Customization of NGINX Configuration

You can customize the NGINX configuration using ConfigMaps or Annotations.

The table below summarizes some of the options. More options (extensions) are available, refer to the examples folder.

Annotation	ConfigMaps Key	Description	Default
nginx.org/proxy-connect-timeout	proxy-connect-timeout	Sets the value of the proxy_connect_timeout directive.	60s
nginx.org/proxy-read-timeout	proxy-read-timeout	Sets the value of the proxy_read_timeout directive.	60s
nginx.org/client-max-body-size	client-max-body-size	Sets the value of the client_max_body_size directive.	1m
nginx.org/proxy-buffering	proxy-buffering	Enables or disables buffering of responses from the proxied server.	True
nginx.org/proxy-buffers	proxy-buffers	Sets the value of the proxy_buffers directive.	Depends on the platform.
nginx.org/proxy-buffer-size	proxy-buffer-size	Sets the value of the proxy_buffer_size directive	Depends on the platform.
nginx.org/proxy-max-temp-file-size	proxy-max-temp-file-size	Sets the value of the proxy_max_temp_file_size directive.	1024m
nginx.org/proxy-hide-headers	proxy-hide-headers	Sets the value of one or more proxy_hide_header directives. Example: "nginx.org/proxy-hide-headers": "header-a,header-b"	N/A
nginx.org/proxy-pass-headers	proxy-pass-headers	Sets the value of one or more proxy_pass_header directives. Example: "nginx.org/proxy-pass-headers": "header-a,header-b"	N/A
N/A	server-names-hash-bucket-size	Sets the value of the server_names_hash_bucket_size directive.	Depends on the size of the processor’s cache line.
N/A	server-names-hash-max-size	Sets the value of the server_names_hash_max_size directive.	512
N/A	http2	Enables HTTP/2 in servers with SSL enabled.	False
nginx.org/redirect-to-https	redirect-to-https	Sets the 301 redirect rule based on the value of the http_x_forwarded_proto header on the server block to force incoming traffic to be over HTTPS. Useful when terminating SSL in a load balancer in front of the Ingress controller — see 115	False
ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect	ssl-redirect	Sets an unconditional 301 redirect rule for all incoming HTTP traffic to force incoming traffic over HTTPS.	True
N/A	log-format	Sets the custom log format.	See the template file.
nginx.org/hsts	hsts	Enables HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS): the HSTS header is added to the responses from backends. The preload directive is included in the header.	False
nginx.org/hsts-max-age	hsts-max-age	Sets the value of the max-age directive of the HSTS header.	2592000 (1 month)
nginx.org/hsts-include-subdomains	hsts-include-subdomains	Adds the includeSubDomains directive to the HSTS header.	False
N/A	ssl-protocols	Sets the value of the ssl_protocols directive.	TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2
N/A	ssl-prefer-server-ciphers	Enables or disables the ssl_prefer_server_ciphers directive.	False
N/A	ssl-ciphers	Sets the value of the ssl_ciphers directive.	HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5
N/A	ssl-dhparam-file	Sets the content of the dhparam file. The controller will create the file and set the value of the ssl_dhparam directive with the path of the file.	N/A
N/A	set-real-ip-from	Sets the value of the set_real_ip_from directive.	N/A
N/A	real-ip-header	Sets the value of the real_ip_header directive.	X-Real-IP
N/A	real-ip-recursive	Enables or disables the real_ip_recursive directive.	False
nginx.org/server-tokens	server-tokens	Enables or disables the server_tokens directive. Additionally, with the NGINX Plus, you can specify a custom string value, including the empty string value, which disables the emission of the “Server” field.	True
N/A	main-snippets	Sets a custom snippet in main context.	N/A
N/A	http-snippets	Sets a custom snippet in http context.	N/A
nginx.org/location-snippets	location-snippets	Sets a custom snippet in location context.	N/A
nginx.org/server-snippets	server-snippets	Sets a custom snippet in server context.	N/A
nginx.org/lb-method	lb-method	Sets the load balancing method. The default "" specifies the round-robin method.	""
nginx.org/listen-ports	N/A	Configures HTTP ports that NGINX will listen on.	[80]
nginx.org/listen-ports-ssl	N/A	Configures HTTPS ports that NGINX will listen on.	[443]
N/A	worker-processes	Sets the value of the worker_processes directive.	auto
N/A	worker-cpu-affinity	Sets the value of the worker_cpu_affinity directive.	N/A
N/A	worker-shutdown-timeout	Sets the value of the worker_shutdown_timeout directive.	N/A
nginx.org/keepalive	keepalive	Sets the value of the keepalive directive. Note that proxy_set_header Connection ""; is added to the generated configuration when the value > 0.	0

Using ConfigMaps

1. Make sure that you specify the configmaps resource to use when you start an Ingress controller. For example, -nginx-configmaps=default/nginx-config, where we specify the config map to use with the following format: <namespace>/<name>. See nginx-ingress-rc.yaml or nginx-plus-ingress-rc.yaml files.

2. Create a configmaps file with the name nginx-config.yaml and set the values that make sense for your setup:

   kind: ConfigMap
   apiVersion: v1
   metadata:
     name: nginx-config
   data:
     proxy-connect-timeout: "10s"
     proxy-read-timeout: "10s"
     client-max-body-size: "2m"

   See the nginx-config.yaml from this directory for a complete example.

3. Create a configmaps resource:

   $ kubectl create -f nginx-config.yaml
   

   The NGINX configuration will be updated.

4. If you want to update the configmaps, update the file and replace the config map:

   $ kubectl replace -f nginx-config.yaml
   

   The NGINX configuration will be updated.

Using Annotations

If you want to customize the configuration for a particular Ingress resource only, you can use Annotations. Here is an example (cafe-ingress-with-annotations.yaml):

apiVersion: extensions/v1beta1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: cafe-ingress-with-annotations
  annotations:
    nginx.org/proxy-connect-timeout: "30s"
    nginx.org/proxy-read-timeout: "20s"
    nginx.org/client-max-body-size: "4m"
spec:
  rules:
  - host: cafe.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /tea
        backend:
          serviceName: tea-svc
          servicePort: 80
      - path: /coffee
        backend:
          serviceName: coffee-svc
          servicePort: 80

Annotations take precedence over ConfigMaps.