How to Setup Nginx as Reverse Proxy On Ubuntu Server

First, install the Nginx package using the following command:

apt-get install nginx -y

After the successful installation, remove the Nginx default virtual host configuration file using the command below:

rm -rf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Next, create a new Nginx virtual host configuration file to pass the incoming requests to the Apache backend server:

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/proxy.conf

Add the following lines:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name proxy.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://your_server_ip:8080;
        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;
    }
}

Save and close the file then verify the Nginx for any configuration error using the following command:

nginx -t

Sample output:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Next, reload the Nginx service to apply the configuration changes:

systemctl reload nginx

You can check the status of the Nginx service using the following command:

systemctl status nginx

If everything is fine, you should see the following output:

● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-09-06 07:33:12 UTC; 5s ago
       Docs: man:nginx(8)
    Process: 17460 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 17461 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 17462 (nginx)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 2341)
     Memory: 2.4M
        CPU: 50ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
             ├─17462 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
             └─17463 nginx: worker process

Sep 04 07:33:12 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server...
Sep 04 07:33:12 ubuntu systemd[1]: nginx.service: Failed to parse PID from file /run/nginx.pid: Invalid argument
Sep 04 07:33:12 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.

Verify Nginx Front-End Server:

curl -I http://proxy.example.com

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:27:04 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 10918
Connection: keep-alive
Last-Modified: Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:18:16 GMT
ETag: "2aa6-5cb04b131c101"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Vary: Accept-Encoding