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+# Running Netdata behind Nginx
+
+## Intro
+
+[Nginx](https://nginx.org/en/) is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, a mail proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server used to host websites and applications of all sizes. 
+
+The software is known for its low impact on memory resources, high scalability, and its modular, event-driven architecture which can offer secure, predictable performance.
+
+## Why Nginx
+
+-   By default, Nginx is fast and lightweight out of the box.
+
+-   Nginx is used and useful in cases when you want to access different instances of Netdata from a single server.
+
+-   Password-protect access to Netdata, until distributed authentication is implemented via the Netdata cloud Sign In mechanism.
+
+-   A proxy was necessary to encrypt the communication to Netdata, until v1.16.0, which provided TLS (HTTPS) support.
+
+## Nginx configuration file
+
+All Nginx configurations can be found in the `/etc/nginx/` directory. The main configuration file is `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`. Website or app-specific configurations can be found in the `/etc/nginx/site-available/` directory.
+
+Configuration options in Nginx are known as directives. Directives are organized into groups known as blocks or contexts. The two terms can be used interchangeably.
+
+Depending on your installation source, you’ll find an example configuration file at `/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf` or `etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default`, in some cases you may have to manually create the `sites-available` and `sites-enabled` directories. 
+
+You can edit the Nginx configuration file with Nano, Vim or any other text editors you are comfortable with.
+
+After making changes to the configuration files:
+
+-   Test Nginx configuration with `nginx -t`.
+
+-   Restart Nginx to effect the change with `/etc/init.d/nginx restart` or `service nginx restart`.
+
+## Ways to access Netdata via Nginx
+
+### As a virtual host
+
+With this method instead of `SERVER_IP_ADDRESS:19999`, the Netdata dashboard can be accessed via a human-readable URL such as `netdata.example.com` used in the configuration below. 
+
+```conf
+upstream backend {
+    # the Netdata server
+    server 127.0.0.1:19999;
+    keepalive 1024;
+}
+
+server {
+    # nginx listens to this
+    listen 80;
+    # uncomment the line if you want nginx to listen on IPv6 address
+    #listen [::]:80;
+
+    # the virtual host name of this
+    server_name netdata.example.com;
+
+    location / {
+        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;
+        proxy_pass http://backend;
+        proxy_http_version 1.1;
+        proxy_pass_request_headers on;
+        proxy_set_header Connection "keep-alive";
+        proxy_store off;
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### As a subfolder to an existing virtual host
+
+This method is recommended when Netdata is to be served from a subfolder (or directory). 
+In this case, the virtual host `netdata.example.com` already exists and Netdata has to be accessed via `netdata.example.com/netdata/`.
+
+```conf
+upstream netdata {
+    server 127.0.0.1:19999;
+    keepalive 64;
+}
+
+server {
+    listen 80;
+    # uncomment the line if you want nginx to listen on IPv6 address
+    #listen [::]:80;
+
+    # the virtual host name of this subfolder should be exposed
+    #server_name netdata.example.com;
+
+    location = /netdata {
+        return 301 /netdata/;
+    }
+
+    location ~ /netdata/(?<ndpath>.*) {
+        proxy_redirect off;
+        proxy_set_header Host $host;
+
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+        proxy_http_version 1.1;
+        proxy_pass_request_headers on;
+        proxy_set_header Connection "keep-alive";
+        proxy_store off;
+        proxy_pass http://netdata/$ndpath$is_args$args;
+
+        gzip on;
+        gzip_proxied any;
+        gzip_types *;
+    }
+}
+```
+
+### As a subfolder for multiple Netdata servers, via one Nginx
+
+This is the recommended configuration when one Nginx will be used to manage multiple Netdata servers via subfolders. 
+
+```conf
+upstream backend-server1 {
+    server 10.1.1.103:19999;
+    keepalive 64;
+}
+upstream backend-server2 {
+    server 10.1.1.104:19999;
+    keepalive 64;
+}
+
+server {
+    listen 80;
+    # uncomment the line if you want nginx to listen on IPv6 address
+    #listen [::]:80;
+
+    # the virtual host name of this subfolder should be exposed
+    #server_name netdata.example.com;
+
+    location ~ /netdata/(?<behost>.*?)/(?<ndpath>.*) {
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+        proxy_http_version 1.1;
+        proxy_pass_request_headers on;
+        proxy_set_header Connection "keep-alive";
+        proxy_store off;
+        proxy_pass http://backend-$behost/$ndpath$is_args$args;
+
+        gzip on;
+        gzip_proxied any;
+        gzip_types *;
+    }
+
+    # make sure there is a trailing slash at the browser
+    # or the URLs will be wrong
+    location ~ /netdata/(?<behost>.*) {
+        return 301 /netdata/$behost/;
+    }
+}
+```
+
+Of course you can add as many backend servers as you like.
