Nginx

Nginx is a web server which can also be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy and HTTP cache.

Example Nginx configuration files

Basic

$ cat nginx.conf

user       www www;  ## Default: nobody
worker_processes  5;  ## Default: 1
error_log  logs/error.log;
pid        logs/nginx.pid;
worker_rlimit_nofile 8192;

events {
  worker_connections  4096;  ## Default: 1024
}

http {
  include    conf/mime.types;
  include    /etc/nginx/proxy.conf;
  include    /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
  index    index.html index.htm index.php;

  default_type application/octet-stream;
  log_format   main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local]  $status '
    '"$request" $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
  access_log   logs/access.log  main;
  sendfile     on;
  tcp_nopush   on;
  server_names_hash_bucket_size 128; # this seems to be required for some vhosts

  server { # php/fastcgi
    listen       80;
    server_name  domain1.com www.domain1.com;
    access_log   logs/domain1.access.log  main;
    root         html;

    location ~ \.php$ {
      fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:1025;
    }
  }

  server { # simple reverse-proxy
    listen       80;
    server_name  domain2.com www.domain2.com;
    access_log   logs/domain2.access.log  main;

    # serve static files
    location ~ ^/(images|javascript|js|css|flash|media|static)/  {
      root    /var/www/virtual/big.server.com/htdocs;
      expires 30d;
    }

    # pass requests for dynamic content to rails/turbogears/zope, et al
    location / {
      proxy_pass      http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    }
  }

  upstream big_server_com {
    server 127.0.0.3:8000 weight=5;
    server 127.0.0.3:8001 weight=5;
    server 192.168.0.1:8000;
    server 192.168.0.1:8001;
  }

  server { # simple load balancing
    listen          80;
    server_name     big.server.com;
    access_log      logs/big.server.access.log main;

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

Using SSL/TLS

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name www.example.com example.com;

  # Redirect all traffic to SSL
  rewrite ^ https://$server_name$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
  listen 443 ssl default_server;

  # enables SSLv3/TLSv1, but not SSLv2 which is weak and should no longer be used.
  ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1;
  
  # disables all weak ciphers
  ssl_ciphers ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!LOW:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM;

  server_name www.example.com example.com;

  ## Access and error logs.
  access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
  error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log info;

  ## Keep alive timeout set to a greater value for SSL/TLS.
  keepalive_timeout 75 75;

  ## See the keepalive_timeout directive in nginx.conf.
  ## Server certificate and key.
  ssl on;
  ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/example.com-rapidssl.crt;
  ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/example.com-rapidssl.key;
  ssl_session_timeout  5m;

  ## Strict Transport Security header for enhanced security. See
  ## http://www.chromium.org/sts. Here it is set it to 2 hours;
  ## set it to whichever age you want.
  add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=7200";
  
  root /var/www/example.com/;
  index index.php;
}

External links

• Official website