An APEX Vanity URL for Dockerized Customer Managed ORDS for Private Endpoint ADB on OCI

In this post, I'll walk through setting up a custom Vanity URL for a Dockerized, customer-managed Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) instance connected to an Autonomous Database (ADB) on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Prerequisites

You have completed the steps to create a Dockerized Customer Managed ORDS for ADB on OCI

In the steps below, we are trying to setup Nginx Proxy Manager to locate your ORDS Docker Container by FQDN. So you’ll need terminal access to run a bunch of commands until you find it.

Steps

Follow this blog to install Nginx Proxy Manager in another container
Once installed, configure Nginx Proxy Manager like this.

Where it says Enter Compute FQDN, try these (in this order) until you get a method that works for you:

1. Your FQFN hostname -f ← this worked for me
2. Your Non-authorative IP Address nslookup $(hostname -f) | grep 'Address:' | tail -n 1
2b. Another Method for the above grep $(hostname -f) /etc/hosts | awk '{print $1}'
3. Your compute IP address, try the first IP in this list ifconfig | grep 'inet ' | awk '{ print $2 }'
4. Your IP address curl ipconfig.io
In SSL, select your Certificate

Use this configuration in the Advanced Tab of NGINX proxy Manager

                     location /ords/ {
                         proxy_pass https://your-FQDN:9643/ords/;
                         proxy_set_header Origin "";
                         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host:$server_port;
                         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                         proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                         proxy_set_header Host $host:$server_port;

                         # Uncomment these if needed to rewrite the redirects properly
                         # proxy_redirect https://example.com/ords/_/landing https://example.com/ords/r/wksp_x/custom-ords-landing/home;

                     }

                     location /i/ {
                         proxy_pass https://your-FQDN:9643/i/;
                         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
                         proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                         proxy_set_header Host $host:$server_port;
                     }

Where it says your-FQDN use the method that worked above
Change example.com to your Domain name
Its a good idea to uncomment the line above to land on a specific page

Using another proxy manager instead? try adapt the above configuration using this guide

In your Cloudflare Dashboard go to DNS > Records
Add a domain or subdomain to redirect to your Nginx Proxy Manager IP

Test out your URL. Yours wont look like this, because I (cough\ ChatGPT*) created my own landing page (because I un-commented the lines above and created my own APEX Landing Application with no Authentication)

I know what you’re thinking… you really, really, really want it… OK stick this in inline CSS

 .t-Footer,.t-Header{display:none}*{margin:0;padding:0;box-sizing:border-box}body,html{height:100%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-color:#2c3e50}.container{display:flex;align-items:center;justify-content:center;height:100%}.welcome-box{background-color:#ecf0f1;padding:40px;border-radius:10px;box-shadow:0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,.1);text-align:center;width:300px}.welcome-box h1{font-size:2.5em;color:#34495e}.welcome-box h2{font-size:2em;color:#2980b9;margin-bottom:20px}.welcome-box p{font-size:1.2em;color:#7f8c8d;margin-bottom:20px}.button{background-color:#2980b9;color:#fff;text-decoration:none;padding:10px 20px;border-radius:5px;transition:background-color .3s}.button:hover{background-color:#3498db}

stick this in the HTML code within a blank with attribute region

 <div class=container><div class=welcome-box><h1>Welcome to</h1><h2>Custom ORDS</h2><p>Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS)</p><a class=button href=#get-started>Get Started</a></div></div>

ENJOY!

(Optional) Disable Oracle Managed ORDS

Change the ADBs Network settings so that its only accessible by the IP address of the ORDS.
```
 ifconfig | grep 'inet ' | awk '{ print $2 }'
```

ENJOY

What’s the picture? It’s a Band Stand in Wetherby. Here it is in action. Visit Yorkshire!