deploy local nginx server to public ubuntu 16.04

Question

I am trying to deploy my local nginx server to the public. The nginx server runs as a reverse proxy to my node express app which is also running locally on port 3000. Therefore I have created a symbolic link from /etc/nginx/sites-available/express TO /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/express, so my configuration file is called express and looks like this.

/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/express

upstream express_servers{
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

server {

    listen 80;

        location / {
        proxy_pass http://express_servers;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        }

}

I have removed the default file from the sites-enabled folder and I have not changed my nginx.conf file which looks like this

/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 768;
    # multi_accept on;
}

http {

    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    # server_tokens off;

    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    # server_name_in_redirect off;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ##
    # SSL Settings
    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    gzip on;
    gzip_disable "msie6";

    # gzip_vary on;
    # gzip_proxied any;
    # gzip_comp_level 6;
    # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    # gzip_http_version 1.1;
    # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#   # See sample authentication script at:
#   # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#   # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#   # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#   # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:110;
#       protocol   pop3;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
# 
#   server {
#       listen     localhost:143;
#       protocol   imap;
#       proxy      on;
#   }
#}

I also changed my firewall settings with ufw (uncomplicated firewall) to allow in http access (especially nginx). My ufw status looks like the following:

Status: active
Logging: on (low)
Default: deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed)
New profiles: skip

    To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
80/tcp (Nginx HTTP)        ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
80                         ALLOW IN    Anywhere                  
80/tcp (Nginx HTTP (v6))   ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6)             
80 (v6)                    ALLOW IN    Anywhere (v6) 

when I am running load tests with wrk or loadtest(npm) everything seems to work fine. For example

wrk -t12 -c50 -d5s http://192.168.178.57/getCats/eng

so locally I can access the nginx server, but when I try to access the server from public with my Phone (3G/4G), I can't reach the server. What exactly did I miss ?

EDIT: I'm trying to access the service by http://PUBLIC_IP_ADDR/getCats/eng, not the local addr.

Answer 1

Your nginx config looks perfectly fine.

To be able to access your server from outside you need a public static IP from your ISP. Also ISP should not block incoming traffic to ports 80 and 443(in case you decide to go with https).

Then you probably have a LAN like this:

ISP <---> Router <---> Server
             ^
             |
             ----> your other devices

In this case public IP will be assigned to router, all other devices will have local private ips like 192.168.x.x/24/10.x.x.x/8/172.16.0.0/20

You need to configure port forwarding to server's private ip from router. Depending on router's vendor this feature may be called virtual server or so and is usually found somewhere near WAN configuration. Set it up to forward TCP port 80 to server local port 80 and the same for 443.

Also you may need to configure server to static ip so that local ip address will not change