nginx

nginx docker container with configuration imported from the awesome h5bp-nginx-config project.

Advantages

First of all: this container is based on the official nginx container! But there are some differences that, IMHO, are pretty awesome :)

• H5BP Nginx Config
• No default server
• Volumes
• Dynamic vhost config

H5BP Nginx Config

Just have a look at the h5bp-nginx-config repository. All those files are available at your fingertips with this container. And yes, we patched all access_log and error_log statements to use stdout/stderr.

No default server

This container does not comes with a default vhost and some "pretty" default html file. Instead the no-default vhost is enabled and nginx responds with 444 no response to all requests that don't hit any configured vhost.

Volumes

This container does expose some volumes similar to dockerfiles/nginx, because, at least to me, this sounds like a good idea / benefit.

• /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
• /etc/nginx/certs
• /etc/nginx/conf.d

run-nginx / dynamic vhost files

There is a small script present that runs just before nginx and can be used to establish dynamic vhost configs pretty easy. Imagine a simple setup like:

+------+       +-------+       +-----------------------+
| USER | ----> | nginx | ----> | application container |
+------+       +-------+       +-----------------------+

How does the nginx container know about the application container? Or what the vhost config should look like? Sure, you could re-use this container and end with something similiar to this setup:

+------+       +-------------------+       +-----------------------+
| USER | ----> | application nginx | ----> | application container |
+------+       +-------------------+       +-----------------------+
                        .
                       / \
                        |
                        |
                    +-------+
                    | nginx |
                    +-------+

But now you have to manage yet another container and, even worse, split the application related configuration files! What if nginx could somehow ask the application container for the right vhost configuration? Would be pretty neat, huh? Well, that's exactly what the run-nginx command is about! With it the setup could be like this:

+------+       +-------+       +-----------------------+
| USER | ----> | nginx | ----> | application container |
+------+       +-------+       +-----------------------+
                                VOLUME /path/to/the/app

And all you have to do is run this nginx container with the path to the vhost config file (e.g. /path/to/the/app/nginx.conf). But how should you know the ip/port of the docker link upfront? You don't have to. run-nginx supports some very basic kind of templating for this. So if you application container is linked with the name web to nginx and exposes port 9000 you could connect the two like this:

$ cat /path/to/the/app/nginx.conf | grep "_TCP_"
fastcgi_pass {WEB_PORT_9000_TCP_ADDR}:{WEB_PORT_9000_TCP_PORT};

$ docker run --rm \
    --link application:web \
    --volumes-from application:ro \
    -t michaelcontento/nginx \
    /path/to/the/app/nginx.conf

Also you're allowed to replace the link name with * if you don't mind the actual used link name:

$ cat /path/to/the/app/nginx.conf | grep "_TCP_"
fastcgi_pass {*_PORT_9000_TCP_ADDR}:{*_PORT_9000_TCP_PORT};

$ docker run --rm \
    --link application:idontmindthis \
    --volumes-from application:ro \
    -t michaelcontento/nginx \
    /path/to/the/app/nginx.conf

But keep in mind that this will use the first docker link with port 9000 exposed!