How to test nginx subdomains on localhost

Question

I want to test nginx subdomains before uploading config to the server. Can i test it on localhost? I try

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  localhost;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
    }
}

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  sub.localhost;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080/sub;
    }
}

And it does not work. Shoulld i change my hosts file in order to make it work? Also, after uploading site to the server should i change DNS records and add sub.mydomain.com?

Answer 1

For your public webserver with its own domain name, you just need to add a Canonical name using a CNAME record in your DNS configuration:

CNAME    *    example.com.

Once this is done, set your nginx setting

server_name  *.example.com example.com;

In your local setup you can keep the same configuration for nginx but unless you have a local DNS setup, you will have to edit your /etc/hosts file and add each subdomain manually. wildcards don't work in the /etc/hosts file.

127.0.0.1  abc.example.com def.example.com ghi.example.com

It is generally recommended to use .local as the namespace for your local domains.

Answer 2

In Linux based OS just to edit as sudo /etc/hosts file and change 127.0.0.1 localhost to 127.0.0.1 *.localhost.

So at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/<environment>/<your_project_name> edit server_name key as <subdomain>.localhost.

Reload nginx and networking service.

$ sudo service nginx reload
$ sudo service networking reload

And then try http://<subdomain>.localhost at url bar.

It works for me.

UPDATE

In my opinion, a better solution is creating a virtual server that only responds if subdomain doesn’t exist, at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/development/default, as default server (remember that you can define only one server as default).

server {
  listen 80 default_server;
  root /var/www/html/errors/404;
  server_name *.localhost *.<host-name>;

  location / {
    index subdomain.html;
  }

}

Make sure that in nginx.conf (generally at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf) contain include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/**/*; to this virtual server work. If not, put it and then run $ sudo service nginx reload.

In this case don’t is necessary put *.localhost in /etc/hosts, but only localhost.

Answer 3

Yes, add '127.0.0.1 sub.localhost' to your hosts file. That sub has to be resolved somehow. That should work.

Then once you're ready to go to the net, yes, add an a or cname record for the subdomain sub.

When I use proxy_pass I also include the proxy.conf from nginx. http://wiki.nginx.org/HttpProxyModule