Exposing multiple Docker Services with NGINX with HTTPs

Nginx Proxy Manager is a web-based proxy management tool that makes it easy to set up and manage reverse proxy servers using Nginx.

With Nginx Proxy Manager, you can easily create and manage proxy hosts, configure SSL/TLS certificates, set up port forwarding, and much more.

The NGINX Proxy Manager Project

• The NGINX Official Site
• The NGINX Source Code at Github
  • The Docker Container to deploy NGINX
  • License: MIT ❤️

The NGINX project is Free, Open Source and well documented

SelfHosting Nginx Proxy Manager

First things first: we need to setup Docker in our machine.

apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh 
#sudo apt install docker-compose -y

apt install docker-compose -y

docker --version
docker-compose --version

#sudo systemctl status docker #and the status

Nginx Docker-Compose

The docker-compose file that we will use to deploy NGINX is:

version: "3"
services:
  app:
    image: 'jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest'
    restart: unless-stopped
    container_name: nginx    
    ports:
      # These ports are in format <host-port>:<container-port>
      - '80:80' # Public HTTP Port
      - '443:443' # Public HTTPS Port
      - '81:81' # Admin Web Port - UI
      # Add any other Stream port you want to expose
      # - '21:21' # FTP
    volumes:
      - ~/Docker/Nginx/data:/data
      - ~/Docker/Nginx/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt
#     volumes:
#       - nginx_data:/data #  - ~/Docker/Nginx/data:/data
#       - nginx_letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt #  - ~/Docker/Nginx/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt    


# volumes:
#   nginx_data:
#   nginx_letsencrypt:      

networks:
  nginx_default:
    name: nginx_default      

Access the UI at http://localhost:81, as specified by the configuration file.

During the first login, you will be able to access the UI with the default credentials:

• Email: [email protected]
• Password: changeme

Using NGINX with other services

Important: When the container will be created, the network: nginx_default will be assigned to it.

This is the one that we will use when deploying other services with Docker that we want to expose through NGINX.

Adding Services to NGinX

You will need to add this in the docker-compose file of the service that you want to map to NGINX its network:

• Showing that the network already exists:

networks:
  nginx_default:
    external: true

• Making the service to expose visible by NGINX:

    networks:
      - nginx_default #this will allow communication between chevereto service and the existing nginx service  

For example, this container will now be able to communicate with NGINX, as they share its network:

version: "3.7"

services:
  service_to_expose_to_nginx:
    image: an_image
    container_name: a_container
    ports:
      - 90:80 #you will use 80 to add the service to the NGINX UI.
    environment:
      env_var: a_variable
    networks:
      - any_other_network
      - nginx_default #this will allow communication between chevereto service and the existing nginx service  
  
networks:
  nginx_default:
    external: true

You can also do it via docker CLI:

docker network connect nginx_default your_new_container_to_go_on_nginx_network
#docker network connect nginx_default focalboard

After any of these procedures, you can use the UI to add proxy host and expose the service.

How to get HTTPS Locally with Docker Services

When NGINX 💖 DuckDNS with Docker

If you have been self-hosting for a while, you might want to see the proper https signatures when accessing your services.

For a long time I was looking for a solution to this and finally I found it.

We can use DuckDNS FREE service together with NGINX.

• To setup local HTTPS with NGINX, we need to:

  • Create a rule in DuckDNS with the Private IP address of our server where we run the self-hosted devices:

  

  • Add in NGINX’s Admin Panel the Proxy Host: remember that you need the container’s Port!

  

Dont Forget to add the DNS Challenge:

Adding DNS Challenge for SSL

In the SSL Tab, you will need to input in this case the DuckDNS Token that you can get from their web UI.

Get the token here:

And add it in the credentials box:

You can do similarly for other DNS providers

DuckDNS and Dynamic IPs

If your IP is not static, you might want to use this duckdns container prepared by linuxserver.

This will update the ip records automatically in your duckdns account:

---
version: "2.1"
services:
  duckdns:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/duckdns:latest
    container_name: duckdns
    environment:
      - PUID=1000 #optional
      - PGID=1000 #optional
      - TZ=Etc/UTC #optional
      - SUBDOMAINS=subdomain1,subdomain2
      - TOKEN=token #your duckdns API Token
      - LOG_FILE=false #optional
    volumes:
      - /path/to/appdata/config:/config #optional
    restart: unless-stopped

FAQ

NGINX Setup Examples

If this was too abstract, here you have few practical examples on how NGINX can secure services running in Docker containers.

NGINX + FocalBoard

I created a guide to expose Focalboard with NGINX and Docker as a reference to apply the same concept with any other service.

NGINX + Whoogle

• SelfHost Whoogle and get HTTPs + SSL together with NGINX