Install NGINX and Configure for MLflow

Set up NGINX as a reverse proxy to route secure external traffic to your MLflow server.

Prerequisites

Linux-based server (RHEL/CentOS or Ubuntu/Debian)
Root or sudo privileges
MLflow server running on port 5000
SSL certificate and private key files (e.g., cert.pem and key.pem)

Steps to install

Install Nginx: Choose the appropriate command based on your Linux distribution.

For RHEL/CentOS:

sudo yum install -y nginx

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install -y nginx

Configure the NGINX main file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf)

Use the following NGINX configuration to set up a reverse proxy with performance optimizations:

cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf # For more information on configuration, see: # * Official English Documentation: http://nginx.org/en/docs/ # * Official Russian Documentation: http://nginx.org/ru/docs/ user nginx; worker_processes auto; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; pid /run/nginx.pid; # Load dynamic modules. See /usr/share/doc/nginx/README.dynamic. include /usr/share/nginx/modules/*.conf; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; tcp_nodelay on; keepalive_timeout 65; types_hash_max_size 2048; include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; # Load modular configuration files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory. # See http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html#include # for more information. include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; server { listen 80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; server_name _; root /usr/share/nginx/html; # Load configuration files for the default server block. include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf; location / { } error_page 404 /404.html; location = /40x.html { } error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { } } # Settings for a TLS enabled server. # # server { # listen 443 ssl http2 default_server; # listen [::]:443 ssl http2 default_server; # server_name _; # root /usr/share/nginx/html; # # ssl_certificate "/etc/pki/nginx/server.crt"; # ssl_certificate_key "/etc/pki/nginx/private/server.key"; # ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:1m; # ssl_session_timeout 10m; # ssl_ciphers PROFILE=SYSTEM; # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; # # # Load configuration files for the default server block. # include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf; # # location / { # } # # error_page 404 /404.html; # location = /40x.html { # } # # error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; # location = /50x.html { # } # } }

Configure reverse proxy for MLflow (/etc/nginx/conf.d/mlflow.conf)

This configuration:

Redirects all HTTP traffic to HTTPS
Proxies HTTPS requests securely to the MLflow server

cat /etc/nginx/conf.d/mlflow.conf # Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS server { listen 80; server_name 10.100.11.26; location / { return 301 https://$host$request_uri; } } # Main SSL-secured MLflow server block server { listen 443 ssl; server_name mlflow.yourdomain.com; ssl_certificate /usr/odp/3.3.6.3-1006/mlflow/cert.pem; ssl_certificate_key /usr/odp/3.3.6.3-1006/mlflow/key.pem; ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m; ssl_session_timeout 10m; ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; ssl_ciphers HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5; location / { proxy_pass http://10.100.11.26:5000; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; } }

Note:

Replace mlflow.yourdomain.com with your actual domain or public IP.
Update SSL certificate paths to match your environment.
Replace 10.100.11.26:5000 with your MLflow backend server address and port.

Start and enable Nginx.

sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx

To verify Nginx is running:

sudo systemctl status nginx

Reload the configuration after any change.

sudo nginx -t # Validate config sudo systemctl reload nginx

References

Last updated on Jan 12, 2026

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