+
+Using the above, you access Netdata on the backend servers, like this:
+
+-   `http://netdata.example.com/netdata/server1/` to reach `backend-server1`
+-   `http://netdata.example.com/netdata/server2/` to reach `backend-server2`
+
+### Encrypt the communication between Nginx and Netdata
+
+In case Netdata's web server has been [configured to use TLS](/src/web/server/README.md#enabling-tls-support), it is
+necessary to specify inside the Nginx configuration that the final destination is using TLS. To do this, please, append
+the following parameters in your `nginx.conf`
+
+```conf
+proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
+proxy_pass https://localhost:19999;
+```
+
+Optionally it is also possible to [enable TLS/SSL on Nginx](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/configuring_https_servers.html), this way the user will encrypt not only the communication between Nginx and Netdata but also between the user and Nginx.
+
+If Nginx is not configured as described here, you will probably receive the error `SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG`.
+
+### Enable authentication
+
+Create an authentication file to enable basic authentication via Nginx, this secures your Netdata dashboard.
+
+If you don't have an authentication file, you can use the following command:
+
+```sh
+printf "yourusername:$(openssl passwd -apr1)" > /etc/nginx/passwords
+```
+
+And then enable the authentication inside your server directive:
+
+```conf
+server {
+    # ...
+    auth_basic "Protected";
+    auth_basic_user_file passwords;
+    # ...
+}
+```
+
+## Limit direct access to Netdata
+
+If your Nginx is on `localhost`, you can use this to protect your Netdata:
+
+```
+[web]
+    bind to = 127.0.0.1 ::1
+```
+
+You can also use a unix domain socket. This will also provide a faster route between Nginx and Netdata:
+
+```
+[web]
+    bind to = unix:/var/run/netdata/netdata.sock
+```
+
+*note: Netdata v1.8+ support unix domain sockets*
+
+At the Nginx side, use something like this to use the same unix domain socket:
+
+```conf
+upstream backend {
+    server unix:/var/run/netdata/netdata.sock;
+    keepalive 64;
+}
+```
+
+
+If your Nginx server is not on localhost, you can set:
+
+```
+[web]
+    bind to = *
+    allow connections from = IP_OF_NGINX_SERVER
+```
+
+*note: Netdata v1.9+ support `allow connections from`*
+
+`allow connections from` accepts [Netdata simple patterns](/src/libnetdata/simple_pattern/README.md) to match against the
+connection IP address.
+
+## Prevent the double access.log
+
+Nginx logs accesses and Netdata logs them too. You can prevent Netdata from generating its access log, by setting this in `/etc/netdata/netdata.conf`:
+
+```
+[logs]
+    access = off
+```
+
+## Use gzip compression
+
+By default, netdata compresses its responses. You can have nginx do that instead, with the following options in the `location /` block:
+
+```conf
+  location / {
+		...
+		gzip on;
+		gzip_proxied any;
+		gzip_types *;
+	}
+```
+
+To disable Netdata's gzip compression, open `netdata.conf` and in the `[web]` section put:
+
+```conf
+[web]
+    enable gzip compression = no
+```
+
+## SELinux
+
+If you get an 502 Bad Gateway error you might check your Nginx error log:
+
+```sh
+# cat /var/log/nginx/error.log:
+2016/09/09 12:34:05 [crit] 5731#5731: *1 connect() to 127.0.0.1:19999 failed (13: Permission denied) while connecting to upstream, client: 1.2.3.4, server: netdata.example.com, request: "GET / HTTP/2.0", upstream: "http://127.0.0.1:19999/", host: "netdata.example.com"
+```
+
+If you see something like the above, chances are high that SELinux prevents nginx from connecting to the backend server. To fix that, just use this policy: `setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect true`.
+
+