Get real Visitors IP in Apache behind Nginx reverse proxy dont work

Question

After 5 hours trying to solve the problem and read any tutorial i have found, i ask here for help.

I have an Nginx Reverse Proxy Server that points to my Apache Web Server, but on Apache i got just the IP address from Nginx reverse proxy server not visitors ip.

My nginx proxy file: /etc/nginx/sites-available/proxy.conf

proxy_pass http://MYIPADDRESS;
proxy_next_upstream error timeout invalid_header http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
proxy_redirect off;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_set_header        Host            $host;
proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP       $remote_addr;

On Apache i have added to /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file:

RemoteIPHeader X-Forwarded-For

and replaced

LogFormat "%a %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined

with

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %{X-Forwarded-For}i" combined

a2enmod remoteip also enabled

Also in Nginx /var/log/nginx/access.log file i got always just localhost IP like:

127.0.0.1 - - [27/Jan/2020:23:53:07 +0800] "GET...

Also have tried to add to /etc/nginx/nginx.conf :

set_real_ip_from 127.0.0.1;
real_ip_header X-Forwarded-For

If i run on my Webserver now an PHP Script in Browser:

<?php

echo 'User IP - '.$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

?>

I just got the Reverse Proxy Servers IP and its the same for whole server.

Both Servers OS are Debian 9, any one an idea? Many Thanks!

Answer 1

First of all, make sure you installed and enabled mod_remoteip apache module.

I use the following configuration on my server.

In httpd.conf:

LoadModule remoteip_module modules/mod_remoteip.so

RemoteIPHeader X-Forwarded-For
RemoteIPInternalProxy 127.0.0.1

In nginx site configuration file:

proxy_set_header  X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-For $http_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header  X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;