WordPress HTTPS with NGINX

1. Introduction

• Advantage of having a https Proxy is to be able to read the URL for virtual Http Hosts.
• Problem of WordPress is that it has http links internal and won’t rewrite them just by giving a https Site URL.
• Rewrite Rule in “sites-available” or .htaccess rewrite does not work.
• It has to be rewritten in the php-config in wordpress itself
• webaccess will end up into loops

This page isn’t working
webserver.net redirected you too many times.
Try clearing your cookies
ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS

2. Prepare certbot

• I asume you have a valid certificate on your SSL Proxy with Certbot

sudo apt install certbot
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d webserver.net -d www.webserver.net
sudo certbot renew

3. Remove Url Rewrite Directions

First remove all rewrite Rules in Sites-available (/etc/nginx/sites-available/default or /etc/apache2/sites-available/default) and in the .htaccess file in the html Directory (/var/www/html/wordpress/.htaccess)

4. Configure SSL Proxy

On the SSL Server write the following in to the file /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

server {
    index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
    server_name www.webserver.net webserver.net; # managed by Certbot

    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/webserver.net/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/webserver.net/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://192.168.122.10:80/;
        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;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https; # important!!!
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port 443;

    }
}

server {
    if ($host = www.webserver.net) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot

    if ($host = webserver.net) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot

        listen 80 ;
        listen [::]:80 ;

    server_name www.webserver.net webserver.net;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot

}

5. Configure Webserver

On the Webserver create your Webservices where each Service is located on a different Port number, so you have a clear distinction of the Webservice area. (this is for apache2 but should be similare for nginx)

<VirtualHost *:80>
	# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
	# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
	# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
	# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
	# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
	# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
	# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
	#ServerName www.example.com

	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	DocumentRoot /var/www/html/wordpress


     <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        SetEnv HOME /var/www/html/wordpress
        SetEnv HTTP_HOME /var/www/html/wordpress
     </Directory>



	# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
	# error, crit, alert, emerg.
	# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
	# modules, e.g.
	#LogLevel info ssl:warn

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

	# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
	# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
	# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
	# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
	# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
	#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

6. Configure WordPress

Now add the following to the /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php after the database entries.

define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
define('FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', true);
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO']) && $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') {
    $_SERVER['HTTPS'] = 'on';
    $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] = 443;
}

7. Multible webpages

If you want more than one webservice then make a copy of section 4. and 5. within the files.

• adapt the content for a different port like Port:81.
• Also adapt the hostname for your new webservice like next.webserver.net.
• Don’t forget to extend your certificate in section 2.
• Now you heave clear distinction of your webservices, virtualhost , ….