Nginx downloads index instead of serving it

Question

Nginx is attempting to download the file instead of serving the one from node. You can see it live at https://minr.es [type it in to the URL bar].

sites-enabled entry:

##
# You should look at the following URL's in order to grasp a solid understanding
# of Nginx configuration files in order to fully unleash the power of Nginx.
# http://wiki.nginx.org/Pitfalls
# http://wiki.nginx.org/QuickStart
# http://wiki.nginx.org/Configuration
#
# Generally, you will want to move this file somewhere, and start with a clean
# file but keep this around for reference. Or just disable in sites-enabled.
#
# Please see /usr/share/doc/nginx-doc/examples/ for more detailed examples.
##

server {
        #listen   80; ## listen for ipv4; this line is default and implied
        #listen   [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on; ## listen for ipv6

        root /var/www;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
if ($http_referer ~* "^(.*)bitcointalk.com"){
set $rule_0 1$rule_0;
}
if ($rule_0 = "1"){
        return 302 https://minr.es/getting_started;
}

        # Make site accessible from http://localhost/
        server_name minr.es www.minr.es;

        location / {
                # First attempt to serve request as file, then
                # as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
                # try_files $uri $uri/ /;
                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:2346;
                # Uncomment to enable naxsi on this location
                # include /etc/nginx/naxsi.rules
allow 199.27.128.0/21;
allow 173.245.48.0/20;
allow 103.21.244.0/22;
allow 103.22.200.0/22;
allow 103.31.4.0/22;
allow 141.101.64.0/18;
allow 108.162.192.0/18;
allow 190.93.240.0/20;
allow 188.114.96.0/20;
allow 197.234.240.0/22;
allow 198.41.128.0/17;
allow 162.158.0.0/15;
deny all;

        }

        location /doc/ {
                alias /usr/share/doc/;
                autoindex on;
                allow 127.0.0.1;
                allow ::1;
                deny all;
        }

        # Only for nginx-naxsi used with nginx-naxsi-ui : process denied requests
        #location /RequestDenied {
        #       proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        #}

        #error_page 404 /404.html;

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        #error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        #location = /50x.html {
        #       root /usr/share/nginx/www;
        #}

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #       fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        #       # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
        #
        #       # With php5-cgi alone:
        #       fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        #       # With php5-fpm:
        #       fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        #       fastcgi_index index.php;
        #       include fastcgi_params;
        #}

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}


# another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration
#
#server {
#       listen 8000;
#       listen somename:8080;
#       server_name somename alias another.alias;
#       root html;
#       index index.html index.htm;
#
#       location / {
#               try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#       }
#}


# HTTPS server
#
#server {
#       listen 443;
#       server_name localhost;
#
#       root html;
#       index index.html index.htm;
#
#       ssl on;
#       ssl_certificate cert.pem;
#       ssl_certificate_key cert.key;
#
#       ssl_session_timeout 5m;
#
#       ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1;
#       ssl_ciphers ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv3:+EXP;
#       ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
#
#       location / {
#               try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#       }
#}

nginx.conf:

user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {
        worker_connections 768;
        # multi_accept on;
}

http {

        ##
        # Basic Settings
        ##

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        # server_tokens off;

        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        # default_type text/html;

        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##

        gzip off;
        gzip_disable "msie6";

        # gzip_vary on;
        # gzip_proxied any;
        # gzip_comp_level 6;
        # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
        # gzip_http_version 1.1;
        # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

        ##
        # nginx-naxsi config
        ##
        # Uncomment it if you installed nginx-naxsi
        ##

        #include /etc/nginx/naxsi_core.rules;

        ##
        # nginx-passenger config
        ##
        # Uncomment it if you installed nginx-passenger
        ##

        #passenger_root /usr;
        #passenger_ruby /usr/bin/ruby;

        ##
        # Virtual Host Configs
        ##

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}


#mail {
#       # See sample authentication script at:
#       # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
#
#       # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#       # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#       # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:110;
#               protocol   pop3;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#
#       server {
#               listen     localhost:143;
#               protocol   imap;
#               proxy      on;
#       }
#}

Answer 1

the following settings in your default file (inside the sites-available directory) should work. Add settings as needed and point the right ip address and port information as needed.
The option below uses upstream in Nginx - which points to the IP address and port used by NodeJS process. The example below is configured for Nginx to run on port 80 (and forward the request to 0.0.0.0:3000 assuming the back end NodeJS process is running on port 3000. Hope it helps!

upstream node-upstream {        ###node process - we refer to this in the server option
        server 0.0.0.0:3000;    ### change ip address and port to one on which node runs
        keepalive 100;      ##change as needed
}


server {   ## Default server - serves NodeJS dashboard for monitoring and analytics
        listen 80 default_server;  ## 
        listen [::]:80 default_server; #ipv6only=on;

        # Make site accessible from http://localhost/
        server_name localhost;

        ##logging per server
        access_log /var/log/nginx/dashboard/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/dashboard/error.log;

        location / {
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
                proxy_set_header Connection "";
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_pass http://node-upstream;  ## nodejs process
        }


        location /doc/ {
                alias /usr/share/doc/;
                autoindex on;
                allow 127.0.0.1;
                allow ::1;
                deny all;
        }

        #error_page 404 /404.html;

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        #error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        #location = /50x.html {
        #       root /usr/share/nginx/html;
        #}
}