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Run web applications under subdomain with Nginx

Introduction

By default, Roundcube, SOGo, Netdata and iRedAdmin are located at /mail, /SOGo, /netdata and /iredadmin. If you have SOGo but no Roundcube, /mail will be redirected to /SOGo too.

For example, if your server hostname is mail.example.com, and you correctly added an A type DNS record pointed to this iRedMail server, you should be able to visit them with URLs below:

• Roundcube webmail: https://mail.example.com/mail
• SOGo Groupware: https://mail.example.com/SOGo
• Netdata monitor: https://mail.example.com/netdata
• iRedAdmin or iRedAdmin-Pro: https://mail.example.com/iredadmin

The URIs are defined in the catch-all Nginx web host config file /etc/nginx/sites-available/00-default-ssl.conf, here's its full content:

#
# Note: This file must be loaded before other virtual host config files,
#
# HTTPS
server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name _;      # <- Name `_` will catch all web domain names,
                        # <- this is why this file must be loaded before other
                        # <- web host config files.

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php index.html;

    include /etc/nginx/templates/misc.tmpl;         # <- Misc
    include /etc/nginx/templates/ssl.tmpl;          # <- SSL related configurations.
    include /etc/nginx/templates/iredadmin.tmpl;    # <- iRedAdmin
    include /etc/nginx/templates/roundcube.tmpl;    # <- Roundcube webmail
    include /etc/nginx/templates/sogo.tmpl;         # <- SOGo Groupware
    include /etc/nginx/templates/netdata.tmpl;      # <- Netdata monitor
    include /etc/nginx/templates/php-catchall.tmpl; # <- php support
    include /etc/nginx/templates/stub_status.tmpl;  # <- Nginx status monitoring
}

As you can see, it loads multiple configuration snippets, and they define the URIs you can access to visit the web applications.

iRedMail also generates configuration snippet files to run them under subdomain:

• /etc/nginx/templates/iredadmin-subdomain.tmpl
• /etc/nginx/templates/netdata-subdomain.tmpl
• /etc/nginx/templates/roundcube-subdomain.tmpl
• /etc/nginx/templates/sogo-subdomain.tmpl

Run web applications under subdomain

To run Roundcube, SOGo and/or iRedAdmin under subdomain, you can simply create a new web host config file, and load the *-subdomain.tmpl file.

Let's say you want to run Roundcube under subdomain webmail.example.com.

• Update DNS record to point domain name webmail.example.com to your iRedMail server.
• Create new web host config file /etc/nginx/sites-available/webmail.example.com.conf with content below:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name webmail.example.com;

    include /etc/nginx/templates/misc.tmpl;
    include /etc/nginx/templates/ssl.tmpl;
    include /etc/nginx/templates/roundcube-subdomain.tmpl;
}

• Create symbol link to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ with shell command below:

ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/webmail.example.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/webmail.example.com.conf

• [OPTIONAL] If you want to remove acess from https://mail.example.com/mail/ (mail.example.com is your server hostname), you can simply comment out (or add) below line in /etc/nginx/sites-available/00-default-ssl.conf:

include /etc/nginx/templates/roundcube.tmpl;

• Restart or reload Nginx service:

service nginx restart

Extra steps for SOGo

SOGo is only accessible by /SOGo URI, so when you visit https://your-site.com/ it won't redirect to https://your-site.com/SOGo. In this case you must add a location directive for / URI and redirect requests to /SOGo.

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name webmail.example.com;

    # Redirect homepage to /SOGo.
    location = / {
        return 302 https://$host/SOGo;
    }

    include /etc/nginx/templates/misc.tmpl;
    include /etc/nginx/templates/ssl.tmpl;
    include /etc/nginx/templates/subdomain-sogo.tmpl;
}

Important notes

• File /etc/nginx/templates/ssl.tmpl loads self-signed ssl cert by default, we strongly recommend to request free SSL cert by following our tutorial: Request a free cert from Let's Encrypt.

  Note: You can request one cert with multiple domain names.

• You can also create your own Nginx configuration snipppet file with different SSL cert/key files too.