Testing nginx without domain name

Question

I'm working through https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-serve-django-applications-with-uwsgi-and-nginx-on-ubuntu-16-04 . I've reached the end of the tut and started both uwsgi and nginx as directed. I have been able to get all steps working including uwsgi as far as I am aware.

My test django site is in /home/deploy/sample as in the screenshot

If I

 sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/sample

I see:

server {
listen 80;
server_name sample.com www.sample.com;

location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location /static/ {
    root /home/deploy/sample;
}

location / {
    include         uwsgi_params;
    uwsgi_pass      unix:/run/uwsgi/sample.sock;
}
}

Under "Install and Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy" the article states:

Inside, we can start our server block by indicating the port number and domain name where our first project should be accessible. We'll assume that you have a domain name for each:

I don't have a domain set up yet, but I wanted to open my VPS's ip address in my browser to see the test site.

How can I make this happen?

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '17 at 20:53

41

You can just use your VPS's ip in place of "sample.com":

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <your_ip_address>;

    <other stuff>

}

If you haven't already, you may want to assign a static IP; I believe Digital Ocean gives you some free ones.

answered Jan 19 '17 at 20:53

nrlakin

5,234
3
16
27

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 13 '20 at 21:02

Better solution: Have fun testing many applications

Set host entry on dev machine (not the server). /etc/hosts C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add as one Line: ipaddress domain i.e 82.32.45.144 is your vps:

82.32.45.144 sample.com
82.32.45.144 www.sample.com
82.32.45.144 wiki.sample.com
82.32.45.144 shop.sample.com
82.32.45.144 sample.co.uk
82.32.45.144 sample.de

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 27 '22 at 08:05

I set a default_server with the server_name: _ in my /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;

    server_name _;

    location / {
        # your config goes here
    }
}

This way all traffic to port 80 gets served by this server configuration unless other rules catch it.

More info: nginx server_name wildcard or catch-all

score -3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 04 '20 at 12:51

-3

You can configure nginx in an easier way rather than specifying the ip address. You can just user localhost as server_name like below. You must still use the ip address in the web browser if this stands for a web app.

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;

    <other stuff>

}

answered Jun 04 '20 at 12:51

minato namikaze

23
2

But if this isn't a local host, he can't acess the server using this code. – William Brochensque junior Jun 04 '20 at 13:53
yes it is the localhost of the server. Not having a DNS will make it use the IP address of the server. It is also easier because it prevents you from any update that could happen on the IP address of the server. – minato namikaze Jun 05 '20 at 19:08

Testing nginx without domain name

4 Answers4