Nginx + SSL Setup

Setting up Nginx as a reverse proxy with SSL is one of the most common infrastructure tasks — and one of the most error-prone. A misconfigured server block, a certificate that isn't renewed, a redirect that loops: all of it can be hard to debug under pressure.

RasnuCloud handles the entire setup in a single conversation, correctly, and with a rollback plan ready if anything goes wrong.

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Prerequisites

• A domain name with a DNS A record pointing to your server's IP address
• Your application running and reachable locally on your server (on any port)

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The Conversation

Open a conversation with your server and describe what you want:

Set up Nginx as a reverse proxy for my app running on port 3000.
The domain is api.mycompany.com. Install an SSL certificate and 
redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

RasnuCloud will confirm its plan before executing:

I'll handle the full setup:

  1. Install Nginx (if not already installed)
  2. Create a site configuration for api.mycompany.com
  3. Configure it as a reverse proxy to localhost:3000
  4. Test the configuration for syntax errors
  5. Enable the site and reload Nginx
  6. Install Certbot and obtain an SSL certificate for api.mycompany.com
  7. Configure automatic HTTP → HTTPS redirect
  8. Verify that certificate auto-renewal is working

A backup of any existing Nginx configuration will be created first.
Proceed?

The entire process takes 60–90 seconds. When it completes, your domain is live on HTTPS.

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Continuing the Conversation

Once Nginx is set up, you can keep going:

Add rate limiting — 100 requests per minute per IP, with a burst of 20

Enable gzip compression for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JSON responses

Cache static assets for 1 year and add cache-busting headers for my app

I need a second domain, staging.mycompany.com, pointing to port 4000

Show me the current Nginx access logs filtered to 5xx errors only

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Certificate Renewals

SSL certificates are renewed automatically — you don't need to do anything to maintain them. RasnuCloud's server intelligence tracks expiry dates across all certificates on your server. If a renewal fails or a certificate is approaching expiry, you'll receive an alert in your dashboard and via your configured notification channels.

To check certificate status at any time:

Check all SSL certificate expiry dates on this server

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Troubleshooting

When something isn't working, describe the symptom — RasnuCloud diagnoses it:

Nginx is returning 502 Bad Gateway — figure out what's wrong

HTTPS isn't working on my domain even though the certificate was installed successfully

My WebSocket connections keep dropping when going through Nginx

Nginx won't start — show me the error and fix it

RasnuCloud reads the actual logs and configuration on your server to give you an accurate diagnosis, not generic advice.