Setup with Nginx

Introduction

This section covers how to set up nginx for the Tutor-Management-System (or your server in general). As for the installation itself docker is required because this setup steps through setting up a docker container running nginx. Furthermore, the steps assume you use docker compose to set up the nginx container, but you can find the corresponding commands below.

Step-by-Step

Using one docker-compose file

These sections should be considered a part of the installation guide. It assumes that you use docker compose to manage the setup of all required containers. However, if you want to use docker commands instead you can find a list of those below aswell.

tip

If you do not want to put the nginx and the tms in the same docker-compose file you can find an explanation on how to do so below.

Download the sample nginx configuration files from the documentation.
Unzip the downloaded files into a folder of your choice. The Step-by-Step guide assumes it is called nginx/.

Those files contain a nginx.conf file and a sites/ folder with more *.conf files and folders in it. They contain a tested default configuration that works on most systems out-of-the-box.

caution
Make sure you do NOT put the nginx/ folder inside the config/ folder used for the TMS itself.

Verify that you have the following folder and files present:

- nginx/
|--+ certs/ (empty folder)
|--| sites/
   |--| sites-available/
   |--|--+ tms.conf
   |--+ sites-enabled/ (empty folder)
   |--+ common_location.conf
   |--+ common.conf
   |--+ nginx.conf
   |--+ ssl.conf

Gather your SSL certificates and put them in a folder which can be mounted into the docker container. This Step-by-Step guide assumes they are in the certs/ folder shown above.

tip
If you do not have a certificate you can use one from the CA Let's Encrypt.
Open the tms.conf file inside the sites/sites-available/ folder and make the following adjustment:
1. Replace all <URL> occurrences with the url (without protocol!) of your server _For example: Your TMS instance has the URL https://my-tms-instance.de you only put my-tms-instance.de there.
  note
  If the TMS instance should be reachable through several URLs you can put all of them in there seperated with spaces, for example:
  server_name www.my-tms-instance.de my-tms-instance.de other-url.com;
2. Replace <PUBLIC_KEY> with the absolute path the public key will be in the container. For the example dockercompose service and folders this would be
```
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/fullchain.pem;
```
3. Replace <PRIVATE> with the absolute path the private key will be in the container. For the example docker compose service and folders this would be
```
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/privkey.pem;
```
  important
  If you want to use your certificate for other configured sites aswell just move the entries ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key into the ssl.conf file found in the sites/ folder. Remember to include the ssl.conf file in additional site configurations.
4. Verify that the URL in the location / after proxy_pass matches the name of the TMS container followed by the port the server listens on (by default the name is tms-server and the port is 8080).
Create a symbolic link inside the sites-enabled/ folder which points to the tms.conf file by executing the following command inside the sites-enabled/ folder:
```
ln -s ../sites-available/tms.conf .
```
(optional) You can add more sites to your nginx configuration by:
1. Create a new conf-file inside the sites-available/ folder containing the necessary configuration.
2. Create a symbolic link inside the sites-enabled/ folder which points to your created conf-file
```
ln -s ../sites-available/<NAME-OF-FILE> .
```
Add the nginx service to your docker-compose file used during the installation. You can find the service in this sample docker-compose file.

caution
Make sure that the mounted folders match the ones you want to mount (if your folders have different names than this Step-by-Step guide assumes).
Proceed with the rest of the installation guide.

Using two docker-compose files

If you want to use different docker-compose files for nginx and the TMS follow these additional steps to get both containers into the same network:

Create a new docker network called "proxy_network" by running:
```
docker network create proxy_network
```
tip
You can change the name to be what-ever you like but remember it for later.
Change the proxy_network property in the networks section of both docker-compose files to be like this:
```
networks:
  proxy_network:
    external:
      name: proxy_network
```
Use correct name of network
If you changed the name earlier make sure to change the value of the name attribute accordingly.

Commands

Create the proxy network
```
docker network create proxy_network
```

Create the nginx container (without starting it):

docker create --name nginx --restart always -p 80:80 -p 433:433 --net proxy_network -v $PWD/nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf -v $PWD/nginx/sites:/etc/nginx/sites -v $PWD/nginx/certs:/etc/nginx/certs nginx

caution

Please note: If you renamed the nginx/ and/or certs/ folder make sure to adjust the corresponding volumes (-v) accordingly. All paths must be absolute paths.

(after completing the rest of the installation) Start the nginx container:
```
docker start nginx
```
warning
You have to start the server of the TMS before starting nginx. Otherwise, nginx will throw an error and stop.

Introduction​

Step-by-Step​

Using one docker-compose file​

Using two docker-compose files​

Commands​

Introduction

Step-by-Step

Using one docker-compose file

Using two docker-compose files

Commands