nginx.conf: Reverse Proxy to a CF Engine

Our NGINX virtual host definitions are fairly typical for a reverse proxy, along with a couple of tweaks for Docker.

server {
    ################### SERVER NAME AND PORT #####################
    server_name cfswarm-simple.localtest.me;
    listen  80;
    # listen 443 ssl http2;        
    index index.cfm index.cfml index.htm index.html;
    resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s; # docker DNS daemon
    set $cfml_host cfswarm-cfml;   # this causes nginx to be OK if the host isn't up
    root "/var/www/app-one";

    include inc_lockdown.conf;

    ################### LOCATION: ROOT #####################
    include inc_locationRewrites.conf;

    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|txt|woff|woff2|ttf)$ {
        expires 30d;
    }

    location ~* \.(css|js)$ {
        expires 7d;
    }
    ################### CFML HANDLER #####################
    location ~ (\.cfm|\.cfml|\.cfc|\.jsp|\.cfr|flex2gateway|messagebroker|flashservices|openamf)(.*)$ {
        proxy_pass  http://$cfml_host:8080;
        set $lucee_context $server_name;
        include     inc_lucee-proxy.conf;
    }
}

NGINX will serve static assets directly and proxy all other requests to the CF container. The last section (under CFML Handler) is the most important, but let's look at all of them:

location ~ / proxy_pass

This line directs NGINX to proxy any request whose request matches the specified extensions to the hostname matching the value of the $cfml_host variable. Because it is the last location directive, it will also proxy any request that doesn't match any other location directive so our SES-friendly requests will land here as well.

resolver

resolver 127.0.0.11 tells NGINX to use the Docker daemon's DNS resolution rather than the container's.

Upstream proxy variable (set $cmfl_host)

Whether we're using NGINX's upstream directive (as we would with a swarm configuration, as you'll see later in the Production setup section) or a simple proxy_pass directly to a single host, making the destination -- the container to which we're proxying the request -- a variable rather than a proper hostname will allow successful DNS lookups of containers that exist but aren't running; otherwise, NGINX can fail if an upstream proxy destination isn't running.

Common includes (inc_lockdown.conf, inc_locationRewrites.conf)

Some configuration directives will be common to all our CF containers -- denying (or allowing only specific hosts) to /CFIDE (for Adobe Coldfusion) or /lucee, for example. These should be factored out of site-specific definitions and into include files that can be shared by several hosts. You can look at these files in the sample app; one handles lockdowns and the other enables URL rewriting on the NGINX-side. These are both outside the scope of this guide and neither is necessary for the sample app to function.

location (CSS, JPG, Other Static Assets)

While the "meat" of this section is the proxy_pass directive, ideally we want NGINX to serve static assets like CSS and images; there's no reason for Coldfusion to serve those assets. If the NGINX container can see all the static assets in your app, this is a nice way of handling them, but it's not necessary; Commandbox particularly can serve just about anything very quickly, so if you must proxy everything to your CF container you certainly can.