multiple site on localhost served by nginx without domain name - nginx

Question

I'm on ubuntu 20.04 rpi4 and I like to write some www site for testing.
Is quite simple configure nginx using some server blocks and server_name inside the server blocs to point to some virtual domain not existing and then set this domain to point to localhost in /etc/hosts:
# /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 adminer
127.0.0.1 pippo
127.0.0.1 pluto
to have some site like this:
http://adminer
http://pippo
http://pluto
But I like to avoid /etc/hosts setting.
what I like is:
http://localhost/adminer
http://localhost/pippo
http://localhost/pluto
...
to point to 3 different site adminer, pippo and pluto.
It is possible?
what configuration have to use?
can I use one server block for one site or have I to use one server block to all 3 sites?
I'm new on nginx ...
best regards,
Leonardo

Answer 1

I just came across the same issue and I used ports to achieve that.
This solution worked for me on a local machine and home network and probably works on any VPS without domain.
WEB SERVER 1
Open your firewall, example port 81
sudo ufw allow 81
Create your 1st web directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/web-folder-name1
Create test content in your web-folder
sudo nano /var/www/web-folder-name1/index.html
and paste any content here to test
Hello World 1!
Create a virtual host file in Nginx
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-folder-name1
and paste the following content
server {
listen 81; # the port is important
server_name _; # underscore is ok as you don't have a domain
root /var/www/web-folder-name1;
index index.html;
}
Enable your web server
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-folder-name1 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
WEB SERVER 2
Open your firewall, example port 82
sudo ufw allow 82
Create your 2nd web directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/web-folder-name2
Create test content in your web-folder
sudo nano /var/www/web-folder-name2/index.html
and paste any content here to test
Hello World 2!
Create a virtual host file in Nginx
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-folder-name2
and paste the following content
server {
listen 82;
server_name _;
root /var/www/web-folder-name2;
index index.html;
}
Enable your web server
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/web-folder-name2 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Restart Nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Test in your browser
127.0.0.1:81
127.0.0.1:82
# or
localhost:81
localhost:82
# or if you're on a network
static-ip:81
static-ip:82

Answer 2

Thanks #lotfio.
if server_name is the same cannot be other server blocks using the same server_name, I suppose.
to avoid setting on /etc/hosts we can be do:
on /etc/nginx/sites-available/default:
server {
#... normal default stuff conf
include /etc/nginx/sites-avilable/localhost_adminer.inc;
incluse /etc/nginx/sites-avilable/localhost_pippo.inc;
#...
#... normal default stuff conf
}
if you like to do a reverse proxy on apache2 for adminer like my first try to move from apache2 to nginx you have to configure apache2 to Listen on other port (I choose 8181):
in /etc/nginx/sites-avilable/localhost_adminer.inc
location /adminer/ {
index conf.php;
alias /etc/adminer/;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8181/adminer/;
}
(I'm on ubuntu so adminer package is configured to start on /etc/adminer/)
and so on for pippo, pluto sites etc.
best regards,
Leonardo