docker proxy routing with nginx

Question

I have several apps with multiple containers running, organized in some docker-compose files, running on different ports. Actually access them like example.com:port.

Example:

app1 with 2 services exposing port 1111 I access trough example.com:1111
app2 with 2 services exposing port 3333 I access trough example.com:3333

Now I want to access them with example.com/app1, example.com/app2 instead. I thought to realize this with another container running nginx. But I don't get how to write the nginx configuration to achieve this.

Richie Mackay Richie Mackay · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-28T20:15:06

Something like this for your nginx.conf

server {
    listen 80;

    location /app1 {
        proxy_pass  http://example.com:1111;
    }

    location /app2 {
        proxy_pass  http://example.com:3333;
    }
}

Although remember if your using named services in your docker-compose then you can just use those names as they will be available in the default network. e.g.

server {
    listen 80;

    location /app1 {
        proxy_pass  http://app1:1111;
    }

    location /app2 {
        proxy_pass  http://app2:3333;
    }
}

Also bear in mind nginx is a pain to configure via environment variables without using lua which is a bit of a struggle with docker IIRC so it will be best just to hard code it.

docker proxy routing with nginx

2 Answers