Nginx Reverse Proxy with Advanced Security and Real-Time Monitoring Dashboard
A production-ready reverse proxy implementation using Nginx with security features, real-time traffic analysis, and a monitoring dashboard. Protects web applications with enterprise-level security controls.
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Project Documentation
Download the complete project report with technical details, architecture, security implementation, and monitoring dashboard features.
View PDF ReportOverview
This project implements a production-ready reverse proxy solution using Nginx with comprehensive security features, real-time traffic analysis, and an interactive monitoring dashboard. The system protects a NextJS web application behind a reverse proxy with enterprise-level security controls including SSL/TLS encryption, rate limiting, DDoS protection, IP-based blocking, and comprehensive traffic analytics. The architecture features Nginx running on the host machine for optimal performance, with the NextJS application containerized using Docker, creating a hybrid setup that avoids Docker network limitations while maintaining security and efficiency.
Approaches
Security Layer Implementation
Implemented SSL/TLS encryption with Let's Encrypt certificates and HTTP/2 support, rate limiting (1 request/second per IP with burst protection), IP-based blocking with dynamic blocklist management, DDoS protection through connection limiting (max 10 concurrent connections per IP), and security headers (HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, Content-Type-Options).
Real-Time Monitoring Dashboard
Built an interactive web dashboard using Python Dash and Plotly with real-time log parsing and analysis (updates every 30 seconds). The dashboard includes geolocation visualization with an interactive world map showing request origins, time-series graphs, status code distribution, and analytics for top IPs and paths.
Advanced Traffic Analysis
Implemented advanced filtering capabilities by date range, IP address, URL, user agent, HTTP method, status code, country, bot detection, ISP, and usage type. Added bot detection using device fingerprinting and ISP/usage type identification via IP2Proxy integration.
Hybrid Architecture Design
Designed a hybrid architecture with Nginx reverse proxy running on the host machine (outside Docker) for optimal performance, NextJS application containerized with Docker, and secure log file mounting for real-time analysis. This approach avoids Docker network limitations while maintaining security and efficiency.
Results
- Successfully implemented enterprise-level reverse proxy with comprehensive security controls
- Created real-time monitoring dashboard with interactive visualizations
- Achieved efficient IP geolocation and proxy detection using IP2Location and IP2Proxy databases
- Developed advanced filtering and analytics capabilities for traffic analysis
- Implemented efficient caching mechanisms for IP lookups
- Created responsive Bootstrap-based dashboard interface with real-time updates
Technical Details
- Used Nginx for reverse proxy configuration with custom security rules
- Implemented Python Dash framework for interactive web dashboard
- Used Plotly for real-time data visualization and interactive charts
- Integrated IP2Location database for IP geolocation
- Integrated IP2Proxy database for proxy detection and ISP identification
- Developed custom log format parsing with regex pattern matching
- Configured Docker for NextJS application containerization
- Implemented efficient caching mechanisms for IP lookups to optimize performance
- Created real-time log analysis pipeline with 30-second update intervals