Redirect loop with Wordpress on Apache with nginx reverse proxy and HTTPS on Ubuntu 16

@jackl

The only issue with your server block that I can see is within the location block that handles PHP.

        location ~ \.php$ {
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP  $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$request_uri;
        }

Specifically, this line:

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$request_uri;

You shouldn’t need to add $request_uri to the end of the proxy, so my first recommendation would be to remove $request_uri from the URL and leave it as:

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;

Another issue is most likely due to termination of SSL. WordPress doesn’t handle proxies all that well and from what I’ve read, have no intention on implementing anything to make it easier, so you may need to add a bit of code to your wp-config.php file.

Open wp-config.php and find:

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

Directly below it, add:

if ( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https' )
{
    $_SERVER['HTTPS']       = 'on';
    $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] = 443;
}

Close and save the file, then refresh the page and see if you’re still seeing the loop.

If yes, and you happen to be using CloudFlare, there’s a fix for that too :-). CloudFlare needs to be set to use Full (Strict) under the SSL/Crypto menu (should be the first option). Without Full (Strict), you end up with a loop that seems hopeless.

If none of that works, my first recommendation would be to check the error logs.

tail -50 /var/log/nginx/error.log

Please paste the output in to a code block as a reply.

…

My second recommendation, ditch Apache as you don’t need it, even for WordPress (or any other CMS for that matter). NGINX + PHP-FPM can handle more than Apache can with mod_php and the setup is pretty darn simple (I’ll be more than happy to help if you want to go that route).