How to Deploy and Use Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker for Static and Dynamic Proxying

Overview

Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) provides a web UI for managing Nginx reverse proxies, SSL certificates, access control, and user permissions without editing Nginx configuration files directly.

Installation

Run the official Docker image:

docker pull jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest

docker run -p 80:80 -p 81:81 -p 443:443 \
  --name nginx-proxy-manager \
  -v /mydata/nginx-pm/data:/data \
  -v /mydata/nginx-pm/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt \
  -d jc21/nginx-proxy-manager:latest

After the container starts, open http://<em>host</em>:81. Default credentials are [email protected]:changeme.

Static proxy configuration

Example: serve two static sites (admin UI and shop front‑end) under the same domain.

Add host entries on the client machine: 192.168.3.101 mall.macrozheng.com Create a proxy host in NPM with domain mall.macrozheng.com and target http://192.168.3.101.

In the Advanced tab, add custom location blocks:

location /admin {
    alias /data/html/admin;
    index index.html index.htm;
}

location /app {
    alias /data/html/app;
    index index.html index.htm;
}

Upload the built static files to the container paths /mydata/nginx-pm/data/html/admin and /mydata/nginx-pm/data/html/app.

Resulting URLs:

Admin UI – http://mall.macrozheng.com/admin/ Shop front‑end –

http://mall.macrozheng.com/app/

Dynamic proxy configuration

Example: expose a backend API service.

Add a host entry: 192.168.3.101 api.macrozheng.com Create a new proxy host with hostname admin-api.macrozheng.com (or api.macrozheng.com) and point it to the API container’s address.

The API Swagger UI becomes reachable at http://api.macrozheng.com/swagger-ui/.

Additional features

Enable SSL with automatic Let’s Encrypt certificate issuance and renewal.

Configure Access Lists for Basic authentication on individual proxy hosts.

Manage users, roles, and permissions via the built‑in User Management.

Audit Log records administrative actions.

Chinese localized image

A community‑maintained Chinese UI image is available. Run it with the same volume mounts:

docker run -p 80:80 -p 81:81 -p 443:443 \
  --name nginx-proxy-manager \
  -v /mydata/nginx-pm/data:/data \
  -v /mydata/nginx-pm/letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt \
  -d chishin/nginx-proxy-manager-zh:release

Reference repository

Official source code:

https://github.com/NginxProxyManager/nginx-proxy-manager