VPS & Nginx

Deploying via VPS with Nginx

If you are deploying FoxDesk on a clean VPS or dedicated machine, configuring Nginx requires manually routing the Authorization header to PHP-FPM and shielding internal application directories from external web access.

Nginx Configuration (Server Block)

In your virtual host configuration block (for example, /etc/nginx/sites-available/helpdesk.conf), include the following structure to handle the front-controller pattern and secure internal paths:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name helpdesk.example.com;
    root /var/www/helpdesk;
    index index.php;

    # Route all requests through index.php
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    # Pass PHP scripts to FastCGI server
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;

        # Mandatory: Pass Authorization header to allow Bearer API auth
        fastcgi_param HTTP_AUTHORIZATION $http_authorization;
    }

    # Block direct access to core internal directories
    location ~ ^/(backups|bin|includes)/ {
        deny all;
    }

    # Prevent potential malicious PHP execution inside public uploads
    location ~ ^/uploads/.*\.php$ {
        deny all;
    }
}

Verify your configuration integrity using nginx -t and restart the service via systemctl restart nginx. Afterwards, simply load the installation wizard install.php in your browser.