Why doesn't nginx proxy pick up containers?

Question

Nginx

everything is fine on the local machine. docker-compose.yml
4 container
front-back postgres and reverse proxy - jwilder/nginx-proxy:alpine
if everything is local then it picks up the virtualhost
on the server it turns out like this.

proxy          | dockergen.1 | 2019/12/17 06:54:19 Generated '/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf' from 4 containers
proxy          | dockergen.1 | 2019/12/17 06:54:19 Running 'nginx -s reload'
proxy          | dockergen.1 | 2019/12/17 06:54:19 Watching docker events

Answer 1

environment variables for virtual hosts set?

environment:
      - VIRTUAL_HOST=whoami.local