nginx reverse proxy to apache-wordpress works but

Question

I have a nginx reverse proxy setup for apache wordpress which works fine. However based on location need to redirect to an external url which fails. Please check the below config. Is this a valid setup ?

https://platform.com/ - this works - also any subsequent wp pages also works

https://platform.com/pen - this needs to redirect to https://abcdef.com - this doesn't work - 404 page load error Any help ?

server {
    listen 443 ssl default_server;
    listen [::]:443 default_server;

    server_name platform.com;
    server_tokens off;

    root /var/www/html/def/public/;
    index index.php;

    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /tmp/fgh.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /tmp/fgh.pem;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access2.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error2.log;

    location / {
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            try_files $uri @apache;
    }

    location @apache {
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    }

     location ~[^?]*/$ {
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
     }

     location /pen {
            proxy_pass https://abcdef.com;
    }
   }

Answer 1

After changing the server name (wordpress site) from http prefix to www prefix, proxy pass re directions worked. Had to redirect all http https server blocks to www server block in nginx config

Answer 2

What you are doing is a proxy_pass to https://abcdef.com , not a redirect. if you meant a redirect the code is :

 location /pen {
        return 301 https://abcdef.com;
}

If it's not a definitive redirect, use 302 instead of 301, so is not cached (for tests is much better).

The reason the 404 is given is because you are accessing the https://abcdef.com with a request with the host/url https://platform.com/pen If the destiny server is not prepared to recive this whole url, it returns 404, as /pen is not found.