🔍 Introduction
When deploying a Flask web application, it's best practice to place it behind a reverse proxy to enhance security, enable SSL encryption, and optimize traffic handling. Nginx is a powerful web server that efficiently handles these tasks.
In this guide, we will:
- Configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for a Flask application running on port 5000.
- Secure the setup with a custom SSL certificate.
- Automate the installation and configuration using Ansible on RHEL 8.
By the end, you’ll have a fully automated solution that ensures your Flask app is securely accessible over HTTPS.
---
🚀 Steps to Automate Installation Using Ansible
1️⃣ Install Nginx on RHEL 8
We need to install Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for our Flask app.
2️⃣ Copy SSL Certificates
The SSL certificate and private key must be placed in the correct directory.
3️⃣ Configure Nginx Reverse Proxy
We will create an Nginx configuration file to route traffic to our Flask application.
4️⃣ Enable and Start Nginx
Ensure that Nginx starts on boot and is running.
---
📝 Ansible Playbook
Create a new Ansible playbook named nginx_reverse_proxy.yml:
``yaml
---
- name: Setup Nginx Reverse Proxy for Flask with SSL
hosts: webserver
become: true
vars:
domain_name: "example.com"
ssl_cert_path: "/etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt"
ssl_key_path: "/etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key"
flask_app_port: 5000
tasks:
- name: Install Nginx
yum:
name: nginx
state: present
- name: Create SSL directory
file:
path: /etc/nginx/ssl
state: directory
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0755'
- name: Copy SSL certificate
copy:
src: files/example.com.crt
dest: "{{ ssl_cert_path }}"
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0644'
- name: Copy SSL key
copy:
src: files/example.com.key
dest: "{{ ssl_key_path }}"
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0600'
- name: Create Nginx reverse proxy config
template:
src: templates/flask_nginx.conf.j2
dest: /etc/nginx/conf.d/flask_app.conf
owner: root
group: root
mode: '0644'
notify:
- Restart Nginx
- name: Ensure Nginx is running and enabled
service:
name: nginx
state: started
enabled: yes
handlers:
- name: Restart Nginx
service:
name: nginx
state: restarted
`
---
🔧 Nginx Configuration Template
Create a Jinja2 template file named templates/flask_nginx.conf.j2:
``nginx
server {
listen 80;
server_name {{ domain_name }};
location / {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
}
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name {{ domain_name }};
ssl_certificate {{ ssl_cert_path }};
ssl_certificate_key {{ ssl_key_path