After successful installation of MDriven on the Ubuntu Server, this installation also ensured we installed Nginx Web server to create the /var/www/ directory.

Now check the status of Nginx service using the command.

service nginx status

for newer linux systems the command is

systemctl status nginx

The result should be as shown below with Active: active (running) which indicates that Nginx service is up and running.

If Nginx is not running, you can start the service with the command

service nginx start

or

systemctl start nginx

Step -1: Configure Nginx

Navigate to the Nginx directory where we will create a configuration file for MDriven Turnkey and the MDriven Server

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available

The “/etc/nginx/sites-available” directory typically contains configuration files for Nginx virtual hosts. Each file in this directory represents a separate virtual host configuration, allowing you to define settings for different websites or applications hosted on your server. There will be a default config file available already. You can remove it or leave it as is.

Step -2: Create a configuration file for MDriven Server

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mdrivenserver

Copy and paste the below content in the file. Replace IP_ADDRESS_OR_DOMAIN_NAME with correct IP address or domain name pointing to your MDriven Server.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name 10.0.2.15; #---domain-name or IP address

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5042;  # Replace with Mdriven server's port
        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;
        proxy_read_timeout 300;
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|otf|eot|html|htm)$ {
        root /var/www/html/mdriven;
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    error_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_server_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_server_access.log;
}

NOTE: If You are running the Mdriven docker images, You will have to comment out the location section in the nginx config file to look like this. So that the css files are served by the mdriven server.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name 127.0.0.1; #---domain-name or IP address

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5011;  # Replace with Mdriven server's port
        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;
        proxy_read_timeout 300;
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    #location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|otf|eot|html|htm)$ {
     #   root /var/www/html/mdriven;
      #  expires max;
       # log_not_found off;
    #}

    error_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_server_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_server_access.log;
}

Step -3: Enable the site and restart Nginx

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mdrivenserver /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t  # Test configuration
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step -4: Now, you can access MDriven Server and MDriven Turnkey.

Enter the following URL respectively"http://<your_domain_or_IP_address>:5042" - in this case it will be http://10.0.2.15:5042

Step -5: Create a configuration file for MDriven Turnkey

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mdriventurnkey

Copy and paste the below content in the file. Replace IP_ADDRESS_OR_DOMAIN_NAME with correct IP address or domain name pointing to your MDriven Server

server {
    listen 8000;
    server_name 10.0.2.15; #---domain-name or IP address

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5011;  # Replace with Mono server's port
        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;
        proxy_read_timeout 300;
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|otf|eot|html|htm)$ {
        root /var/www/html/mdriven;
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    error_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_turnkey_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_turnkey_access.log;
}

Step -6: Enable the site and restart Nginx

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mdriventurnkey /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step -7: Access MDriven Turnkey

Now, you can access MDriven Server and MDriven Turnkey by entering the following URL respectively"http://<your_domain_or_IP_address>:5042" in this case it will be http://10.0.2.15:5011

With our current installation setup, MDriven Server and MDriven Turnkey are still running using HTTP: We can proceed to secure our production setup using HTTPS instead. To secure our Nginx proxy server setup, follow the steps below:

Step -1: Install Certbot and Nginx Plugin

sudo apt update
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Step -2: Ensure Nginx is running.

sudo systemctl start nginx

Step -3: Obtain an SSL Certificate.

Run Certbot with the Nginx plugin to automatically configure SSL:

sudo certbot --nginx

Follow the prompts:

    Select the domain name to secure (e.g., 10.0.2.15 or your custom domain).
    Certbot will generate and configure the SSL certificate automatically.

Step -4: Verify the SSL Configuration.

Certbot updates your Nginx configuration to SSL. However, manually verify that the changes are correct. Your updated configuration should look like this:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name 10.0.2.15;  # Replace with your domain or IP

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/10.0.2.15/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/10.0.2.15/privkey.pem;

    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5011;
        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;
        proxy_read_timeout 300;
        proxy_connect_timeout 300;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|otf|eot|html|htm)$ {
        root /var/www/html/mdriven;
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    error_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_turnkey_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/mdriven_turnkey_access.log;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name 10.0.2.15;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Test the configuration:

sudo nginx -t

Restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step -6: Automatic Certificate Renewal.

Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for 90 days, but Certbot automatically renews them. Add a cron job to test renewal periodically:

Open the crontab editor:
sudo crontab -e

Add the following line to test renewal daily:
0 0 * * * certbot renew --quiet && systemctl reload nginx