nginx reverse proxy + static files

Question

I'm serving wordpress behind a reverse proxy in nginx. I want to be able to serve also static pages that I have in a different root directory.

I tried this:

server {
    listen            80;
    listen       [::]:80;
    server_name ${NGINX_HOST};
    root /static-pages;
    sendfile          on;
    tcp_nodelay       on;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /static-pages/ =404;
        #try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        #try_files /static-pages $uri/ =404;
        proxy_read_timeout    90;
        proxy_connect_timeout 90;
        proxy_redirect        off;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress;

        proxy_set_header      X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header      X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header      Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

    }
}

The wordpress works good but when I try to reach one of the static pages, I keep getting 404. Of course I can add a location directive to each static page I have but this seems like an overhead. Can I make it work somehow?

Here's a part of the debug log which I think is relevant:

[debug] 7#7: *2 generic phase: 12
[debug] 7#7: *2 try files handler
[debug] 7#7: *2 http script var: "/marketing-analyst"
[debug] 7#7: *2 trying to use file: "/marketing-analyst" "/static-pages/marketing-analyst"
[debug] 7#7: *2 http script var: "/marketing-analyst"
[debug] 7#7: *2 trying to use dir: "/marketing-analyst" "/static-pages/marketing-analyst"
[debug] 7#7: *2 try file uri: "/marketing-analyst"

Of course the directory /static-pages/marketing-analyst exists.

Answer 1

Working solution:

server {
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log debug;
    listen            80;
    server_name ${NGINX_HOST};
    sendfile          on;
    tcp_nodelay       on;
    root              /static-pages;
    index             index.html index.php;
    try_files $uri $uri/ @proxy;

    location @proxy {
        proxy_read_timeout    90;
        proxy_connect_timeout 90;
        proxy_redirect        off;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress$uri;

        proxy_set_header  X-NginX-Proxy true;
        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;
        proxy_set_header  Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header  Accept-Encoding     "";
        proxy_set_header  Proxy               "";

    }

    location = / {
        proxy_read_timeout    90;
        proxy_connect_timeout 90;
        proxy_redirect        off;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress;

        proxy_set_header  X-NginX-Proxy true;
        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;
        proxy_set_header  Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header  Accept-Encoding     "";
        proxy_set_header  Proxy               "";
    }
}

I'd love it if I could squeeze the 2 similar proxies but no biggie.

Answer 2

Almost there. The solution is first to try the static file, and go to the reverse proxy (wordpress) as a fallback:

server {
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log debug;
    listen            80;
    listen       [::]:80;
    server_name ${NGINX_HOST};
    sendfile          on;
    tcp_nodelay       on;
    root /static-pages;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /static-pages/ @proxy;
    }

    location @proxy {
        proxy_read_timeout    90;
        proxy_connect_timeout 90;
        proxy_redirect        off;
        proxy_pass http://wordpress;

        proxy_set_header      X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header      X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header      Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

Reference:

https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/config_pitfalls/#proxy-everything

BUT! When I try accessing / I get 403 access denied for /static-pages/index.html (which doesn't exist). How can I tell it NOT to check /index.html and just fall back to the proxy if there's no directory that matches the request?