Docker with Nginx

Learn how to use Nginx inside Docker to serve static websites, proxy requests to backend apps, and configure virtual hosts.

Run Nginx with Docker (Quick Start)

docker run -d --name my-nginx -p 8080:80 nginx:latest

Open http://localhost:8080 — you will see the Nginx welcome page.

Serve a Custom HTML Page

Create an index.html file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>Online Learner</title></head>
<body><h1>Hello from Nginx in Docker!</h1></body>
</html>

Mount the file into the container:

docker run -d --name custom-nginx -p 8080:80 -v $(pwd)/html:/usr/share/nginx/html nginx:latest

Custom Nginx Config File

Create nginx.conf:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.html;
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Mount the config:

docker run -d --name nginx-custom-config -p 8080:80 -v $(pwd)/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf nginx:latest

Nginx as Reverse Proxy for PHP App

Create docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.9"
services:
  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
      - .:/var/www/html
  
  php:
    image: php:8.2-fpm
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html

Nginx config to proxy to PHP-FPM:

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html/public;
    index index.php;
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }
    location ~ .php$ {
        fastcgi_pass php:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

docker compose up -d

Build a Custom Nginx Image

FROM nginx:latest
RUN rm /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
COPY html/ /usr/share/nginx/html/
EXPOSE 80
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

docker build -t my-nginx-image .
docker run -d -p 8080:80 my-nginx-image

Summary

Use docker run -p 8080:80 nginx to quickly start Nginx in a container
Mount your HTML files with -v to serve custom content
Use Nginx as a reverse proxy to forward requests to PHP-FPM containers
Use Docker Compose to manage Nginx + PHP as a full stack

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