Nginx Reverse Proxy Not Matching Hostname - node.js

Question

I have a simple API that I currently have in Apache defined by:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName http://exampleapi.org
ServerAlias http://exampleapi.org
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass /api http://localhost:3000
</VirtualHost>
I needed to migrate it Nginx for various reasons so in /etc/nginx/conf.d/<domain>.confI went with:
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name http://exampleapi.org;
# API endpoint
location = / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4000;
}
}
The problem appears to be that I have another file/site in /etc/nginx/conf.d/<domain2>.confand it's always matching that, as I can clearly see from the access logs. So where in the other config is it matching everything? (Note the site name like example.com has been obfuscated with <domain>).
server {
server_name SITE_URL <domain>;
server_tokens off;
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
# Max request size
client_max_body_size 20M;
large_client_header_buffers 4 256k;
root /usr/local/learninglocker/current/webapp/ui/dist/public;
# xAPI endpoints
location ~* ^/data/xAPI(.*)$ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8081/data/xAPI$1$is_args$args;
}
# API endpoints
location = /api {
rewrite /api / break;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
}
location ~* ^/api(.*)$ {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$1$is_args$args;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
# All other traffic directed to statics or Node server
location / {
try_files $uri #node_server;
}
# Node UI server
location #node_server {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
# Load configuration files for the default server block.
error_page 404 /404.html;
location = /40x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}
# We don't need .ht files with nginx.
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
listen [::]:443 ssl ipv6only=on; # managed by Certbot
listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/<domain>/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}
server {
if ($host = <domain>) {
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
} # managed by Certbot
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name SITE_URL <domain>;
return 404; # managed by Certbot
}

Answer 1

The server_name directive is the host header value to be looking for. It does not include the protocol.
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name exampleapi.org;
# API endpoint
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4000;
}
}
Also, note I changed location = / to location / because with the = it would only match that exact path nothing else which I assumed was not the plan.