Nginx, slim and distroless to be used behind a reverse proxy or as full version as a proxy
nginx (engine x) is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server, and mail proxy server.
What can I do with this? This image will serve as a base for nginx related images that need a high-performance webserver. The default tag of this image is stripped for most functions that can be used by a reverse proxy in front of nginx, it adds however important webserver functions like brotli compression. The default tag is not meant to run as a reverse proxy, use the full image for that. The default tag does not support HTTPS for instance!
Why should I run this image and not the other image(s) that already exist? Good question! Because ...
Important
- ... this image runs rootless as 1000:1000
- ... this image has no shell since it is distroless
- ... this image is auto updated to the latest version via CI/CD
- ... this image has a health check
- ... this image runs read-only
- ... this image is automatically scanned for CVEs before and after publishing
- ... this image is created via a secure and pinned CI/CD process
- ... this image verifies external payloads if possible
- ... this image is very small
If you value security, simplicity and optimizations to the extreme, then this image might be for you.
Below you find a comparison between this image and the most used or original one.
| image | size on disk | init default as | distroless | supported architectures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11notes/nginx:1.28.0 | 3MB | 1000:1000 | ✅ | armv7, amd64, arm64 |
| nginx:1.28.0 | 192MB | 0:0 | ❌ | amd64, armv5, armv7, arm64v8, 386, mips64le, ppc64le, s390x |
worker_processes auto;
worker_cpu_affinity auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 204800;
error_log /nginx/log/error.log warn;
daemon off;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
use epoll;
multi_accept on;
}
http {
log_format main escape=json '{"log":"main","time":"$time_iso8601","server":{"name":"$server_name", "protocol":"$server_protocol"}, "client":{"ip":"$remote_addr", "x-forwarded-for":"$http_x_forwarded_for", "user":"$remote_user"},"request":{"method":"$request_method", "url":"$request_uri", "time":"$request_time", "status":$status}}';
log_format proxy escape=json '{"log":"proxy", "time":"$time_iso8601","server":{"name":"$server_name", "protocol":"$server_protocol"}}, "client":{"ip":"$remote_addr", "x-forwarded-for":"$http_x_forwarded_for", "user":"$remote_user"},"request":{"method":"$request_method", "url":"$request_uri", "time":"$request_time", "status":$status}, "proxy":{"host":"$upstream_addr", "time":{"connect":"$upstream_connect_time", "response":"$upstream_response_time", "header":"$upstream_header_time"}, "io":{"bytes":{"sent":"$upstream_bytes_sent", "received":"$upstream_bytes_received"}}, "cache":"$upstream_cache_status", "status":"$upstream_status"}}';
access_log off;
server_tokens off;
include mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
sendfile on;
aio on;
tcp_nopush on;
tcp_nodelay on;
gzip on;
brotli on;
brotli_comp_level 4;
brotli_static on;
brotli_types
text/plain
text/css
text/xml
text/javascript
text/x-component
application/xml
application/xml+rss
application/javascript
application/json
application/atom+xml
application/vnd.ms-fontobject
application/x-font-ttf
application/x-font-opentype
application/x-font-truetype
application/x-web-app-manifest+json
application/xhtml+xml
application/octet-stream
font/opentype
font/truetype
font/eot
font/otf
image/svg+xml
image/x-icon
image/vnd.microsoft.icon
image/bmp;
client_max_body_size 8M;
keepalive_timeout 90;
keepalive_requests 102400;
reset_timedout_connection on;
client_body_timeout 10;
send_timeout 5;
open_file_cache max=204800 inactive=5m;
open_file_cache_valid 2m;
open_file_cache_min_uses 2;
open_file_cache_errors off;
root /nginx/var;
include /nginx/etc/*.conf;
}The default configuration contains no special settings. It enables brotli compression, sets the workers to the same amount as n-CPUs available, has two default logging formats, disables most stuff not needed and enables best performance settings. Please mount your own config if you need to change how nginx is setup.
- /nginx/etc - Directory of vHost config, must end in *.conf
- /nginx/var - Directory of webroot for vHost
name: "nginx"
services:
nginx:
image: "11notes/nginx:1.28.0"
read_only: true
environment:
TZ: "Europe/Zurich"
ports:
- "3000:3000/tcp"
networks:
frontend:
volumes:
- "etc:/nginx/etc"
- "var:/nginx/var"
tmpfs:
- "/nginx/cache:uid=1000,gid=1000"
- "/nginx/run:uid=1000,gid=1000"
restart: "always"
volumes:
etc:
var:
networks:
frontend:| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
user |
docker | user name |
uid |
1000 | user identifier |
gid |
1000 | group identifier |
home |
/nginx | home directory of user docker |
| Parameter | Value | Default |
|---|---|---|
TZ |
Time Zone | |
DEBUG |
Will activate debug option for container image and app (if available) |
These are the main tags for the image. There is also a tag for each commit and its shorthand sha256 value.
It is of my opinion that the :latest tag is dangerous. Many times, I’ve introduced breaking changes to my images. This would have messed up everything for some people. If you don’t want to change the tag to the latest semver, simply use the short versions of semver. Instead of using :1.28.0 you can use :1 or :1.28. Since on each new version these tags are updated to the latest version of the software, using them is identical to using :latest but at least fixed to a major or minor version.
If you still insist on having the bleeding edge release of this app, simply use the :rolling tag, but be warned! You will get the latest version of the app instantly, regardless of breaking changes or security issues or what so ever. You do this at your own risk!
docker pull 11notes/nginx:1.28.0
docker pull ghcr.io/11notes/nginx:1.28.0
docker pull quay.io/11notes/nginx:1.28.0
Important
This image is not based on another image but uses scratch as the starting layer. The image consists of the following distroless layers that were added:
- 11notes/distroless - contains users, timezones and Root CA certificates
- 11notes/distroless:localhealth - app to execute HTTP requests only on 127.0.0.1
Tip
- Use a reverse proxy like Traefik, Nginx, HAproxy to terminate TLS and to protect your endpoints
- Use Let’s Encrypt DNS-01 challenge to obtain valid SSL certificates for your services
This image is provided to you at your own risk. Always make backups before updating an image to a different version. Check the releases for breaking changes. If you have any problems with using this image simply raise an issue, thanks. If you have a question or inputs please create a new discussion instead of an issue. You can find all my other repositories on github.
created 02.09.2025, 01:45:08 (CET)