HTTP to HTTPS redirect in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

HTTP to HTTPS Redirect with Nginx

📖 Scenario: You manage a website that currently accepts both HTTP and HTTPS traffic. To improve security, you want to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS automatically.

🎯 Goal: Configure an Nginx server block to redirect all HTTP requests on port 80 to HTTPS on port 443.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Nginx server block listening on port 80

Add a server_name directive with the exact domain example.com

Configure a return 301 directive to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS

Print the final Nginx configuration for the HTTP redirect server block

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Websites use HTTP to HTTPS redirects to ensure secure connections and protect user data.

💼 Career

DevOps engineers often configure web servers like Nginx to enforce HTTPS for security compliance.

1

Create the basic HTTP server block

Create an Nginx server block that listens on port 80 and has the server_name example.com.

Nginx

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use server {} block with listen 80; and server_name example.com;.

2

Add the HTTPS redirect configuration

Inside the existing server block, add a return 301 directive that redirects all requests to https://example.com$request_uri.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    # Add the redirect return directive here
}

Need a hint?

Use return 301 https://example.com$request_uri; to redirect preserving the full request URI.

3

Add a comment explaining the redirect

Add a comment inside the server block above the return directive that says # Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    # Add a comment explaining the redirect here
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

Need a hint?

Comments start with # in Nginx config files.

4

Print the final Nginx HTTP redirect configuration

Print the complete Nginx server block configuration you wrote for the HTTP to HTTPS redirect.

Nginx

# Print the final configuration below

Need a hint?

Use a print statement to output the full server block as text.