i’m trying to setup nginx to run as a proxy to aggregate multiple services. running on different ports on the server, using nginx to let me connect to all the services by going to a specific subdirectory. so i can keep only one port open in the router between my lab and the main house network.

i’m using the following config file from an example i found to do this, with a landing page to let me get to the other services:

used config file

server { listen 80; server_name 10.0.0.114; # Replace with your domain or IP

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;

}

server { listen 1403 ssl; # Listen on port 443 for HTTPS server_name 10.0.0.114; # Replace with your domain or IP

ssl_certificate /certs/cert.pem;  # Path to your SSL certificate
ssl_certificate_key /certs/key.pem;  # Path to your SSL certificate key

location / {
    root /var/www/html;  # Path to the directory containing your HTML file
    index index.html;  # Default file to serve
}


location /transbt {
#configuration for transmission
    proxy_pass http://10.89.0.3:9091/;  
proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}

but the problem i’m having is that, while nginx does redirect to transmission’s login prompt just fine, after logging in it tries to redirect me to 10.0.0.114:1403/transmission/web instead of remaining in 10.0.0.114:1403/transbt and breaks the page. i’ve found a configuration file that should work, but it manually redirects each subdirectory transmission tries to use, and adds proxy_pass_header X-Transmission-Session-Id; which i’m not sure what’s accomplishing: github gist

is there a way to do it without needing to declare it explicitly for each subdirectory? especially since i need to setup other services, and i doubt i’ll find config files for those as well it’s my first time setting up nginx, and i haven’t been able to find anything to make it work.

Edit: I forgot to mention. The server is still inside of a nat. It’s not reachable by the outside. The SSL certificate is self signed and it’s just a piece of mind because a lot of things connect to the home net. And none of the services I plan to use only support http.

  • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    8·
    3 days ago

    For subdirectories it’s more complex as each application needs to be configured properly too, so you’ll need to go into transmission and tell it what subdirectory you’re using.

    Or switch to subdomains as that just works without any extra config, and still let’s you use one port for everything.

  • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Not all services/apps work well with subdirectories through a reverse proxy.

    Some services/apps have a config option to add a prefix to all paths on their side to help with it, some others don’t have any config and always expect paths after the domain to not be changed.

    But if you need to do some kind of path rewrite only on the reverse proxy side to add/change a segment of the path, there can be issues if all path changes are not going through the proxy.

    In your case, transmission internally doesn’t know about the subdirectory, so even if you can get to the index/login from your first page load, when the app itself changes paths it redirects you to a path without the subdirectory.

    Another example of this is with PWAs that when you click a link that should change the path, don’t reload the page (the action that would force a load that goes through the reverse proxy and that way trigger the rewrite), but instead use JavaScript to rewrite the path text locally and do DOM manipulation without triggering a page load.

    To be honest, the best way out of this headache is to use subdomains instead of subdirectories, it is the standard used these days to avoid the need to do path rewrite magic that doesn’t work in a bunch of situations.

    Yes, it could be annoying to handle SSL certificates if you don’t want or can’t issue wildcard certificates, but if you can do a cert with both maindomain.tld and *.maindomain.tld then you don’t need to touch that anymore and can use the same certificate for any service/app you could want to host behind the reverse proxy.

    • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      I’m sorry. I forgot to mention it in the post. But the server is not facing the outside. It’s just behind an extra nat to keep my computers separate from the rest of the home. There’s no domain name linking to it. I’m not sure if that impacts using subomains.

      The SSL certificates shouldn’t be a problem since it’s just a self signed certificate, I’m just using SSL as a peace of mind thing.

      I’m sorry if I’m not making sense. It’s the first time I’m working with webservers. And I genuinely have no idea of what I’m doing. Hell. The whole project has basically been a baptism by fire, since it’s my first proper server.

      • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        Should not be an issue to have everything internally, you can setup a local DNS resolver, and config the device that handles your DHCP (router or other) to set that as the default/primary DNS for any devices on your network.

        To give you some options if you want to investigate, there is: dnsmasq, Technitium, Pi-Hole, Adguard Home. They can resolve external DNS queries, and also do domain rewrite/redirection to handle your internal only domain and redirect to the device with your reverse proxy.

        That way, you can have a local domain like domain.lan or domain.internal that only works and is managed on your Internal network. And can use subdomains as well.

