Master OpenResty Reverse Proxy: High‑Performance Static & Dynamic Configurations

Reverse proxy forwards client requests to other servers, making the proxy appear as the original source; users are unaware of the redirection. The article uses domain‑level examples to illustrate static and dynamic proxy setups with OpenResty.

Static Proxy

Static proxy maps domain names to specific file system paths. Two examples are provided:

Documentation site – requests to docs.tinywan.com are served from /usr/share/nginx/html/docs.

Front‑end mall – requests to mall.tinywan.com are served from /usr/share/nginx/html/mall.

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  docs.tinywan.com; # modify domain

    location / {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html/docs; # proxy to docs folder
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

After reloading Nginx, docs.tinywan.com serves the documentation site.

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  mall.tinywan.com; # modify domain

    location / {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html/mall; # proxy to mall folder
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

After reloading Nginx, mall.tinywan.com serves the front‑end project.

Dynamic Proxy

Dynamic proxy forwards requests to another service, such as an API backend. Two language‑specific examples are shown.

Java API Proxy

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  api.tinywan.com; # modify domain

    location / {
        proxy_pass   http://120.27.63.9:8080; # target service address
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

After restarting Nginx, accessing api.tinywan.com/swagger-ui.html displays the API documentation of the mall-admin service.

PHP API Proxy

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  api.tinywan.com; # modify domain

    set $root_path /home/www/web/api.tinywan.com/public; # project path
    root $root_path;
    location / {
        if (!-e $request_filename) {
            rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php?s=/$1 last;
            break;
        }
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock; # socket‑based TCP proxy
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
        fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
        fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;
    }
}

Reloading Nginx enables PHP request handling through the proxy.