Custom nginx conf not loading for Pleroma fediverse server

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1

Am I missing a key step?

I’m trying to set up a pleroma (fediverse) server just for a few users. Pleroma is lightweight, a fairly easy install, and seems like a good choice. I’ve closely followed the OTP release instructions here (Installing on Linux using OTP releases - Pleroma Documentation).

Where I deviated was to instead have hestiacp create the user, and I’ve adjusted the instructions for the different home dir of the new Hestia pleroma user. I used Hestiacp to create a mail domain, but did not use it to create a web domain, instead leaving that for the nginx config provided by the instructions.

As per the instructions, I installed and use CERTBOT to get the letsencrypt certs (turning nginx off temporarily). I have pleroma running and can access it directly. The only issue I’m having is getting nginx to load the pleroma config. I put the provided file (altered with the correct domain) into /etc/nginx/conf.d/domains/pleroma.conf.

nginx -t shows OK.

restarting nginx happens without error.

visiting http:// or https://example.tld shows the default Hestia created page saying “Success! Your new web server is ready to use.” This is the same page you get if you don’t have a web domain created in the control panel, yet have a domain name pointing at the server. If I delete pleroma.conf and restart the server, I’m getting the same page.

I don’t see anything wrong with the nginx.conf the pleroma team have provided. I don’t receive an error to nginx -t. It just appears to be skipped over, like it simply didn’t load.

Do file permissions for pleroma.conf have to be something particular?

Is there a verbose mode when starting nginx that might report additional errors?

Am I missing something?

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be very welcome.

For reference, this is the contents of pleroma.conf (apologies for how it’s formatting, I thought blockquote would present it as text):

# default nginx site config for Pleroma # # Simple installation instructions: # 1. Install your TLS certificate, possibly using Let's Encrypt. # 2. Replace 'example.tld' with your instance's domain wherever it appears. # 3. Copy this file to /etc/nginx/sites-available/ and then add a symlink to it # in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ and run 'nginx -s reload' or restart nginx.

proxy_cache_path /tmp/pleroma-media-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=pleroma_media_cache:10m max_size=10g
inactive=720m use_temp_path=off;

this is explicitly IPv4 since Pleroma.Web.Endpoint binds on IPv4 only

and localhost. resolves to [::0] on some systems: see issue #930

upstream phoenix {
server 127.0.0.1:4000 max_fails=5 fail_timeout=60s;
}

server {
server_name example.tld;

listen         80;
listen         [::]:80;

# Uncomment this if you need to use the 'webroot' method with certbot. Make sure
# that the directory exists and that it is accessible by the webserver. If you followed
# the guide, you already ran 'mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt' to create the folder.
# You may need to load this file with the ssl server block commented out, run certbot
# to get the certificate, and then uncomment it.
#
# location ~ /\.well-known/acme-challenge {
#     root /var/lib/letsencrypt/;
# }
location / {
  return         301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

}

Enable SSL session caching for improved performance

ssl_session_cache shared:ssl_session_cache:10m;

server {
server_name example.tld;

listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;  # about 40000 sessions
ssl_session_tickets off;

ssl_trusted_certificate   /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.tld/chain.pem;
ssl_certificate           /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.tld/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key       /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.tld/privkey.pem;

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!MD5:!PSK:!RC4";
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
# In case of an old server with an OpenSSL version of 1.0.2 or below,
# leave only prime256v1 or comment out the following line.
ssl_ecdh_curve X25519:prime256v1:secp384r1:secp521r1;
ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;

gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript application/activity+json application/atom+xml;

# the nginx default is 1m, not enough for large media uploads
client_max_body_size 16m;
ignore_invalid_headers off;

proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

location / {
    proxy_pass http://phoenix;
}

location ~ ^/(media|proxy) {
    proxy_cache        pleroma_media_cache;
    slice              1m;
    proxy_cache_key    $host$uri$is_args$args$slice_range;
    proxy_set_header   Range $slice_range;
    proxy_cache_valid  200 206 301 304 1h;
    proxy_cache_lock   on;
    proxy_ignore_client_abort on;
    proxy_buffering    on;
    chunked_transfer_encoding on;
    proxy_pass         http://phoenix;
}

}

2

Well, I guess I’m alone on this one!

I’ve solved the particular issue of getting a default page instead of the pleroma page by adding the server IP into the listen line. I don’t know why it’s required with the hestiacp nginx configs, but it appears to be required.

I had other issues with the config around the ssl handshaking, but I resolved that by rewriting it all to be much closer to what Hestia does in their templates and all is good now.