Proxy HTTPS requests to a HTTP backend with NGINX

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I have nginx configured to
be my externally visible webserver which talks to a backend over HTTP.

The scenario I want to achieve
is:

1. Client makes HTTP
   request to nginx which is redirect to the same URL but over
   HTTPS


2. nginx proxies request over HTTP to the
   backend


3. nginx receives response from backend over
   HTTP.


4. nginx passes this back to the client over
   HTTPS

My
current config (where backend is configured correctly) is: />

server {
 listen
            80;
 server_name localhost;

 location ~ .*
            {

 proxy_pass http://backend;
 proxy_redirect
            http://backend https://$host;
 proxy_set_header Host $host;

            }
 }

My problem is the
response to the client (step 4) is sent over HTTP not HTTPS. Any
ideas?

Answer

The type of proxy you are trying to set up
is called a reverse proxy. A quick search for reverse proxy nginx got me this
page:

href="http://intranation.com/entries/2008/09/using-nginx-reverse-proxy/"
rel="noreferrer">http://intranation.com/entries/2008/09/using-nginx-reverse-proxy/

In
addition to adding some useful features like an X-Forwarded-For header (which will give
your app visibility into the actual source IP), it specifically
does:

proxy_redirect
            off

Good luck!
:)