sample configuration files for nginx setup

express.conf

server {

listen  80;
server_name     www.js-server.com js-server.com;

root /home/jyotendra/files/projects/express-sequelize/;

location ~

^/(assets/|public/|images/|img/|javascript/|js/|css/|stylesheets/|media/|static){
        root /home/jyotendra/files/projects/express-sequelize/public;

        access_log off;

        expires 24h;
}

location / {

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000/;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;


        }

}

nginx.conf

user  nginx;
worker_processes  1;

error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
pid        /var/run/nginx.pid;


events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}


http {
    include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    include       /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                      '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                      '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    #tcp_nopush     on;

    keepalive_timeout  65;

    #gzip  on;

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}

• Follow nginx install process as mentioned here: https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/install/
• on successful installation navigate to /etc/nginx
• new installations don't come with "site-available" and "site-enabled" folder, so create them
• /etc/nginx/nginx.conf is the entry point for the server. Include enabled sites configurations with "include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;" in "http" section.
• navigate to "sites-available" folder and add "express.conf" there. It still won't be recognized by server as it's not in "sites-enabled" folder.
• create symbolic link to "sites-enabled" with " sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/express.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled " - its important to create symbolic link from root ("/") or else empty file gets created.
• check "nginx.conf" with "sudo nginx -t" command.
• If everything is right, restart nginx using: "sudo systemctl restart nginx".
• Check nginx's status using "sudo systemctl status nginx".

Following links are helpful for configuring nginx with pm2, express:

• http://blog.danyll.com/setting-up-express-with-nginx-and-pm2/
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-nginx-on-ubuntu-16-04

The following code in express.conf:

        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000/;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

does the task of forwarding traffic coming for "www.js-server.com" to "localhost:3000". Plus, it sets the proxy headers.