Nginx Proxy Manager

Nginx Proxy Manager is a web-based tool designed to simplify the setup and management of reverse proxies. It provides an easy interface to configure SSL certificates, manage multiple domains, and route traffic to local services. I will be referring to it as "NPM".

But why use something like this? It has many advantages like needing only one public IP address for multiple services on multiple domains, and only requiring one open port on the network instead of multiple ports for all your services.

Installing & Running NPM

This method is tested on Debian 12.

1. Install Docker and Docker-Compose

   The easiest way to host an instance of NPM is using docker-compose. You need Docker and Docker-Compose installed on your server.

   $ sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose -y

2. Create the docker-compose.yml file

   Once that is done, create a file called docker-compose.yml and put the following content in it:

   nginx-proxy-manager:
   image: jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest
   container_name: nginx-proxy-manager
   environment:
     DB_SQLITE_FILE: "/data/database.sqlite"
   volumes:
     - ./nginx-proxy-manager/config:/config
     - ./nginx-proxy-manager/data:/data
     - ./nginx-proxy-manager/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt
   ports:
     - "81:81"      # NPM webUI
     - "443:443"   # HTTPS for NPM
     - "80:80"    # HTTP for NPM
   restart: unless-stopped
           

3. Start NPM

   Now you can start NPM with one of these two commands:

   # To run in current shell:
   $ sudo docker-compose up
   
   # To run it in the background:
   $ sudo docker-compose up -d
           

4. First Login

   Access the webUI of NPM in your browser using http://IP_ADDRESS:81.

   These are the default login credentials:

   Email:    [email protected]
   Password: changeme
           

Basic Usage of NPM

In this example we will use one root domain and one subdomain.

• Root domain: bytesofprogress.net
• Subdomain: subdomain.bytesofprogress.net

1. Set Up DNS Records

   The first step is to point your DNS A-Record or AAAA-Record to the public IP address of your NPM instance. In this example, Cloudflare DNS is being used.

2. Issue an SSL Certificate

   Then, we want to issue an SSL certificate:

   

   For a wildcard certificate (which includes subdomains), type *.example.com. Then enable "Use DNS challenge" and choose Cloudflare as the DNS provider. Paste your Cloudflare API Token.

   You can obtain your API-Token by logging into the Cloudflare Dashboard. From there, navigate to your Profile → API Tokens. Then click on "Create Token" and choose the template "Edit Zone DNS". Select the zone of your domain.

   

   Now, click on "Save". The process can take up to a few minutes.

3. Create a Proxy Host

   You can now create your first proxy host: