE-2016-1000109`, `CVE-2016-1000110`, `CERT-VU#797896`).
To add settings on a per-`VIRTUAL_HOST` basis, add your configuration file under `/etc/nginx/vhost.d`. Unlike in the proxy-wide case, which allows multiple config files with any name ending in `.conf`, the per-`VIRTUAL_HOST` file must be named exactly after the `VIRTUAL_HOST`.
In order to allow virtual hosts to be dynamically configured as backends are added and removed, it makes the most sense to mount an external directory as `/etc/nginx/vhost.d` as opposed to using derived images or mounting individual configuration files.
If you are using multiple hostnames for a single container (e.g. `VIRTUAL_HOST=example.com,www.example.com`), the virtual host configuration file must exist for each hostname. If you would like to use the same configuration for multiple virtual host names, you can use a symlink:
If you want most of your virtual hosts to use a default single configuration and then override on a few specific ones, add those settings to the `/etc/nginx/vhost.d/default` file. This file
will be used on any virtual host which does not have a `/etc/nginx/vhost.d/{VIRTUAL_HOST}` file associated with it.
To add settings to the "location" block on a per-`VIRTUAL_HOST` basis, add your configuration file under `/etc/nginx/vhost.d`
just like the previous section except with the suffix `_location`.
For example, if you have a virtual host named `app.example.com` and you have configured a proxy_cache `my-cache` in another custom file, you could tell it to use a proxy cache as follows:
If you are using multiple hostnames for a single container (e.g. `VIRTUAL_HOST=example.com,www.example.com`), the virtual host configuration file must exist for each hostname. If you would like to use the same configuration for multiple virtual host names, you can use a symlink:
If you want most of your virtual hosts to use a default single `location` block configuration and then override on a few specific ones, add those settings to the `/etc/nginx/vhost.d/default_location` file. This file
In some circumstances you may want to override nginx's default `/` location block behavior. Typically, this block acts as a catch-all in order to forward requests not already matched by a specific `location` block directly onto your container as-is.
To provide your own location blocks and bypass the automatic generation of them, simply add your location blocks to a configuration file file under `/etc/nginx/vhost.d` like in the other Per-VIRTUAL_HOST sections except with the suffix `_locations`. Notice the 's' to make the filename plural.
The contents of this file will replace all auto-generated location blocks. Additionally, this file will take priority over the previously described location configuration.
When using location overrides, you are responsible for handling any requests that should be forwarded to your container. Passing a request to your container is done using the `proxy_pass` instruction within your defined location blocks. `proxy_pass` expects a qualified hostname in order
to forward a request. By default, nginx-proxy aliases containers to the defined `VIRTUAL_HOST` name. So if you launch your container with a `VIRTUAL_HOST` value of `app.example.com`, then forwarding a request to your container would look something like this:
If you are using an SSL-enabled container, you would use `https://` in place of `http://`. You could include any number of other location blocks for nginx to consider and even forward requests to external hosts when they match certain conditions. You can also use any other rules and instructions
