Single Nginx Docker vs Multiple Nginx Docker for websites

Question

Forgive me if I am asking a stupid question, but I am building a server where I will host multiple Flask websites Docker Container using Nginx Docker. My question now is: is it better to have one main nginx docker container and then host all my Websites Docker containers on it or have an Nginx docker container for each application with docker compose?

I want to know in terms of resource handling and efficiency which one is better to go for ?

@Jacob Following your answer, i am trying to setup something like this

docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.8"

services:
  portfolix:
    container_name: portfolix
    image: mervin16/portfolix:dev
    env_file:
      - config_local.env
    expose:
      - 8086
    restart: always
    networks:
      - sky_net

  mes:
    container_name: mes
    image: mervin16/mes:dev
    networks:
      - sky_net
    expose:
      - 8085
    restart: always

  nginx:
    build: ./nginx
    container_name: nginx
    ports:
      - "8085:85"
      - "8086:86"
    restart: always
    networks:
      - sky_net

networks:
  sky_net:
    name: sky_network
    driver: bridge

Now each website is available on localhost:8085 and localhost:8086

I am then using a reverse proxy on Nginx (not docker but the one installed on my server) to redirect traffic to my domain name:

server {

server_name   mes.th3pl4gu3.com;

  location / {
    access_log  /var/log/nginx/mes/access_mes.log;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/mes/error_mes.log;
    proxy_pass  http://localhost:8081;
  }

    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mes.th3pl4gu3.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mes.th3pl4gu3.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot

}
server {
    if ($host = mes.th3pl4gu3.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot


 listen        80;
  server_name   mes.th3pl4gu3.com;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot


}

Double post? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65361857/single-nginx-docker-vs-multiple-nginx-docker-for-websites/65362277#65362277 — uav, Dec 18 '20 at 20:04
I didn't know which place was better to ask Nginx questions ... — Mervin Hemaraju, Dec 18 '20 at 20:12

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '20 at 18:43

Not a stupid question, but let's clarify, no matter how you configure nginx and docker, one host IP can only bind one service to one port, so if you want to handle multiple websites on one IP address on port 80/443 (http/https) you would only be able to run ONE nginx container to handle routing between different hostnames (virtual hosts) and redirect traffic to their appropriate backend.

You will also need to either expose these backends on different ports or share the same docker network.

Something you may want to consider is an alternative to the stock nginx container with something more geared to more dynamic backends like Traefik or nginx-proxy

I added some code to show my hosting method. Please tell me if that is a good way to go ? — Mervin Hemaraju, Dec 18 '20 at 18:54

Single Nginx Docker vs Multiple Nginx Docker for websites

1 Answers1