Installing and Configuring Nginx

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy widely used for serving websites and web applications.

Install Nginx

Ubuntu/Debian:

apt update
apt install nginx -y
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx

CentOS/AlmaLinux/Rocky:

dnf install nginx -y
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx

Test the Installation

Open your browser and navigate to http://YOUR_SERVER_IP. You should see the Nginx welcome page.

Configuration Structure (Ubuntu)

• /etc/nginx/nginx.conf — main config
• /etc/nginx/sites-available/ — site configs (inactive until enabled)
• /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ — symlinks to active site configs

Create a Server Block for Your Domain

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/yourdomain.com;
    index index.html index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

Enable the site and reload:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t
systemctl reload nginx

Useful Commands

nginx -t               # Test configuration for errors
systemctl reload nginx # Apply changes without downtime
systemctl restart nginx