Typical example of nginx (v1.10.3) conf file for using ssl and collaboration with nodejs app

nginx-example.com.conf

# nginx conf file example in the case of using:
# - nodejs app server
# - letsencrypt for SSL

# version: nginx/1.10.3
# /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf

# Permits for tester to access even if web server is under maintenance:
geo $allow_ip_flag {
    default 0; # Not Allowed
    #192.168.11.0/24 1; # Allowed Users
}


# NodeJS app running on local:
upstream nodeapp {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000; # nodejs app server
}

# Redirects http -> https:
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    rewrite ^ https://$server_name$request_uri? permanent;
}

# Rate Limiting:
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=mylimit:10m rate=10r/s;
#limit_req_status 429; # 429:"Too Many Requests"

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    
    server_name  example.com;

    #charset koi8-r;
    #access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;

    # SSL Settings (letsencrypt):
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
    ssl_session_tickets on;
    ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/private/dhparam.pem; # Needs to generate by yourself like this: `$ sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/private/dhparam.pem 4096` 
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES128-GCM-SHA256:kEDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:AES:CAMELLIA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!RC4:!MD5:!PSK:!aECDH:!EDH-DSS-DES-CBC3-SHA:!EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:!KRB5-DES-CBC3-SHA';
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    # Reverse proxy settings:
    proxy_redirect                          off;
    proxy_set_header Host                   $host;
    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;
    
    # For express-session's `cookie.secure:true` available:
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
    proxy_redirect http:// https://;

    location ^~ /.well-known {
        allow all;
        default_type "text/plain";
        alias /usr/share/nginx/html/example.com/.well-known/;
    }

    location / {
        # Setting for maintenance mode
        # TODO: In advance, create your own maintenance.html:
        if (-e /usr/share/nginx/html/example.com/maintenance.html) {
            set $maintenance true;
        }
        # allowed IP can pass through the maintenance page:
        if ($allow_ip_flag) {
            set $maintenance false;
        }
        if ($maintenance = true) {
            rewrite ^ /maintenance.html redirect;
        }
        location /maintenance.html {
            alias /usr/share/nginx/html/example.com/maintenance.html;
            expires 0;
        }

        # Rate Limiting:
        limit_req zone=mylimit burst=20 nodelay;
        
        # Access to the node app:
        proxy_pass http://nodeapp/;
        #root   /usr/share/nginx/html/example.com;
        #index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    # Serves static files nodejs app contains:
    location ~ ^/(images/|img/|javascripts/|js/|css/|stylesheets/|flash/|media/|static/|robots.txt|sitemap.txt|humans.txt|favicon.ico) {
        # TODO: set your app's public folder on which there are static contents.
        root /home/akirattii/example-app/public;
        access_log off;
        expires max;
    }

    #error_page  404              /404.html;

    # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
    #
    error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

nginx.conf

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf 
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
	worker_connections 768;
	# multi_accept on;
}

http {

	##
	# Basic Settings
	##

	sendfile on;
	tcp_nopush on;
	tcp_nodelay on;
	keepalive_timeout 65;
	types_hash_max_size 2048;
	# server_tokens off;

	# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
	# server_name_in_redirect off;

	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type application/octet-stream;

	##
	# SSL Settings
	##

	ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
	ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

	##
	# Logging Settings
	##

	access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
	error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

	##
	# Gzip Settings
	##

	gzip on;
	gzip_disable "msie6";

	gzip_vary on; # <= "Vary" header ON!
	# gzip_proxied any;
	# gzip_comp_level 6;
	# gzip_buffers 16 8k;
	# gzip_http_version 1.1;
  
        # Specify content types to gzip.
        # Typically, you may want to compress json response on your API server:
        gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript; 

	##
	# Virtual Host Configs
	##

	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
	include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#	# See sample authentication script at:
#	# http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#	# auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#	# pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#	# imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:110;
#		protocol   pop3;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
# 
#	server {
#		listen     localhost:143;
#		protocol   imap;
#		proxy      on;
#	}
#}