Running Confluence behind NGINX with SSL

This page describes how to set up NGINX as a reverse proxy for Confluence.

The configuration described on this page results in a scenario where:

• External client connections with NGINX are secured using SSL. Connections between NGINX and Confluence Server are unsecured.
• Confluence Server and NGINX run on the same machine.

We assume that you already have a running instance of NGINX. If not, refer to the NGINX documentation for instructions on downloading and installing NGINX. SSL certificates must be installed on the server machine.  You’ll an NGINX version that supports WebSockets (1.3 or later).

If your team plans to use the Confluence Server mobile app, you’ll need a certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority.  You can’t use the app with a self-signed certificate, or one from an untrusted or private CA.

Step 1: Set the context path

 If you want to access Confluence without a context path (www.example.com), or via a sub-domain (confluence.example.com)  skip this step.

Set your Confluence application path (the part after hostname and port) in Tomcat.  Edit <installation-directory>/conf/server.xml, locate the “Context” definition:

<Context path="" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false">

and change it to:

<Context path="/confluence" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false">

In this example we’ve used /confluence as the context path. Note that you can’t use /resources as your context path, as this is used by Confluence, and will cause problems later on.

Restart Confluence, and check you can access it at http://example:8090/confluence

Step 2: Configure the Tomcat connector

In the same <installation-directory>conf/server.xml file, use the example connectors as a starting point.

Comment out the default connector (for unproxied access).

Uncomment the connector listed under the HTTPS – Proxying Confluence via Apache or Nginx over HTTPS heading.

Insert your proxyName and proxyPort as shown in the last line below:

<Connector port="8090" connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443"
   maxThreads="48" minSpareThreads="10"
   enableLookups="false" acceptCount="10" debug="0" URIEncoding="UTF-8"
   protocol="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol"
   scheme="https" secure="true" proxyName="www.example.com" proxyPort="443"/>

Make sure you’ve included correct values for protocol and proxyName.

Step 3: Configure NGINX

You will need to specify a listening server in NGINX, as in the example below. Add the following to your NGINX configuration.

Replace your server name and the location of your SSL certificate and key.

In this example, users will connect to Synchrony, which is required for collaborative editing, directly.

server {
    listen www.example.com:80;
    server_name www.example.com;
 
    listen 443 default ssl;
    ssl_certificate     /usr/local/etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /usr/local/etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key;
 
    ssl_session_timeout  5m;
 
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-
POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-
AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-
AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-
ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-
RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-
SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-
SHA:!DSS';
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers   on;

    location /confluence {
        client_max_body_size 100m;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8090/confluence;
    }
    location /synchrony {
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8091/synchrony;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
    }
}

See https://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_proxy_module.html for more information.

Note: do not include ssl on; if you are configuring SSL and Confluence on the same server, as in this example.

If you’re not sure what to include for ssl_ciphers, https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/ is a useful resource.

If you experience 413 Request Entity Too Large errors, make sure that the client_max_body_size in the /confluence location block matches Confluence’s maximum attachment size. You may also need to increase the client_max_body_size in the /synchrony location block if you experience errors when editing large pages.

Step 4: Restart Confluence and NGINX

1. Restart Confluence and NGINX for all the changes to take affect.
2. Update Confluence’s base URL to include the context path you set earlier – see Configuring the Server Base URL.