Gitlab Nginx - Setting redirect http to https makes requests timeout

Question

So, i just installed gitlab on my server. I'm running the bundled nginx on port 256, and i've set up https using let's ecnrypt. There's still a small problem, you can access it through a normal http address which will throw an nginx error since my external address is https://example.com:256. So i set the redirect_http_to_https setting and now all the requests just timeout... Any ideas?

My gitlab.rb config:

## Url on which GitLab will be reachable.
## For more details on configuring external_url see:
## https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/settings/config$
external_url 'https://example.com:256'
#####################
# GitLab Web server #
#####################
## see: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/tree/master/doc/settings/nginx.md#using-a-non-bundled-web-server
## When bundled nginx is disabled we need to add the external webserver user to the GitLab webserver group.

# web_server['external_users'] = []
# web_server['username'] = 'gitlab-www'
# web_server['group'] = 'gitlab-www'
# web_server['uid'] = nil
# web_server['gid'] = nil
# web_server['shell'] = '/bin/false'
# web_server['home'] = '/var/opt/gitlab/nginx'


################
# GitLab Nginx #
################
## see: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/tree/master/doc/settings/nginx.md

nginx['enable'] = true
# nginx['client_max_body_size'] = '250m'
nginx['redirect_http_to_https'] = true
# nginx['redirect_http_to_https_port'] = 8080
# nginx['ssl_client_certificate'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/ca.crt" # Most root CA's are included by default
# nginx['ssl_verify_client'] = "off" # enable/disable 2-way SSL client authentication
# nginx['ssl_verify_depth'] = "1" # if ssl_verify_client on, verification depth in the client certificates chain
nginx['ssl_certificate'] = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com-0001/fullchain.pem"
nginx['ssl_certificate_key'] = "/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com-0001/privkey.pem"
# nginx['ssl_ciphers'] = "ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256"
# nginx['ssl_prefer_server_ciphers'] = "on"
# nginx['ssl_protocols'] = "TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2" # recommended by 
https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Strong_SSL_Security_On_nginx.html & https://cipherli.st/
# nginx['ssl_session_cache'] = "builtin:1000  shared:SSL:10m" # recommended in http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html
# nginx['ssl_session_timeout'] = "5m" # default according to http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_ssl_module.html
# nginx['ssl_dhparam'] = nil # Path to dhparams.pem, eg. /etc/gitlab/ssl/dhparams.pem
# nginx['listen_addresses'] = ['*']
# nginx['listen_port'] = nil # override only if you use a reverse proxy: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/settings/nginx.md#setting-the-nginx-listen-port
# nginx['listen_https'] = nil # override only if your reverse proxy internally communicates over HTTP: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/settings/nginx.md#supporting-proxied-ssl
nginx['custom_gitlab_server_config'] = "location ^~ /.well-known { root /var/www/letsencrypt; }"
# nginx['custom_nginx_config'] = "include /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.conf;"
# nginx['proxy_read_timeout'] = 3600
# nginx['proxy_connect_timeout'] = 300
# nginx['proxy_set_headers'] = {
#  "Host" => "$http_host",
#  "X-Real-IP" => "$remote_addr",
#  "X-Forwarded-For" => "$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for",
#  "X-Forwarded-Proto" => "https",
#  "X-Forwarded-Ssl" => "on"
# }
# nginx['proxy_cache_path'] = 'proxy_cache keys_zone=gitlab:10m max_size=1g levels=1:2'
# nginx['proxy_cache'] = 'gitlab'
# nginx['http2_enabled'] = true
# nginx['real_ip_trusted_addresses'] = []
# nginx['real_ip_header'] = nil
# nginx['real_ip_recursive'] = nil

Answer 1

I believe uncommenting the lines in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default (depending if you have more than one site or not this may not be the desired file you want to alter) that read the following will solve your problem:

Default

server {
        listen 256 default_server;
        listen [::]:256 default_server;

        # SSL configuration
        #
        # listen 443 ssl default_server;
        # listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
...

Enable listening 256

server {
        listen 256 default_server;
        listen [::]:256 default_server;

        # SSL configuration
        #
        listen 256 ssl default_server;
        listen [::]:256 ssl default_server;
...

If your application auto redirects http to https, great, but incase it helps here's what I have:

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;
        server_name domain.com;
        return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;

        # SSL configuration
        #
        listen 443 ssl default_server;
        listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
...

You should test config and IIRC you need to restart service:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

If you're running a firewall, don't forget to allow ports. More details about your distro will enable me to provide commands.