Setting up Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker Compose

What we'll do:

• Install docker
• Setup Nginx Proxy Manager

This guide is aimed at Ubuntu/Debian systems.

Why:
To run multiple services over the same port a reverse proxy service is required. Nginx Proxy Manager is a WebUI frontend for the popular Nginx Reverse Proxy.

To get a good understanding of how a reverse proxy works, it would be worth setting up Nginx without the WebUI.

As Nginx Proxy Manager is running within a docker container you will get slower speeds compared to running Nginx on the host.

---

Install

1. Update Linux
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

2. Install docker
   Ubuntu: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/
   Debian: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/

3. Install docker-compose
   sudo apt install docker-compose

4. Create docker network
   This will allow us to set static IP's for the docker containers.
   sudo docker network create --driver=bridge --subnet=10.10.10.0/24 --gateway=10.10.10.1 dockernet

5. Create directorys to store the volumes within.
   cd - Go to home dir
   sudo mkdir nginxmanager
cd nginxmanager
sudo mkdir data
sudo mkdir letsencrypt
sudo mkdir sql

6. Create docker-compose.yaml file
   sudo nano docker-compose.yaml

Use the following template:

version: "3"
services:
  app:
    image: jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:2
    restart: always
    ports:
      # Public HTTP Port:
      - '80:80'
      # Public HTTPS Port:
      - '443:443'
      # Admin Web Port:
      - '81:81'
    networks:
      default:
        ipv4_address: 10.10.10.3
    volumes:
      - /home/USER/nginxmanager/config.json:/app/config/production.json
      - app-data:/data
      - app-letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt
    depends_on:
      - db
  db:
    image: jc21/mariadb-aria:10.4
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 'npm'
      MYSQL_DATABASE: 'npm'
      MYSQL_USER: 'npm'
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: 'npm'
    networks:
      default:
        ipv4_address: 10.10.10.2
    volumes:
      - app-sql:/var/lib/mysql


volumes:
  app-data:
     driver_opts:
           type: none
           device: /home/USER/nginxmanager/data
           o: bind  
  app-letsencrypt:
     driver_opts:
           type: none
           device: /home/USER/nginxmanager/letsencrypt
           o: bind
  app-sql:
     driver_opts:
           type: none
           device: /home/USER/nginxmanager/sql
           o: bind
networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: dockernet

Replace "USER" with your username (there are 4).

7. Create config.json
   sudo nano config.json

Use the following template:

{
  "database": {
    "engine": "mysql",
    "host": "db",
    "name": "npm",
    "user": "npm",
    "password": "npm",
    "port": 3306
  }
}

8. Start the docker container
   sudo docker-compose up -d

9. Access the WebUI

Head to http://SERVER-IP:81

Default login:

Email: admin@example.com
Password: changeme

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Sources:
https://nginxproxymanager.com/
https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/web-server/reverse-proxy/

Tags

• Self-Hosting