Do I point nginx proxy_pass to HTTP or HTTPS for node HTTPS server?

Question

I am using Nginx to point a subdomain to a different port that a node.js server is listening to.

It works fine for http, but now I need to switch over to https.

This is what I have right now in sites-available/default:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen 443;
    server_name sub.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://example.com:2222;
    }
}

Now that I am switching my node server over to https do I need to change the proxy_pass to https://example.com:2222?

Answer 1

Now that I am switching my node server over to https do I need to change the proxy_pass to https://example.com:2222?

Short answer is no. It doesn't need to be same protocol for proxy as for incoming request But you may require another directive

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;

Answer 2

I found this in my searches.

Turns out it's best to handle the SSL certification with nginx and leave node running a http server.