Properly setting up a “default” nginx server for https

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I managed to configure a shared dedicated hosting on a single IP with nginx. Default HTTP and HTTPS serving a 404 for unknown domains incoming.

1 – Create a default zone

As nginx is loading vhosts in ascii order, you should create a 00-default file/symbolic link into your /etc/nginx/sites-enabled.

2 – Fill the default zone

Fill your 00-default with default vhosts. Here is the zone i am using:

server {
    server_name _;
    listen       80  default_server;
    return       404;
}


server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name _;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key;
    return       404;
}

3 – Create self signed certif, test, and reload

You will need to create a self signed certificate into /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt.

Create a default self signed certificate: 

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.key -out /etc/nginx/ssl/nginx.crt

Just a reminder:

  • Test the nginx configuration before reloading/restarting : nginx -t
  • Reload a enjoy: sudo service nginx reload

Hope it helps.

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