Installed NodeBB can't access installation, Nginx setup & SSL

Question

I created a new Ubuntu droplet with the Node.js one click install.

Followed this guide to have nodebb installed on the server https://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing/os/ubuntu.html

I created an A record to point the server to my subdomain community.intelisight.com and added same on cloudflare.

But when I try to access the installation (which was successful and the service shows as running) with this http://community.intelisight.com:4567 I get nothing. When I say http://community.intelisight.com same thing, I’m simply unable to access the live site.

My questions are

a) What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to see the nodebb installation? b) Is there a guide showing how to use nginx as the proxy server so I don’t have to put in the port to access the website? c) How can I setup a free Let’s Encrypt SSL on this installation?

Thank you

Jonathan Tittle · Accepted Answer

@ososoba When it comes to NodeJS apps and NGINX, the only way to access your URL with attaching the port to the end would be to use NGINX as a Proxy, in which case you would proxy requests on 80/443 to the port of your choice (i.e. your NodeJS app). For example, this server block will take requests on port 80 and redirect them to port 443, and proxy requests on 443 to port 4567 (i.e your app). This would all be in a single file (i.e. yourdomain.conf). NGINX as a Proxy # # HTTP - Redirect Requests on Port 80 to 443 # server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com; return 301 https://$host$request_uri; } # # HTTPS # server { listen 443; listen [::]:443; server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com # # SSL Configuration Goes Here # location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:4567; proxy_connect_timeout 59s; proxy_send_timeout 600; proxy_read_timeout 600; proxy_buffer_size 64k; proxy_buffers 16 32k; proxy_busy_buffers_size 128k; proxy_temp_file_write_size 64k; proxy_pass_header Set-Cookie; proxy_redirect off; proxy_set_header Accept-Encoding ''; proxy_ignore_headers Cache-Control Expires; proxy_set_header Referer $http_referer; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_hide_header X-Powered-By; proxy_set_header Cookie $http_cookie; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_no_cache $http_pragma $http_authorization; proxy_cache_bypass $http_pragma $http_authorization; proxy_next_upstream error timeout invalid_header http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504 http_404; } } You’d need to change yourdomain.com to your actual domain, of course, though the above will set you up so that you’re not forced to use the port in the URL. You’ll need to reload NGINX once you’re done making changes using: systemctl reload nginx or service nginx reload LetsEncrypt https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-nginx-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-16-04

Jonathan Tittle · Answer

@ososoba As a side note, if NodeBB isn’t running on the port itself, try running: sudo service nodebb status If it’s showing a failure, you’ll want to check your permissions. You’ll need to run: sudo adduser --system --group nodebb and sudo chown -R nodebb:nodebb /opt/nodebb It’s easy to overlook those two commands, but without them, NodeBB won’t run if you are using the service file they provide in the guide. That being said, if it’s still not running after setting proper permissions, it’s most likely due to the URL provided during setup. If you set it to the default localhost, then you need to use NGINX to proxy the request. Otherwise you’d need to set a valid public IP or domain.

Jonathan Tittle · Answer

@ososoba If you would, please post your exact configuration for your server block in a code block as a reply and I’ll be more than happy to take a look at it for you :-).

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Installed NodeBB can't access installation, Nginx setup & SSL

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