SFTPgo with nginx as reverse proxy

2. 1. 2025

Situtation: nginx running and already using few virtual hosts.
Want: File sharing service similar to wetransfer, only interested in web browser drag/drop at the moment.

Install SFTPgo as instructed by their page, it should bind to 127.0.0.1:8080 by default?

Add a new virtual host to nginx that may look like this (mostly generated using chatgpt):

server {
    server_name myfiles.duckdns.org;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name myfiles.duckdns.org;

    # file upload limit?
    client_max_body_size 5G;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/myfiles.duckdns.org/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/myfiles.duckdns.org/privkey.pem;

    # SFTPGo Web Interface (if applicable)
    location / {
        # reverse proxy
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;  # Replace with your SFTPGo Web UI port or backend API endpoint
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    # Additional configurations such as timeouts, logging, etc.
}

Certbot must be used before that (since https is forced):

sudo certbot -d myfiles.duckdns.org -m user@user.com --agree-tos --noninteractive --nginx --redirect

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