unsure how to nginx another (not mailcow) webserver?

TechMonkey

Hello. I have a mailcow server up and running on my own hardware. It’s directly on the host, not in a vm and is the only thing running on the hardware (other than the os.) I would like to start another website and use it on the same hardware. I understand a little about how the reverse proxy’s work, but I don understand how to edit nginx to work. Should I just avoid running nginx on the host and use the nginx that’s included with mailcow? (obviously with the changes for the new site)

I assume I can just start another webserver in another docker container and point the nginx configuration at the correct ports for the new container when the new website domain is queried? Am I saying this correctly? I tried Chatgpt but its not helpful and seems to conflicts with the few things I have read.

is it better to just run seperate VMs and run a main nginx config on the host? in this case, what about the nginx in the container?

sorry for the basic question, i just dont understand all the routing.

ETNyx

Hello, basically you do not want to mess whit MC, either you or future update will break something. I would recommend to make yourself small proxy as your gateway and from there route 80|433 as needed and keep things as isolated as you can.

Internet --- VM1 proxy ----- VM2 MC
                        \--- VM3 What ever you need

Depend on your setup VM1 could be your host,…

How to setup MC to work whit proxy you will find here and base on your preference Apache proxy or Nginx proxy

TechMonkey

ETNyx I thought that might be the suggestion. So to be clear, you are suggesting moving mailcow to a vm, and running seperate vms on the same host, then using a reverse proxy on the host to send traffic to the vm?

routing questions.
1) normal web traffic ports (80 8080 443 and 8443) will need to go through nginx on the host machine, does this interfere with nginx on the vm or can I just leave it alone since it will simply be receiving filtered traffic
2) for the remaing ports that mailcow uses (25 465 587, etc) would those be still port forwarded from the router itself or does Nginx parse those on the host machine as well??

I will study the links you sent asap. thank you.

esackbauer

TechMonkey does this interfere with nginx on the vm

No, you can use your nginx on the VM to use it as reverse proxy. The documentation shows how to configure it:
https://docs.mailcow.email/post_installation/reverse-proxy/r_p/

TechMonkey would those be still port forwarded from the router itself

Yes

TechMonkey

esackbauer
ok I think I understand. So the port mapping makes sense. and the port binding for the host makes sense. I will bind mailcow to ports 8010/1443 and new web server to 8020/2443, and my unifi controller (Which uses 8443) to 3443. Traffic will be pushed to those ports by nginx on the host based on domain name of the server being queried. I will make the main network router send traffic on these ports all to the host machine (10.10.10.77)

i will run mailcow in its dockerized environment, and another php website/webserver in a second docker environment.

If I do it this way, then none of the internal docker routing matters? or is there any reason to route anything directly to the mailcow-dockerized internal ip’s (172.22.x.x)

Last question, I promise 😃 because I have 5 different domain names running inside my mailcow, do I need to do anything which each domain name specifically in the host (reverse proxy) nginx config, or just route the main.mailserver.com traffic only?

chatgpt told me to use no ports at all but I think its aislop can i cant get it to post here correctly.

esackbauer

TechMonkey or is there any reason to route anything directly to the mailcow-dockerized internal ip’s (172.22.x.x)

No, please use always the ports mailcow binds to on the VM. Mailcow sets up its own firewall rules with iptables, and you don’t want to interfere with that (a future update of mailcow might then break things).

TechMonkey or just route the main.mailserver.com traffic only?

Yes, its that simple. Just make sure that for each mail domain the MX record points to main.mailserver.com, and that all SPF/DKIM etc records are set up:
https://docs.mailcow.email/getstarted/prerequisite-dns/#the-minimal-dns-configuration

TechMonkey

esackbauer thank you I am working on it all tonight!