[Node] Setup an Nginx Proxy for a Node.js App
Learn how to setup an Nginx proxy server that sits in front of a Node.js app. You can use a proxy to control the flow of frontend requests hitting your app, as well as to achieve better performance and scalability. We'll create a sample Node.js app and configure a default Nginx configuration file to proxy web requests.
Create a node app:
// Load the http module to create an http server. var http = require('http'); // Configure our HTTP server to respond with Hello World to all requests. var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) { response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}); response.end("Welcome to Node.js!\n"); }); // Listen on port 3000, IP defaults to 127.0.0.1 server.listen(3000); // Put a friendly message on the terminal console.log("Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/");
The app running on port 3000.
Run the node app:
node index.js
See the output:
curl localhost:3000
We will see:
Welcome to Node.js!
Now, start the nginx:
service nginx start
Varifiy nginx started:
curl localhost // by default nginx running on port 80
We will see the default nginx html.
Modify the nginx config in '/etc/nginx/sites/enabled/default':
server { location / { 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_pass http://localhost:3000; } }
Restart nginx:
service nginx reload
now do:
curl localhsot
Previously we saw the default nginx page, now we should see our node app's output. That means our nginx poxy works, it successfully redirect localhost:80 to localhost:3000.