Containerized Website with Podman and Nginx

Overview

This project is a simple example of hosting a website using containerization with Podman and serving it with Nginx. It was created as part of my DevOps internship to learn about containerization, web server configuration, and basic security principles.

Key Technologies:

• Podman: Containerization platform
• Nginx: Web server
• Dockerfile: Infrastructure as Code
• HTTPS (with self-signed certificate for local development)

DevOps Principles Demonstrated:

• Containerization: Encapsulating the website and web server into a single, portable unit.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Defining the infrastructure setup using a Dockerfile for automated and repeatable deployments.
• Configuration Management: Managing the Nginx web server configuration using a custom nginx.conf file.
• Security (Basic): Implementing HTTPS using a self-signed certificate to encrypt traffic (for development purposes only).

Project Structure

.
├── assets    # Website assets (images)
│   └── formal_photo.jpg    # Formal photo
├── config    # Nginx configuration files and SSL certificate
│   ├── nginx.conf   # Main Nginx configuration
│   ├── nginx.crt    # SSL certificate (self-signed - DEVELOPMENT ONLY) 
│   └── nginx.key    # SSL private key (self-signed - DEVELOPMENT ONLY)
├── Dockerfile    # Dockerfile for building the container image
├── html    # HTML file and backup file 
│   ├── backup    # Backup files
│   │   └── portfolio.bak    # HTML file backup
│   └── portfolio.html    # Main HTML file
└── README.md    # This file

Getting Started

1. Prerequisites:

   • Podman and Git installed on your system

2. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/AdityaJareda/portfolio-website.git
   cd portfolio-website

3. Build the Podman Image:

   sudo podman build -t portfolio-web .

4. Run the Podman Container:

   sudo podman run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name portfolio -v /<path-to-repo>/html:/usr/share/nginx/html -v /<path-to-repo>/assets:/usr/share/nginx/html/assets portfolio-website

   • -v /<path-to-repo>/html:/usr/share/nginx/html: Mounting the html directory inside the container.
   • -v /<path-to-repo>/assets:/usr/share/nginx/html/assets: Mounting the assets directory inside the container.
   • This ensures that any changes you make to the files in the shared directory on your host are immediately reflected inside the container.
   • Important note:
     • Ensure that your firewall allows traffic on port 80 & port 443.

     sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
     sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
     sudo firewall-cmd --reload

5. Access the Website:

   Open your web browser and go to:

   https://localhost
   

   Note: Your browser will display a warning about the self-signed certificate. You will need to accept the risk and proceed. Do not use self-signed certificates in production environments.

Configuration

• Nginx: The Nginx configuration is located in the config/nginx.conf file. You can customize this file to adjust the web server settings.
• SSL Certificate: The self-signed SSL certificate and key are located in the config/ directory. These are for development purposes only. For a production environment, you should obtain a certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) such as Let's Encrypt.

Author

Aditya Singh - DevOps Intern

LinkedIn