Here is the minimal Nginx web server configuration in order to needed to run Nginx at the front of Plone open source CMS site.
This is a minimal Nginx configuration for Ubuntu/Debian Nginx to run at the front of Plone.
These instructions are not for configurations where one uses buildout configuration
tool to build a static Nginx server.
- Plone sites will by default served from port 8080, as set by Plone installer
- We use a VirtualHostMonster URL rewriting mechanism to pass the orignal protocol and hostname to Plone. VirtualHostMonster is a way to rewrite the request path.
- We also need to rewrite the request path, because you want to site be directly serverd from port 80 root (/),
but Plone sites are nested in the Zope application server as paths /site1, /site2 etc. - You don’t need to configure VirtualHostMonster in Plone/Zope in any way, because all the installers
will automatically install one for you. Nginx configuration is all you need to touch. - The URL passed for VirtualHostMonster is the URL Plone uses to construct links in the template (portal_url in the code, also used by content absolute_url() method). If your site loads without CSS styles usually it is a sign that VirtualHostMonster URL is
incorrectly written – Plone uses the URL to link stylesheets also. - Plone itself contains a mini web server (Medusa) which servers the requests from port 8080 – Nginx acts simple as a HTTP proxy between Medusa and outgoing port 80 traffic. Nginx does not spawn Plone process or anything like that, but Plone processes are externally controlled, usually by buildout created bin/instance and bin/plonectl commands.
Create file /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.conf with contents:
# This defines in which IP and port Plone is running.
# The default is 127.0.0.1:8080
upstream plone {
server 127.0.0.1:8090;
}
# Redirect all www-less traffic to www.site.com domain
# (you could also do the opposite www -> non-www domain)
server {
listen 80;
server_name yoursite.com;
rewrite ^/(.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 permanent;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name www.yoursite.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/yoursite.com.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/yoursite.com.error.log;
# Note that domain name spelling in VirtualHostBase URL matters
# -> this is what Plone sees as the "real" HTTP request URL.
# "Plone" in the URL is your site id (case sensitive)
location / {
proxy_pass http://plone/VirtualHostBase/http/yoursite.com:80/Plone/VirtualHostRoot/;
}
}
Then enable the site by creating a symbolic link:
sudo -i cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled ln -s ../sites-available/yoursite.com .
See that your Nginx configuration is valid:
/etc/init.d/nginx configtest ok configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful nginx.
If the config was ok then restart:
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
More info
