NGINX + Let's Encrypt

Key Features

• Event-driven asynchronous architecture handling thousands of concurrent connections with minimal memory overhead
• Automatic SSL certificate issuance and renewal through Let's Encrypt ACME protocol integration
• HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 support for improved page load performance and multiplexed connections
• Built-in rate limiting and connection limiting to prevent abuse and DDoS attacks
• Zero-downtime certificate renewals with continuous Certbot monitoring every 12 hours
• WebSocket proxying support for real-time applications and bidirectional communication
• Advanced load balancing algorithms including round-robin, least-connections, and IP hash methods
• SSL/TLS termination with modern cipher suite support and security headers configuration

Common Use Cases

• 1Production websites requiring HTTPS with automated certificate management and high availability
• 2E-commerce platforms needing SSL encryption for payment processing and customer data protection
• 3API endpoints serving mobile applications or third-party integrations requiring secure HTTPS communication
• 4Blog and content management systems with high traffic volumes and strict uptime requirements
• 5Development and staging environments that mirror production HTTPS configurations for testing
• 6Small business websites transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS for SEO benefits and browser security warnings
• 7Multi-domain hosting environments where each site needs individual SSL certificates with automated renewal

Prerequisites

• Domain name with DNS A record pointing to your server's public IP address for certificate validation
• Server with minimum 256MB RAM for NGINX plus additional 128MB for Certbot operations
• Open ports 80 and 443 on firewall for HTTP challenge validation and HTTPS traffic
• Basic understanding of NGINX server block configuration and SSL certificate concepts
• Docker and Docker Compose installed with sufficient disk space for certificate storage (approximately 100MB per domain)

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  nginx: 
3    image: nginx:alpine
4    container_name: nginx
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    ports: 
7      - "80:80"
8      - "443:443"
9    volumes: 
10      - ./nginx/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro
11      - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt:ro
12      - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot:ro
13    networks: 
14      - web
15
16  certbot: 
17    image: certbot/certbot
18    container_name: certbot
19    volumes: 
20      - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
21      - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot
22    entrypoint: "/bin/sh -c 'trap exit TERM; while :; do certbot renew; sleep 12h & wait $${!}; done;'"
23    networks: 
24      - web
25
26networks: 
27  web: 
28    driver: bridge

.env Template

1# Domain Configuration
2DOMAIN=example.com
3EMAIL=admin@example.com

Usage Notes

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

nginx:
  image: nginx:alpine
  container_name: nginx
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - "80:80"
    - "443:443"
  volumes:
    - ./nginx/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro
    - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt:ro
    - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot:ro
  networks:
    - web

certbot:
  image: certbot/certbot
  container_name: certbot
  volumes:
    - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
    - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot
  entrypoint: /bin/sh -c 'trap exit TERM; while :; do certbot renew; sleep 12h & wait $${!}; done;'
  networks:
    - web

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  nginx:
5    image: nginx:alpine
6    container_name: nginx
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    ports:
9      - "80:80"
10      - "443:443"
11    volumes:
12      - ./nginx/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d:ro
13      - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt:ro
14      - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot:ro
15    networks:
16      - web
17
18  certbot:
19    image: certbot/certbot
20    container_name: certbot
21    volumes:
22      - ./certbot/conf:/etc/letsencrypt
23      - ./certbot/www:/var/www/certbot
24    entrypoint: "/bin/sh -c 'trap exit TERM; while :; do certbot renew; sleep 12h & wait $${!}; done;'"
25    networks:
26      - web
27
28networks:
29  web:
30    driver: bridge
31EOF
32
33# 2. Create the .env file
34cat > .env << 'EOF'
35# Domain Configuration
36DOMAIN=example.com
37EMAIL=admin@example.com
38EOF
39
40# 3. Start the services
41docker compose up -d
42
43# 4. View logs
44docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/nginx-letsencrypt/run | bash

Troubleshooting