How to proxy https to http and enable ssl?

Hi @myahya,

I’m not entirely sure I understand the question, you want to serve the resources of your website via http while loading https, is that correct?

Can you please provide a little bit more information, may be an example will help?

Regards, KFSys

To set up Nginx to proxy HTTPS traffic to an HTTP backend and enable SSL, you need to configure Nginx with an SSL certificate and set up a reverse proxy. Here’s a basic guide on how you can do this:

Step 1: Obtain an SSL Certificate

You can obtain a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt or use a certificate from another provider. If you’re using Let’s Encrypt, Certbot is a convenient way to obtain and automatically configure SSL.

To install Certbot and get a certificate:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

This will modify your Nginx configuration to include the necessary SSL settings.

Step 2: Configure Nginx for SSL and Proxying

Open your Nginx configuration file (usually located in /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com), and you’ll see Certbot has added SSL configuration directives.

To set up a reverse proxy, modify the configuration to include a location block that proxies traffic to your HTTP backend. Here’s an example:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080; # Replace with your HTTP backend address
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    # ... Other configuration ...
}

In this configuration:

• listen 443 ssl http2;: Listens on port 443 for SSL traffic.
• proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;: Proxies the traffic to the HTTP backend (change the port and host as necessary).
• The proxy_set_header directives forward important information to the backend.

Step 3: Redirect HTTP to HTTPS (Optional)

If you want to redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS, add another server block:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;

    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Step 4: Test and Reload Nginx

Test your configuration for syntax errors:

sudo nginx -t

If the test is successful, reload Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 5: Verify Configuration

Visit your website at https://yourdomain.com and verify that it’s serving content from your HTTP backend over HTTPS.

Note

• Ensure your firewall (like UFW or iptables) allows traffic on ports 80 and 443.
• Regularly renew your SSL certificates. Certbot can set up auto-renewal, but it’s good to verify this is working as expected.
• Keep your server and Nginx configuration up to date for security.