Roll your own NetworkManager connectivity check endpoint with nginx

Create a file at /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/11-connectivity-check.conf that describes the endpoint

[connectivity]
uri=http://example.com/nm-ping
interval=120
#response="NetworkManager is online"

The response option can make NetworkManager confirm connectivity by matching the response text with this string. But I am setting up the endpoint with a X-NetworkManager-Status response header instead. Set up a site on a remote server and use a site configuration like this one:

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;

  server_name example.com;

  location /nm-ping {
    add_header X-NetworkManager-Status online;
    add_header Content-Type text/plain;
    return 200 'NetworkManager is online';
  }
}

Using HTTP since NetworkManager complains when it’s configured with HTTPS:

NetworkManager[467]: <warn> connectivity: use of HTTPS for connectivity checking is not reliable and is discouraged (URI: https://example.com/nm-ping)