So, I have some idea on what a reverse proxy does and will be using nginx (with the neat proxy manager UI) for my setup.
However, I’m not completely clear what exactly I want it to do and how I cn use it to run different services on one machine. I’m especially unclear on the ports configuration … tutorials will say things like “change the listening port to xxx for that service and to port yyy for the other service”
How does this work, which ports can I use and how do I need to configure the respective services?
EDIT: thanks everybody, your replies did help me a lot! I have my basic setup now up and running using portainer + nginx + fail2ban.
ELI5
So it’s saturday afternoon, a very hot one, so you ask your daddy for an ice cream (hosted service). The shop you go in is very bizarre though, as there is one vendor (TCP port) for each flavor (docker service/virtualhost). But it’s tricky because they’re all roaming in the shop, and you don’t know who’s responsible for each flavor. Your dad is also not very comfortable paying these vendors directly because they only accept cash and do not provide any receipt (self-signed certificate/no TLS).
Hopefully, there is the manager (reverseproxy) ! This girl is right where you expect her: behind the counter (port 80/443), accept credit cards and has a receipt machine (Domain name + associated certificate). She also knows everyone on her team, and who’s responsible for each flavor !
So you and your dad come to see the nice lady, ask for a strawberry + chocolate ice cream, and pay her directly. Once done, she forwards your request directly to the vendors responsible for each flavor, and give you back your ice cream + receipt. Life is good, and tasty !
