# Setting Up Redundant Nginx Proxy Manager on Two DietPi Nodes—Best Practices for Syncing Configs & Load-Balancing?
**URL:** https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [30 May 2025 21:20 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538 "2025-05-30T21:20:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SudoMason](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/SudoMason)
#### Post date: [30 May 2025 21:20 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/1 "2025-05-30T21:20:55Z")
Hey everyone 👋,
I’m running two DietPi boards devoted to network duties (Pi-hole, Unbound, Tailscale). My **primary** node currently handles all reverse-proxy traffic via **Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM)** in Docker/Portainer and works great, but every reboot means downtime. I’d like to introduce **redundancy** by spinning up NPM on the **secondary** node and putting a load-balancer in front.
### What I’ve done so far
1. **Installed Docker, Compose & Portainer** on the secondary Pi.
2. Tried deploying NPM there, but Portainer threw:
3. Discovered that **HAProxy** , which I had just installed from `dietpi-software`, was already listening on :80.
4. Removed HAProxy → redeployed NPM → stack came up fine.
### The plan
- **Sync configs/certs** from primary → secondary (thinking cron + rsync).
- Re-install **HAProxy** (or another LB) to provide a single virtual IP in Pi-hole’s local DNS, then split traffic to whichever NPM is alive.
### What I’m unsure about
1. **Config Sync:** Is a simple `rsync` cron job the safest way to keep `/docker/nginx-proxy-manager` (or wherever you store your configs + LetsEncrypt certs) identical between boxes? Any gotchas with live cert renewals?
2. **Load-balancer Choice:** Is HAProxy (from DietPi’s repo) the right tool here, or would you recommend something else like Keepalived, Traefik, or even Nginx itself in active-passive?
3. **Port Conflicts:** After HAProxy is back, how do you cleanly avoid the :80/:443 bind clash while still off-loading TLS to NPM?
Would love to hear how others solved this or any best-practice pointers before I break production again. Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@Joulinar](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Joulinar)
#### Post date: [31 May 2025 06:55 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/2 "2025-05-31T06:55:38Z")
Personally, I don’t think this setup makes much sense, as you are placing an additional reverse proxy in front of an existing reverse proxy. In addition, HAProxy only has 1 instance. What happens if HAProxy is no longer running?
A better alternative might be `keepalived` + virtual IP. This gives you a virtual IP address that can switch from one SBC to the other depending on availability.
```auto
Client
|
| --> 192.168.1.100 (Floating IP)
|
+-------------+
| |
+-------+ +-------+
| Pi #1 | | Pi #2 |
| Nginx | | Nginx |
+-------+ +-------+
| |
+------v-------+
|
+--------------------+
| Webserver Backend |
| (z.B. Pi #3, #4...)|
+--------------------+
```
Another option would be Docker Swarm, since you are already using Docker anyway.
---
### Author:  [@SudoMason](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/SudoMason)
#### Post date: [31 May 2025 19:55 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/3 "2025-05-31T19:55:52Z")
I will give this a try and report back. Thanks
---
### Author:  [@SudoMason](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/SudoMason)
#### Post date: [1 June 2025 03:08 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/4 "2025-06-01T03:08:28Z")
Your suggestion worked well, but I skipped two-way syncing the nginx docker folders. Syncthing’s permission issues kept recurring, so I’m manually syncing for now until I find a better solution. Any ideas for reliable two-way sync that also restarts the nginx container on changes to reflect updates in the web interface?
Thanks again
---
### Author:  [@Joulinar](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Joulinar)
#### Post date: [1 June 2025 04:21 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/5 "2025-06-01T04:21:58Z")
> [@SudoMason](#):
>
> Any ideas for reliable two-way sync that also restarts the nginx container on changes to reflect updates in the web interface?
I don’t think such a solution exists and you would need to create own scripts for this. Maybe Docker Swarm can handle this? But I’m not sure.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/system)
#### Post date: [30 August 2025 04:22 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/setting-up-redundant-nginx-proxy-manager-on-two-dietpi-nodes-best-practices-for-syncing-configs-load-balancing/23538/6 "2025-08-30T04:22:03Z")
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