DigitalOcean Web Server Configuration and Hosting Multiple Websites

Project Structure

www
├── README.Rmd
├── README.md
├── nginx-proxy
│   ├── certs
│   ├── conf.d
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   ├── html
│   ├── nginx.tmpl
│   └── vhost.d
├── your-website-one.com
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   └── index.html
└── your-website-two.com
    ├── docker-compose.yml
    └── index.html

Inside /nginx-proxy, there are four empty directories: conf.d, vhost.d, html and certs. These are used to store the nginx and the Let’s Encrypt configuration files.

Inspect the docker-compose.yml configuration file

Inside /nginx-proxy/, there is a docker-compose.yml file with this content:

version: '3.6'
services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx
    labels:
      com.github.jrcs.letsencrypt_nginx_proxy_companion.nginx_proxy: "true"
    container_name: nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - ./vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro

  nginx-gen:
    image: jwilder/docker-gen
    command: -notify-sighup nginx -watch -wait 5s:30s /etc/docker-gen/templates/nginx.tmpl /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
    container_name: nginx-gen
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - ./vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs:ro
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
      - ./nginx.tmpl:/etc/docker-gen/templates/nginx.tmpl:ro

  nginx-letsencrypt:
    image: jrcs/letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion
    container_name: nginx-letsencrypt
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - ./vhost.d:/etc/nginx/vhost.d
      - ./html:/usr/share/nginx/html
      - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs:rw
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    environment:
      NGINX_DOCKER_GEN_CONTAINER: "nginx-gen"
      NGINX_PROXY_CONTAINER: "nginx"
networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: nginx-proxy

This will launch three services:

• nginx: the nginx-reverse proxy, uses the default nginx image. The label is needed so that the letsencrypt container knows which nginx proxy container to use.
• nginx-gen: uses the jwilder/docker-gen image. Its command instruction will render a nginx configuration (based on nginx.tmpl) for each website / container added to the network.
• nginx-letsencrypt: generates and renew the HTTPS certificates.

All these services are bound to the nginx-proxy network.

Update nginx.tmpl: Nginx configuration file template

Inside /nginx-proxy/, there is a nginx.tmpl file. This is the used by the nginx-gen container to create the nginx configuration file for each website / container added to the network.

Download the latest updated version from Github here:

# Remove old version
rm -rf $web_dir/nginx-proxy/nginx.tmpl
# Download new version
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jwilder/nginx-proxy/master/nginx.tmpl> $web_dir/nginx-proxy/nginx.tmpl

How to redirect from http non-www to https www?

If you have control of the DNS record, the best practice is to take care it with an ALIAS ( or CNAME). See discussion.

Solution 1. Use redirect container. Catch all http redirect, useful for http -> https redirects. Insanely fast and small! Based on alpine and nginx. Source: cusspvz/redirect.docker

version: '3.6'

services:
  www.omicstudio.com:
    image: nginx
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - "./:/usr/share/nginx/html"
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=www.omicstudio.com
      - VIRTUAL_PORT=80
      - LETSENCRYPT_HOST=www.omicstudio.com
      - LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=alboukadel.kassambara@gmail.com

  # redirect omicstudio.com to www.omicstudio.com
  omicstudio.com:
    image: cusspvz/redirect
    restart: always
    environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=omicstudio.com
      - VIRTUAL_PORT=80
      - HTTPS_METHOD=noredirect
      - LETSENCRYPT_HOST=omicstudio.com
      - REDIRECT=https://www.omicstudio.com
      # See available redirect parameters: https://github.com/cusspvz/redirect.docker
      - WORKER_CONNECTIONS=1024
      
networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: nginx-proxy

Solution 2. see this merge request: Added VIRTUAL_HOST_ALIAS support