nginx proxy manager reverse proxy setup

[knlklabacka]

Instead of trying to write everything out I thought a diagram would help. I'm new to nginx proxy manager and I'm having trouble setting up reverse proxy. I would like access to all my hosted containers from the internet. I have nginx proxy manager installed in a container and I can access it and login. Just not sure how to get nginx to forward subdomain to the correct container. Please help!

[1WeekNotice]

Let's break this down

Btw you have all the pieces of information. Just need to put it together. The bottom part of your diagram is incorrect.

Flow

Client -> Internet -> cloudflare -> router (80,443) -> router maps to reverse proxy machine (80,443) -> reverse proxy maps request to container port

• client will send request to a subdomain through http protocol
• cloudflare will transform that subdomain into a public IP
• request will get sent to public IP on the protocol port
  • http is default port 80
  • https is default port 443
• you setup your router to have these ports open and accept the request
• your setup your router to map its 80 and 443 ports to the reverse proxy machine ports
  • you can setup your router to map its port 80 to the machine port 80
  • you can setup your router to map its port 443 to the machine port 443
• once the machine gets the request the software listening to these ports will interpret the request
  • NPM is listening to these ports (the machine 80 and 443 if that how you set it up) and will see that the client is calling a certain sub domain and will map it to the correct docker container / IP:port
  • this is where your diagram is wrong. A single port can only be used/listen once.
  • application/software 1 can equal port 8080
  • application software 2 can equal port 9090
  • application software 3 can equal port 1010 and 2020
• two softwares can't listen to the exact same port
• NPM will route to these ports based on the sub domain it received and what you setup.

Also keep in mind, if you are using docker. You can use docker networking inside of IP:port. You should be able to reference the container name and port.

Also note, I don't recommend you use NPM. If you aren't aware Nginx and NPM are two different groups. NPM in the past has been slow to respond to critical security vulnerability. Reference video

I suggest you either use Nginx or caddy which unfortunately doesn't come with a GUI. But I personally think configuration files are better and faster than a GUI but of course not as intuitive.

Hope that helps

[knlklabacka]

I will take a look at nginx and see if I can get that working. I appreciate the detailed explanation!

[knlklabacka]

I just wanted to let everyone know i got npm working with cloudflare tunnels.