Help - Access Plugins by Names rather than IP in LAN Only Environment

[arggonuts]

So I've been killing my limited free time for ~2 weeks trying to figure out any way (the "right" way would be best) to access my plugins through plugin.server.xyz in a local only environment.

The Environment
Dell R510 w/ IT-Mode H310, 8 6tb drives in RAIDZ2 (Yes, I know this isn't ideal, but it's what the consumers want)
Network is 2 old enterprise Cisco switches connected to lots of wireless APs to serve emby, nextCloud and MineOS to every imaginable device.
The server will be offline for most of its life. It will come home to sync and update content with my server every couple months. Otherwise, its completely disconnected from the internet.

The Goal
I want my users to stop bothering me for complicated setup (the work of my predecessor) to access content in a very simple manner (i.e. player.server.xyz to access the emby web application, minecraft.server.xyz, download.server.xyz).

What I've Tried
Wracking my mind for how to do what seems relatively simple.

Variations of nginx reverse proxy from:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-to-reverse-proxy-your-jails-w-certbot.49876/

I get zero indication that this works, at all. Using a self-signed certificate, which is all I've tried as I don't own or don't need a real domain for this application, doesn't even get me to the nginx 404 page.

The Real Question
Is reverse proxy the right application for this? If not, what is?

 

[melloa]

The server will be offline for most of its life.

Off line?

Network is 2 old enterprise Cisco switches

Router? DHCP? DNS?

Get pfSense, setup DHCP, and DNS resolve.

 

[arggonuts]

Offline/disconnected from the internet. Long story short, it'll be out to sea most of its life and doesn't merit a satellite connection.

The network infrastructure of this hodgepodge network isn't my forte. I know the copper Cisco switch is running as the DHCP server, so I suppose I could try a pfSense jail and direct all traffic to that from the switch?

 

[melloa]

I suppose I could try a pfSense jai

I wouldn't recommend in an environment far from you and without any remote access. Get a box and setup pf or a netgate or anything like that.

I did run pf as a VM under bhyve and ESXi, so it is possible, yes.

 

[danb35]

The bottom line is that you're going to need something to act as a DNS server on this network. You could, no doubt, hack that into a jail (and by that I mean that it could be done; I'm not commenting either way on whether you specifically could make it work), but by far the easier way to do this would be to set up a separate box running pfSense/OPNSense/some other router OS, and do the DNS entries there. You could even then set each of the relevant apps, assuming they're all in different jails, to listen on port 80.