gateway/README.md

# fastchat Nginx Gateway

## Purpose of the Gateway

The Nginx gateway serves the following purposes:

1. Protects Gradio servers by acting as a firewall.
2. Facilitates dynamic mounting and unmounting of Gradio servers.
3. Provides load balancing for Gradio servers.
4. Offers additional security features, such as total connection limit.
5. Reduces attack surface by requiring only a single public port to be exposed for serving.

## Deployment and Updating of the Gateway

### Installing Nginx

On Debian-based distributions (e.g., Ubuntu):

```bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx
```
On Red Hat-based distributions (e.g., CentOS, Fedora):

```bash
sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install nginx
```

### Deployment

Copy `nginx.conf` to `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` (need sudo permission).

Replace the port number 7860 in `server localhost:7860` with the port where you deploy the Gradio web server.

Modify `upstream websocket` to configure Gradio servers behind the gateway.

Lastly, update Nginx.


### HTTPS Deployment with a Public Domain URL

Make sure you obtain the HTTPS certificate and the private key used to generate the certificate.

Fill the addresses to your certificate and private key in the `[PATH_TO_SSL_CERT]` and `[PATH_TO_PRIVATE_KEY]` fields.

If you have your own domain url to serve the chatbot, replace the chat.lmsys.org url with your own domain url.

### Updating

Every time when `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` is modified, you need to update the Nginx service:

```bash
sudo nginx -t  # check `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`
sudo systemctl reload nginx  # restart Nginx service to load the new config
sudo systemctl status nginx  # check the status of the Nginx service. It should be active (running).
```