Nginx basic

What is nginx?

• Nginx is a web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache.
• Nginx is a high performance web server software.
• Nginx is a free and open source web server, which can also act as a reverse proxy, load balancer, SSL offloading, and HTTP cache.

Nginx features

• Reverse proxy with caching
• Load balancing
• FastCGI support with caching
• TLS/SSL with SNI and OCSP stapling support, via OpenSSL.
• SPDY, HTTP/2.0 and WebSocket support
• FLV and MP4 streaming
• Web page access authentication
• URL rewriting
• Custom logging with rotation
• IPv6-compatible

Nginx basic

Nginx basic commands

• Start nginx: sudo systemctl start nginx
• Stop nginx: sudo systemctl stop nginx
• Restart nginx: sudo systemctl restart nginx
• Reload nginx: sudo systemctl reload nginx
• Check nginx status: sudo systemctl status nginx
• Enable nginx: sudo systemctl enable nginx
• Disable nginx: sudo systemctl disable nginx

Nginx basic configuration

• Nginx configuration file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
• Nginx default root directory: /usr/share/nginx/html
• Nginx default configuration directory: /etc/nginx
• Nginx default virtual host configuration directory: /etc/nginx/conf.d
• Nginx default log directory: /var/log/nginx
• Nginx default user: nginx
• Nginx default group: nginx

Nginx basic configuration file

• Nginx configuration file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
• Nginx configuration file structure:
  • main block
  • events block
  • http block
    • server block
      • location block
• Nginx configuration file example:

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

# main block
user nginx;
worker_processes auto;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

# events block
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

# http block
http {
    log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                      '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                      '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;

    sendfile            on;
    tcp_nopush          on;
    tcp_nodelay         on;
    keepalive_timeout   65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;

    # include: Includes the specified file.
    include             /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    # default_type      application/octet-stream means that nginx will send the file as a binary stream.
    default_type        application/octet-stream;

    # server block
    server {
        listen       80 default_server;
        listen       [::]:80 default_server;
        server_name  _;
        root         /usr/share/nginx/html;

        # Load configuration files for the default server block.
        include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf;

        # location block
        location / {
        }

        error_page 404 /404.html;
            location = /40x.html {
        }

        error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
            location = /50x.html {
        }
    }
}

• worker_processes: The number of worker processes that should be started.
• worker_connections: The maximum number of simultaneous connections that can be opened by a worker process.
• access_log: The location of the access log file.
• error_log: The location of the error log file.
• sendfile: Enables or disables the use of sendfile().
• tcp_nopush: Enables or disables the use of the TCP_NOPUSH socket option on FreeBSD or the TCP_CORK socket option on Linux.
• tcp_nodelay: Enables or disables the use of the TCP_NODELAY option.
• keepalive_timeout: The timeout for keep-alive connections with the client.
• types_hash_max_size: Sets the maximum size of the types hash tables.
• include: Includes the specified file.
• default_type: Sets the default MIME type of a response.
• server: Defines a virtual server for HTTP.
• listen: Defines a socket for HTTP.
• server_name: Defines names of a virtual server.
• root: Defines the document root for a virtual server.
• location: Defines configuration for a location.
• error_page: Defines configuration for an error page.

Nginx basic server configuration

• Nginx server configuration file: /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
• Nginx server configuration file example:

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  localhost;

    # Load configuration files for the default server block.
    include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf;

    location / {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    error_page 404 /404.html;
        location = /40x.html {
    }

    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
    }
}

Nginx basic location configuration

• Nginx location configuration file: /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
• Nginx location configuration file example:

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

server {
    listen       80;
    server_name  localhost;

    # Load configuration files for the default server block.
    include /etc/nginx/default.d/*.conf;

    location / {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
    }

    location /images/ {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

    location ~ \.(gif|jpg|png)$ {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        root           /usr/share/nginx/html;
        fastcgi_pass
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
    }

    error_page 404 /404.html;
        location = /40x.html {
    }

    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
    }
}