Preflight Dashboard

The preflight dashboard is a web UI that shows everything bext detected from your nginx config. It runs locally and helps you verify the migration before making any changes.

Launch

sudo bext nginx-takeover [--port 9999] [--nginx-config /etc/nginx/nginx.conf]

If no config path is provided, bext auto-detects the nginx installation. The dashboard starts on 127.0.0.1 (loopback only, for security) and prints a terminal banner:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║         bext nginx Preflight             ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Config:     /etc/nginx/nginx.conf       ║
║  Vhosts:     12                          ║
║  SSL Certs:  8                           ║
║  Upstreams:  3                           ║
║  Warnings:   2                           ║
║  Checks:     7 pass / 1 warn / 0 fail   ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Dashboard:  http://127.0.0.1:9999      ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

Dashboard Sections

Stats Grid

At-a-glance counts: virtual hosts, SSL certificates, upstreams, and conversion warnings.

Preflight Checks

Eight automated checks with pass/warn/fail status:

Check	Critical	Description
Config Parsed	Yes	nginx.conf parsed without errors
SSL Certs Accessible	Yes	All referenced certificate files are readable
nginx Running	No	Whether nginx is currently active
Port Availability	Yes	Ports 80/443 will be available after nginx stops
Root Directories	No	All document roots exist on disk
Upstream Backends	No	Backend servers are reachable
Process Permissions	Yes	Running as root (needed for ports < 1024)
systemd Available	Yes	systemd is present for service management

Critical checks must pass before takeover is allowed.

Virtual Hosts

Collapsible list of every detected virtual host showing:

- Server names with tags (exact, wildcard, regex, default)

- Listen ports with SSL/HTTP2 badges

- Document root path

- Location blocks table (pattern, match type, action)

- TLS certificate paths

- Rewrite rules and conditionals

- Error pages

Upstreams

Table of upstream blocks with:

- Upstream name

- Load balancing strategy

- Server list with weights, backup/down status

Conversion Warnings

List of unsupported or partially supported directives with file path and line number.

Action Bar

- Take Over button — disabled if any critical check fails. Requires confirmation dialog.

- Rollback button — hidden until takeover is active. Also requires confirmation.

- Refresh — re-runs all checks and reloads the dashboard.

API Endpoints

The dashboard also exposes a JSON API:

Endpoint	Method	Description
`/`	GET	Dashboard HTML page
`/api/preflight`	GET	Full config + checks as JSON
`/api/status`	GET	Current phase, uptime, errors
`/api/takeover`	POST	Execute the migration
`/api/rollback`	POST	Restore nginx
`/api/refresh-checks`	POST	Re-run all preflight checks

Example: Preflight JSON

curl http://127.0.0.1:9999/api/preflight | jq

{
  "phase": "preflight",
  "can_takeover": true,
  "checks": [
    { "id": "config_parsed", "name": "Config Parsed", "status": "pass", "details": "12 vhosts, 3 upstreams", "critical": true },
    { "id": "ssl_certs", "name": "SSL Certs Accessible", "status": "pass", "details": "8 certs loaded", "critical": true }
  ],
  "vhosts": [...],
  "upstreams": [...],
  "warnings": [...]
}

Security

- The dashboard binds to 127.0.0.1 only — not accessible from the network

- All POST actions require confirmation

- The takeover API checks for critical failures before proceeding

- Rollback is always available after takeover