        I’m sorry if I’m not making sense. It’s the first time I’m working with webservers. And I genuinely have no idea of what I’m doing. Hell. The whole project has basically been a baptism by fire, since it’s my first proper server.

        Don’t worry, we all started almost the same, and gradually learned more and more, if you have any questions a place like this is exactly for that, just ask.

        • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          I’ll need to check. I doubt I’ll be able to setup a DNS resolver. Since I can’t risk the whole network going down if the DNS resolver fails. Plus the server will have limited exposure to the home net via the other router.

          Still. Thanks for the tips. I’ll update the post with the solution once I figure it out.

          • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 days ago

            Most routers, or devices, let you set up at least a primary and secondary DNS resolver (some let you add more), so you could have your local one as primary and an external one like google or Cloudflare as secondary. That way, if your local DNS resolver is down, it will directly go and query the external one, and still resolve them.

            Still. Thanks for the tips. I’ll update the post with the solution once I figure it out.

            You are welcome.

      • N0x0n@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Subpaths are things of the past (kinda) ! SSL wildcards are going to be a life saver in your homelab !

        I have a self-signed rootCA + intermediateCA which are signing all my certificates for my services. But wait… It can get easier just put a wildcard domain for your homelab (*.home.lab) and access all your services in your lan with a DNS provider (pihole will be your friend!).

        Here is an very simplified example:

        1. Create a rootCA (certificate authority) and put that on every device (Pc, laptop, android, iphone, tv, box…)

        2. Sign a server certificate with that rootCA for the following wildcard domaine: *.home.lab and put that behind a reverse proxy.

        3. Add pihole as DNS resolver for your local domain name (*.home.lab) or if you like you can manually add the routes on all devices… But that"s also a thing of the past !

        4. Let your proxy handle your services

        Access all your services with the following url in your lan

        This works flawlessly without the need to pay for any domain name, everything is local and managed by yourself. However, it’s not that easy as stated above… OpenSSL and TLS certificates are a beast to tame and lots of reading ^^ so does Ngnix or any other reverse proxy !

        But as soon as you get the hang of it… You can add a new services in seconds :) (specially with docker containers !)

        • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          I think that pihole would be the best option. But coming to think of it… I think that to make it work I’d need two instances of pihole. Since the server is basically straddling two nats. With the inner router port forwarding port 1403 from the server. Basically:

          To let me access the services both from the desktop and the laptop. I’d need to have two DNS resolvers, since for the laptop it needs to resolve to the 192.168.0.* address of the homelab router. While for the desktop it needs to resolve directly to the 10.0.0.* address of the server.

          Also, little question. If I do manage to set it up with subdomains. Will all the traffic still go through port 1403? Since the main reason I wanted to setup a proxy was to not turn the homelab’s router into Swiss cheese.

          … The rootCA idea though is pretty good… At least I won’t have Firefox nagging me every time I try to access it.

          (specially with docker containers !)

          Already on it! I’ve made a custom skeleton container image using podman, that when started. It runs a shell script that I customize for each service, while another script gets called via podman exec for all of them by a cronjob to update them. Plus they are all connected to a podman network with manually assigned IPs to let them talk to eachother. Not how you’re supposed to use containers. But hey, it works. Add to that a btrfs cluster, data set to single, metadata set to raid1. So I can lose a disk without losing all of the data. ( they are scrap drives. Storage is prohibitively expensive here) + transparent compression; + cronjob for scrub and decuplication.

          I manage with most of the server. But web stuff just locks me up. :'-)

          • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Do yourself a favor and use the default ports for HTTP(80), HTTPS(443) or DNS(53), you are not port forwarding to the internet, so there should be no issues.

            That way, you can do URLs like https://app1.home.internal/ and https://app2.home.internal/ without having to add ports on anything outside the reverse proxy.

            From what you have described your hardware is connected something like this:

            Internet -> Router A (192.168.0.1) -> Laptop (192.168.0.x), Router B (192.168.0.y10.0.0.1) -> [ Desktop Server (10.0.0.114) ]

            You could run only one DNS on the laptop (or another device) connected to Router A and point the domain to Router B, redirect for example the domain home.internal (recommend <something>.internal as it is the intended one to use by convention), to the 192.168.0.y IP, and it will redirect all devices to the server by port forwarding.

