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

@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