Installation of HTTPS on a Symfony5, Docker and Nginx system

Before you start, it is necessary to have followed the steps in the previous article.

Creating the files needed for SSL

To do this we will use a very handy tool: mkcert.

It is a tool that allows you to create certificates that can be used locally without any configuration.

To install mkcert, go to github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert#installation.

Don’t forget the command:

mkcert -install

Once this is done, create a folder in the nginx folder with the name certs.

In my example, I took testblog.local as a domain name.

Execute the following command

mkcert testblog.local

Created a new certificate valid for the following names ?
 - "testblog.local"

The certificate is at "./testblog.local.pem" and the key at "./testblog.local-key.pem" ✅

It will expire on 8 March 2023 ?

Two files are now created

Let’s rename them to have a name that matches the standard for nginx

mv testblog.local-key.pem testblog.local.key
mv testblog.local.pem testblog.local.crt

Nginx configuration

Now it’s time to change the configuration of the nginx server.

Starting from the basic Symfony file for the nginx configuration, just change the file as follows:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;
    server_name testblog.local;
    location / {
         return 301 https://$host$request_uri;

    }
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name testblog.local;
    root /var/www/symfony/public;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
         try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
    }

    location ~ ^/index.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_pass php-upstream;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.*)$;
        include fastcgi_params;

        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param DOCUMENT_ROOT $realpath_root;

        internal;
    }

    location ~ .php$ {
        return 404;
    }

    ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/certs/testblog.local.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/testblog.local.key;

}

With the first part we redirect all requests made in http to https

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;
    server_name testblog.local;
    location / {
         return 301 https://$host$request_uri;

    }
}

And then in the second part

listen 443 ssl; indicates that we are listening on https.
server_name testblog.local; indicates the desired URL.
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/testblog.local.crt; path to the certificate
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/testblog.local.key; path to the key

Configuration of the docker-compose file

In the nginx section it is necessary to mount the certificates in docker. To do so, in the desired section add the path. Don’t forget the port either.

nginx:
  volumes:
    - ...
    - ./nginx/certs:/etc/nginx/certs
    - ...
  ports:
    - "80:80"
    - "443:443"

Final result:

nginx:
  build:
    context: ./nginx
  volumes:
    - ../symfony:/var/www/symfony
    - ./nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    - ./nginx/sites/:/etc/nginx/sites-available
    - ./nginx/conf.d/:/etc/nginx/conf.d
    - ./nginx/certs:/etc/nginx/certs
  depends_on:
    - php-fpm
  ports:
    - "80:80"
    - "443:443"

Local /etc/hosts file configuration

Now you still need to change the /etc/hosts file in your host machine for the testblog.local website to be accessible

127.0.0.1 testblog.local