            If Router B has Port Forwarding of Ports 80 and 443 to the Server 10.0.0.114 all the request are going to reach, no matter the LAN they are from. The devices connected to Router A will reach the server thanks to port forwarding, and the devices on Router B can reach anything connected to Router A Network 192.168.0.*, they will make an extra hop but still reach.

            Both routers would have to point the primary DNS to the Laptop IP 192.168.0.x (should be a static IP), and secondary to either Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 or Google 8.8.8.8.

            That setup would be dependent on having the laptop (or another device) always turned ON and connected to Router A network to have that DNS working.

            You could run a second DNS on the server for only the 10.0.0.* LAN, but that would not be reachable from Router A or the Laptop, or any device on that outer LAN, only for devices directly connected to Router B, and the only change would be to change the primary DNS on Router B to the Server IP 10.0.0.114 to use that secondary local DNS as primary.

            Lots of information, be sure to read slowly and separate steps to handle them one by one, but this should be the final setup, considering the information you have given.

            You should be able to setup the certificates and the reverse proxy using subdomains without much trouble, only using IP:PORT on the reverse proxy.

            • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              I think I’ll do this with one modification. I’ll make nginx serve the landing page with the subdomains when computers from router A try to access. ( by telling nginx to serve the page with the subdomains when contacted by 10.0.0.1) while I’ll serve another landing page that bypasses the proxy, by giving the direct 10.0.0.* IP of the server with the port, for computers inside router B .

              Mostly since the Ethernet between router a and b is old. And limits transfers to 10Mbps. So I’d be handicapping computers inside router B by looping back. Especially since everything inside router B is supposed to be safe. And they’ll be the ones transferring most of the data to it.

              Thanks for the breakdown. It genuinely helped in understanding the Daedalus-worthy path the connections need to take. I’ll update the post with my final solution and config once I make it work.

              • darkan15@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                2 days ago

                If you decide on doing the secondary local DNS on the server on Router B network, there is no need to loop back, as that DNS will maintain domain lookup and the requests on 10.0.0.x all internal to Router B network.

                On Router B then you would have as primary DNS the Server IP, and as secondary an external one like Cloudflare or Google.

                You can still decide to put rules on the reverse proxy if the origin IP is from 192.168.0.* or 10.0.0.* if you see the need to differentiate traffic, but I think that is not necessary.

                • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
                  1·
                  2 days ago

                  I think I didn’t explain myself the right way.

                  Computers from inside of Router B will access the server via it’s IP. Nginx will only serve an HTML file with the links for them. Basically acting as a bookmark page for the IP:port combos. While anything from Router A will receive a landing page that has the subdomains, that will be resolved by pihole (exposed to the machines on Router A as an open port on router b) and will make them pass through the proxy.

                  So basically the DNS will only be used on machines from Router A, and the rules on nginx are just to give links to the reverse proxy if the machine is from router A (I.e. the connection is coming from 10.0.0.1 from the server’s POV, or maybe the server name in the request. I’ll have to mess with nginx), or the page with the raw IP of the server+ port of the service if coming from Router B.

                  router A is Unfortunately junk from my ISP, and it doesn’t allow me to change the DNS. So I’ll just add Router B ( and thus, the pihole instance that’s on the server) as a primary dns, and an external one as a secondary DNS as fallback.

                  If you decide on doing the secondary local DNS on the server on Router B network, there is no need to loop back, as that DNS will maintain domain lookup and the requests on 10.0.0.x all internal to Router B network

                  Wouldn’t this link to the 192.168.0.y address of router B pass through router A, and loop back to router B, routing through the slower cable? Or is the router smart enough to realize he’s just talking to itself and just cut out `router A from the traffic?

  • Flipper@feddit.orgEnglish
    42·
    3 days ago

    Consider using Caddy. It is much simpler to setup and all the required headers get set automatically.

  • Spooky Mulder@twun.ioEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Seems like something you may need to change in Transmission’s configuration, somewhere. Because it’s Transmission that is redirecting you and what you want is for that redirect to include the uri prefix.

    Otherwise, I see two options:

    • use a regex location block and match against all expected patterns
    • use a dedicated subdomain (i.e: server block) for this (each) service you want to proxy and just proxy all traffic to that domain with a root location block.

    The latter is what I would do.

    • brokenlcd@feddit.itOPEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      If I remember correctly there was an option for that. I need to dig up the manual…

      Still, I think I’m going to need to change approach. Eventually one of the other services will bite me if I keep using subdirectories.