I want Nginx to proxy request to my application

Running Nginx + Apache on a Directadmin server, you can still configure Nginx to proxy requests to your Node.JS or Python application for your domain. And here is how can you do it.

All commands provided in the guide should be executed by "root" superuser in a server console (i.e. SSH).

Customize templates

Check the directory "/usr/local/directadmin/data/templates/custom/" whether it already contains the following files:

• nginx_server.conf 
• nginx_server_secure.conf

If it does not, then copy the mentioned files from "/usr/local/directadmin/data/templates/":

cd /usr/local/directadmin/data/templates/custom/
cp -p ../nginx_server.conf .
cp -p ../nginx_server_secure.conf .

Then open them in a text editor one by one and update.

nginx_server.conf

Add at the top of the file the following line:

|?PROXY_PASS=http://`PROXY_IP`:`PORT_8080`|

Save changes and exit.

nginx_server_secure.conf

Add at the top of the file the following line:

|?PROXY_PASS=https://`PROXY_IP`:`PORT_8081`|

Save changes and exit.

Update proxy_pass

Now run:

perl -pi -e "s#proxy_pass http.*:\/\/\|PROXY_IP\|:\|PORT_808.*\|;#proxy_pass \|PROXY_PASS\|;#" nginx_server.conf nginx_server_secure.conf

By completed this step we get a new custom token which can be changed on per domain bases in DirectAdmin Web-UI.

Customize token

Let's say we have an application on 127.0.0.1:2121 and want requests to example.net to be redirected to it. For it:

• Connect to directadmin web interface as admin
• Go to a "Custom HTTPD Configurations" page
• Find your domain in a list on the page
• Click "nginx proxy"
• Add into a "Customization" section the following line (replace IP and port with your real values):

|?PROXY_PASS=http://127.0.0.1:2121/|

Save changes, wait a minute and have fun!