Nginx Beginners' Tutorial

Install Nginx

Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

Mac OS

brew install nginx

The Structure Of Configuration File

The nginx configuration files are usually located in the /etc/nginx/ directory.

• Main Site Configuration: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
• Site Configuration:/etc/nginx/site-available/ (linked to /etc/nginx/site-enabled)
• Global Configuration:

user www-data;          # User running Nginx
worker_processes auto;  # Number of worker processes
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;  # Error log path
pid /run/nginx.pid;     # PID file path

events {
    worker_connections 768;  # Max connections per worker
}

http {
    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;  # Supported MIME types
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    # Access log format
    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;  # Efficient file transfer
    keepalive_timeout 65;  # Long connection timeout

    # Include additional site configurations
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Basic Configuration Examples:

Static Website

server{
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com; # our domain

  location /{
        root /vat/www/html;  # website directory
        index index.html; # default index file
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404; # 404 file
  }
}

Reverse Proxy

server{
  listen 80; # listen port
  server_name example.com;

  location /{
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000; # Forward to 3000 port
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
  }
}

Load balancing

upstream backend{
     least_conn;  # Least connection strategy (alternatives: round-robin, ip_hash)
    server 10.0.0.1:80 weight=3;  # Weight 3
    server 10.0.0.2:80;          # Default weight 1
    server 10.0.0.3:80 backup;   # Backup server
}
server{
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;

  location /{
    proxy_pass http://backend;
  }
}

Config HTTPS

server{
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name example.com

    ssl_certificate /path/to/your/certificater;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/your/key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
    }

}

Common Commands

start stop restart

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx