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Nginx

Nginx cheat sheet for reverse proxy, load balancing, SSL/TLS, server blocks, caching, and performance tuning with config examples.

8 min read
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Installation & Basic Commands

Installing and managing Nginx

Installation

Installing Nginx on different platforms

bash
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx

# CentOS/RHEL/Fedora
sudo yum install nginx

# macOS with Homebrew
brew install nginx

# Check version
nginx -v
🚀 Lightweight and high-performance web server
📦 Available in most package managers
🔧 Modular architecture with dynamic modules
⚡ Default config at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Basic Commands

Essential Nginx management commands

bash
# Start/Stop/Restart
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl stop nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Test configuration
sudo nginx -t

# Show current config
sudo nginx -T
✅ Always test config before reload with nginx -t
🔄 Reload applies changes without dropping connections
📁 Config files in /etc/nginx/ directory
📊 Logs in /var/log/nginx/ by default

Server Blocks & Virtual Hosts

Configuring server blocks for multiple sites

Basic Server Block

Setting up a basic server block

nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}
🌐 Server blocks host multiple sites on one server
📝 Each block needs unique server_name
🔗 Symlink from sites-available to sites-enabled
⚡ try_files directive for efficient file serving

SSL/TLS Configuration

Configuring HTTPS with SSL certificates

nginx
server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate /path/to/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/key.pem;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    location / {
        root /var/www/example.com;
    }
}
🔒 Always use HTTPS in production
📜 Let's Encrypt for free SSL certificates
⚡ HTTP/2 for better performance
🔐 HSTS header for forcing HTTPS

Reverse Proxy

Configuring Nginx as a reverse proxy

Basic Reverse Proxy

Proxying requests to backend servers

nginx
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}
🔄 Forwards requests to backend servers
📡 Preserves client IP with X-Real-IP header
🔌 WebSocket support with connection upgrade
⚡ Can cache responses for better performance

Load Balancing

Distributing traffic across multiple servers

nginx
upstream backend {
    server 10.0.0.1:8080;
    server 10.0.0.2:8080;
    server 10.0.0.3:8080;
}

server {
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}
⚖️ Distributes load across multiple servers
🔄 Multiple load balancing algorithms available
💔 Automatic failover with health checks
🎯 Session persistence with ip_hash

Location Blocks & Rewrites

URL matching and request routing

Location Matching

Different types of location matching

nginx
# Exact match
location = /exact {
    # Only matches /exact
}

# Prefix match
location /prefix {
    # Matches /prefix, /prefix/path, etc.
}

# Regex match
location ~ \.php$ {
    # Case-sensitive regex
}

# Regex case-insensitive
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png)$ {
    # Case-insensitive regex
}
🎯 Exact match (=) has highest priority
📝 Regex locations are evaluated in order
🔍 Use ^~ to prevent regex matching
⚡ Order matters for regex locations

URL Rewriting

Rewriting and redirecting URLs

nginx
# Simple redirect
location /old {
    return 301 /new;
}

# Rewrite rule
location /api {
    rewrite ^/api/(.*) /$1 break;
    proxy_pass http://backend;
}

# Conditional rewrite
if ($request_uri ~* "/old/(.*)") {
    return 301 /new/$1;
}
🔄 rewrite changes URI internally
↪️ return sends redirect to client
🏁 break stops processing, last continues
🎯 Use try_files instead of if when possible

Caching & Performance

Optimizing Nginx for better performance

Caching Configuration

Setting up various caching strategies

nginx
# Browser caching for static files
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|css|js)$ {
    expires 30d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
}

# Proxy cache
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m max_size=1g;

server {
    location / {
        proxy_cache my_cache;
        proxy_cache_valid 200 1h;
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}
💾 Multiple cache zones for different content
⚡ Microcaching for dynamic content
🔄 stale-while-revalidate for better UX
📊 X-Cache-Status header for debugging

Performance Tuning

Optimizing Nginx for high performance

nginx
# Worker processes
worker_processes auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 65535;

events {
    worker_connections 4096;
    use epoll;
    multi_accept on;
}

http {
    # Enable compression
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript;

    # Keep-alive
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    keepalive_requests 100;
}
⚙️ Tune worker_processes and worker_connections
🗜️ Enable gzip/brotli compression
📈 Use sendfile for static files
🚦 Implement rate limiting for protection

Security & Access Control

Securing your Nginx server

Security Best Practices

Essential security configurations

nginx
# Hide Nginx version
server_tokens off;

# Security headers
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;

# Rate limiting
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;

# IP restrictions
location /admin {
    allow 192.168.1.0/24;
    deny all;
}
🔒 Always hide server version information
🛡️ Implement security headers
⚠️ Use rate limiting to prevent abuse
🔐 Restrict access to sensitive areas