# Configure Nginx (optional, advanced)

**Note**: the playbook is [in the process of moving to Traefik](../CHANGELOG.md#reverse-proxy-configuration-changes-and-initial-traefik-support). Traefik is already the default reverse-proxy for new installations and existing users are also strongly encouraged to switch to Traefik. As such, this **nginx documentation below may be incomplete or misleading**.


## Using Nginx status

This will serve a statuspage to the hosting machine only. Useful for monitoring software like [longview](https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/longview/longview-app-for-nginx/)

```yaml
matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_nginx_status_enabled: true
```

This will serve the status page under the following addresses:
- `http://matrix.DOMAIN/nginx_status` (using HTTP)
- `https://matrix.DOMAIN/nginx_status` (using HTTPS)

By default, if ```matrix_nginx_proxy_nginx_status_enabled``` is enabled, access to the status page would be allowed from the local IP address of the server. If you wish to allow access from other IP addresses, you can provide them as a list:

```yaml
matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_nginx_status_allowed_addresses:
- 8.8.8.8
- 1.1.1.1
```

## Adjusting SSL in your server

You can adjust how the SSL is served by the nginx server using the `matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_preset` variable. We support a few presets, based on the Mozilla Server Side TLS
Recommended configurations. These presets influence the TLS Protocol, the SSL Cipher Suites and the `ssl_prefer_server_ciphers` variable of nginx.
Possible values are:

- `"modern"` - For Modern clients that support TLS 1.3, with no need for backwards compatibility
- `"intermediate"` (**default**) - Recommended configuration for a general-purpose server
- `"old"` - Services accessed by very old clients or libraries, such as Internet Explorer 8 (Windows XP), Java 6, or OpenSSL 0.9.8

**Be really carefull when setting it to `"modern"`**. This could break comunication with other Matrix servers, limiting your federation posibilities.

Besides changing the preset (`matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_preset`), you can also directly override these 3 variables:

- `matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_protocols`: for specifying the supported TLS protocols.
- `matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_prefer_server_ciphers`: for specifying if the server or the client choice when negotiating the cipher. It can set to `on` or `off`.
- `matrix_nginx_proxy_ssl_ciphers`: for specifying the SSL Cipher suites used by nginx.

For more information about these variables, check the `roles/custom/matrix-nginx-proxy/defaults/main.yml` file.

## Synapse + OpenID Connect for Single-Sign-On

If you want to use OpenID Connect as an SSO provider (as per the [Synapse OpenID docs](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/docs/openid.md)), you need to use the following configuration (in your `vars.yml` file) to instruct nginx to forward `/_synapse/oidc` to Synapse:

```yaml
matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_matrix_client_api_forwarded_location_synapse_oidc_api_enabled: true
```

## Disable Nginx access logs

This will disable the access logging for nginx.

```yaml
matrix_nginx_proxy_access_log_enabled: false
```

## Additional configuration

This playbook also allows for additional configuration to be applied to the nginx server.

If you want this playbook to obtain and renew certificates for other domains, then you can set the `matrix_ssl_additional_domains_to_obtain_certificates_for` variable (as mentioned in the [Obtaining SSL certificates for additional domains](configuring-playbook-ssl-certificates.md#obtaining-ssl-certificates-for-additional-domains) documentation as well). Make sure that you have set the DNS configuration for the domains you want to include to point at your server.

```yaml
matrix_ssl_additional_domains_to_obtain_certificates_for:
  - domain.one.example
  - domain.two.example
```

You can include additional nginx configuration by setting the `matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_http_additional_server_configuration_blocks` variable.

```yaml
matrix_nginx_proxy_proxy_http_additional_server_configuration_blocks:
  - |
    # These lines will be included in the nginx configuration.
    # This is at the top level of the file, so you will need to define all of the `server { ... }` blocks.
  - |
    # For advanced use, have a look at the template files in `roles/custom/matrix-nginx-proxy/templates/nginx/conf.d`
```