Docker Part Two: Provision a VPS with Nginx and SSL

18 June 20192 min read

Now that we've got a Docker image built and pushed to Docker Hub, we need somewhere to run it. Let's provision a fresh server, install Nginx, and get HTTPS sorted.

I'll assume you've got a domain name and a VPS provider of your choice (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Scaleway, whatever takes your fancy).

Step 1: SSH into your machine

Your provider will give you an IP address and credentials. SSH in.

Step 2: Update everything

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Step 3: Install Nginx

apt install nginx -y

Step 4: Create a test site

If you're planning to host multiple domains on one box, create subdirectories:

mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
nano /var/www/example.com/html/index.html

Chuck in some basic HTML:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Welcome to example.com</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
    <p>You have accessed the example.com website.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Step 5: Configure Nginx

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Add your server block:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Edit root and server_name to match your actual domain.

Step 6: Enable the site

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Step 7: Verify and restart

nginx -t
systemctl restart nginx

You should now see your site over HTTP.

Step 8: Install SSL with Certbot

Certbot handles Let's Encrypt certificates automatically. Install it via snap (the modern way):

sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Run the wizard:

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

It'll modify your Nginx config to handle HTTPS and set up auto-renewal. Done.

Previous: Docker Part One: Create an Image. Next: Deploy a Container to the Web