Setting up nginx on Ubuntu for parse-server

Before You Begin

1. Check for updates
   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Install nginx

1. Install nginx
   sudo apt-get install -y nginx
2. Decide how you want to access parse:
   a. example.com/parseapp/
   b. parseapp.example.com/ (don’t forget to add an A record for parseapp pointing to the IP address and include subdomain in Let’s Encrypt certificates)

Setup nginx for example.com/parseapp/

1. Change directory
   cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
2. Open default
   sudo nano default
3. Select all
   ctrl+shift+6
   ↓↓↓↓ to the bottom
   ctrl+K
4. Paste the following in, changing example.com, parseapp, and portnumber

   # HTTP - redirect all requests to HTTPS
   server {
       listen 80;
       listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;
       return 301 https://\$host\$request_uri;
   }
   
   # HTTPS - serve HTML from /usr/share/nginx/html, proxy requests to /parse/
   # through to Parse Server
   server {
           listen 443;
           server_name example.com;
   
           root /usr/share/nginx/html;
           index index.html index.htm;
   
           ssl on;
           # Use certificate and key provided by Let's Encrypt:
           ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
           ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
           ssl_session_timeout 5m;
           ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
           ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
           ssl_ciphers 'EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH';
   
           # Pass requests for example.com/parseapp/ to parse-server instance at localhost:portnumber
   
           location /parseapp/ {
                   proxy_set_header X-Real-IP \$remote_addr;
                   proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For \$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                   proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
                   proxy_pass http://localhost:portnumber/parse/;
                   proxy_ssl_session_reuse off;
                   proxy_set_header Host \$http_host;
                   proxy_redirect off;
           }
           location / {
                   try_files \$uri \$uri/ =404;
           }
   }

5. Save and exit
6. Restart nginx
   sudo service nginx restart

Setup nginx for parseapp.example.com/

1. Change directory
   cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
2. Open default
   sudo nano default
3. Select all
   ctrl+shift+6
   ↓↓↓↓ to the bottom
   ctrl+K
4. Paste the following in, changing example.com, parseapp, and portnumber

   # HTTP - redirect all requests to HTTPS
   server {
       listen 80;
       listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;
       return 301 https://\$host\$request_uri;
   }
   
   # HTTPS - serve HTML from /usr/share/nginx/html, proxy requests to /parse/
   # through to Parse Server
   server {
           listen 443;
           server_name example.com;
   
           root /usr/share/nginx/html;
           index index.html index.htm;
   
           ssl on;
           # Use certificate and key provided by Let's Encrypt:
           ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
           ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
           ssl_session_timeout 5m;
           ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
           ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
           ssl_ciphers 'EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH';
   
           location / {
                   try_files \$uri \$uri/ =404;
           }
   }
   
   server {
           listen 443;
           server_name parseapp.example.com;
   
           root /usr/share/nginx/html;
           index index.html index.htm;
   
           ssl on;
           # Use certificate and key provided by Let's Encrypt:
           ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
           ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
           ssl_session_timeout 5m;
           ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
           ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
           ssl_ciphers 'EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH';
   
           # Pass requests for parseapp.example.com/ to Parse Server instance at localhost:portnumber/parse/
   
           location / {
                   proxy_set_header X-Real-IP \$remote_addr;
                   proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For \$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                   proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
                   proxy_pass http://localhost:portnumber/parse/;
                   proxy_ssl_session_reuse off;
                   proxy_set_header Host \$http_host;
                   proxy_redirect off;
           }
   }

5. Save and exit
6. Restart nginx
   sudo service nginx restart

Mini series

1. Setting up a server at Linode
2. Install Let’s Encrypt to Create SSL Certificates on Ubuntu
3. Setting up MongoDB on Ubuntu
4. Setting up nginx on Ubuntu for parse-server
5. Setting up parse-server on Ubuntu