---
layout: page
title: "NGINX"
description: "Documentation about setting up Home Assistant with NGINX."
release_date: 2016-12-02 15:00:00 -0700
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
redirect_from: /ecosystem/nginx/
---

Using NGINX as a proxy for Home Assistant allows you to serve Home Assistant securely over standard ports. This configuration file and instructions will walk you through setting up Home Assistant over a secure connection.

### {% linkable_title 1. Get a domain name forwarded to your IP %}

Chances are, you have a dynamic IP address (your ISP changes your address periodically). If this is true, you can use a Dynamic DNS service to obtain a domain and set it up to update with you IP. If you purchase your own domain name, you will be able to easily get a trusted SSL certificate later.


### {% linkable_title 2 Install nginx on your server %}

This will vary depending on your OS. Check out Google for this. After installing, ensure that NGINX is not running.

<p class='note'>
You will at least need nginx >= 1.3.13, as WebSocket support is required for the reverse proxy.
</p>

### {% linkable_title 3. Obtain an SSL certificate %}

There are two ways of obtaining an SSL certificate.

#### {% linkable_title Using Let's Encrypt %}
If you purchased your own domain, you can use https://letsencrypt.org/ to obtain a free, publicly trusted SSL certificate. This will allow you to work with services like IFTTT. Download and install per the instructions online and get a certificate using the following command.

```bash
$ sudo ./letsencrypt-auto certonly --standalone -d example.com -d www.example.com
```

Instead of example.com, use your domain. You will need to renew this certificate every 90 days.

#### {% linkable_title Using openssl %}

If you do not own your own domain, you may generate a self-signed certificate. This will not work with IFTTT, but it will encrypt all of your Home Assistant traffic.

```bash
$ openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 9999
$ openssl rsa -in key.pem -out key.pem
$ sudo cp key.pem cert.pem /etc/nginx/ssl
$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/nginx/ssl/key.pem /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.pem
$ sudo chown root:root /etc/nginx/ssl/key.pem /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.pem
```

### {% linkable_title 4. Create dhparams file %}

As a fair warning, this file will take a while to generate.

```bash
$ cd /etc/nginx/ssl
$ sudo openssl dhparam -out dhparams.pem 2048
```

### {% linkable_title 5. Install configuration file in nginx. %}

Create a new file `/etc/nginx/sites-available/hass` and copy the configuration file at the bottom of the page into it.

<p class='note'>
Some Linux distributions (including CentOS and Fedora) will not have the `/etc/nginx/sites-available/` directory. In this case, remove the default server {} block from the `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` file and paste the contents from the bottom of the page in its place. If doing this, proceed to step 7.
</p>

### {% linkable_title 6. Enable the Home Assistant configuration. %}

```bash
$ cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
$ sudo unlink default
$ sudo ln ../sites-available/hass default
```

### {% linkable_title 7. Start NGINX. %}

Double check this configuration to ensure all settings are correct and start nginx.

### {% linkable_title 8. Port forwarding. %}

Forward ports 443 and 80 to your server on your router. Do not forward port 8123.

### {% linkable_title 9. Configure Home Assistant %}

Home Assistant is still available without using the NGINX proxy. Restricting it to only listen to `127.0.0.1` will forbid direct accesses. Also, Home Assistant should be told to trust headers coming from the NGINX proxy only. Otherwise, incoming requests will always come from `127.0.0.1` and not the real IP address.

On your `configuration.yaml` file, edit the `http` component.

```yaml
http:
  # For extra security set this to only accept connections on localhost if NGINX is on the same machine
  # server_host: 127.0.0.1
  # Update this line to be your domain
  base_url: https://example.com
  use_x_forwarded_for: true
  # You must set the trusted proxy IP address so that Home Assistant will properly accept connections
  # Set this to your NGINX machine IP, or localhost if hosted on the same machine.
  trusted_proxies: <NGINX IP address here, or 127.0.0.1 if hosted on the same machine>
```

### {% linkable_title NGINX Config %}

```nginx
map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
    default upgrade;
    ''      close;
}

server {
    # Update this line to be your domain
    server_name example.com;

    # These shouldn't need to be changed
    listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=off;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    # Update this line to be your domain
    server_name example.com;

    # Ensure these lines point to your SSL certificate and key
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    # Use these lines instead if you created a self-signed certificate
    # ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.pem;
    # ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/key.pem;

    # Ensure this line points to your dhparams file
    ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparams.pem;


    # These shouldn't need to be changed
    listen [::]:443 default_server ipv6only=off; # if your nginx version is >= 1.9.5 you can also add the "http2" flag here
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubdomains";
    ssl on;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!MD5:!PSK:!RC4";
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;

    proxy_buffering off;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8123;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_redirect http:// https://;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
    }
}
```