How to setup NGINX: The Power Behind High-Performance Web Applications

NGINX is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy that is commonly used to serve web content and route requests in modern web applications. It is known for its reliability, speed, and ability to handle high amounts of traffic.

NGINX is a popular choice for web applications because it can handle a large number of concurrent connections and requests, making it well-suited for high-traffic websites and applications.

Additionally, NGINX can be used as a reverse proxy, allowing it to forward incoming requests to other servers or services. This can be useful for load balancing or for routing requests to different parts of your application.

NGINX can also be used as a load balancer, which means it can distribute incoming requests across multiple servers or services to improve performance and reliability.

It can also be used for caching, which can significantly improve the performance of your website or application. By caching content, NGINX can quickly serve frequently-requested data without having to go back to the origin server each time.

NGINX is also commonly used as a service mesh in a microservices architecture, it can act as a reverse proxy and load balancer for multiple microservices, and also provide features like service discovery, service routing and service-to-service communication.

Installation & Configuration

In this guide, we will cover the setup and installation of NGINX, as well as some common commands and configurations that can be used to customize your NGINX installation.

First, let's start with the installation of NGINX. The process will vary depending on your operating system, but the basic steps are the same.

On Ubuntu, you can install NGINX by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install nginx

On Centos, you can install NGINX by running the following command:

sudo yum install nginx

On Windows:

Go to the below link

https://nginx.org/en/docs/windows.htm

Download the pre-compiled binary version of NGINX from the site. Once downloaded, you can extract the files and run the nginx.exe file to start the server. 

On Linux systems you can use the below commands to start and manage nginx process.

sudo service nginx start

or 

sudo systemctl start nginx

You can also stop or restart the server using the following commands:

sudo service nginx stop

sudo service nginx restart

or 

sudo systemctl stop nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Current running status of nginx can be examined by the below commands

sudo service nginx status

or

sudo systemctl status nginx

When NGINX is running, it will read its configurations from a number of files.

On Ubuntu and Centos we can find all the nginx configurations at the /etc/nginx directory.

The main configuration file is located at 

/etc/nginx/nginx.conf 

This file contains the basic configuration for NGINX, including the location of other configuration files.

Another important file is the default site configuration file located at 

/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

This file contains the configuration for the default site that is served by NGINX.

Basically this file is a symlinc of the default file located at the 

/etc/nginx/sites-available/default

One can modify this file to change the document root, enable or disable PHP, or add other custom configurations.

We can also add similar configuration files  at the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory and symlink the file using the below command

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/custom.conf  /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/custom.conf 

Additionally, NGINX also uses a number of other files and directories, including:

• /var/log/nginx - This directory contains the log files for NGINX.
• /var/www - This directory is the default document root for NGINX

To customize your NGINX installation, you can use a variety of commands and configurations. Some common commands include:

• nginx -t - This command tests the configuration for errors.
• nginx -s reload - This command reloads the configuration without interrupting active connections.
• nginx -s stop - This command stops the server.

Few Common Use Cases for NGINX

• Web Server: One of the most common use cases for NGINX is as a web server. NGINX can be used to serve static and dynamic content, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP files. This can be done by configuring the server to listen on a specific port and routing incoming requests to the appropriate content.

• Reverse Proxy: NGINX can also be used as a reverse proxy, which means it can forward incoming requests to other servers or services. This can be useful for load balancing or for routing requests to different parts of your application. For example, you could configure NGINX to forward requests for a specific path to a backend server running Node.js, and another path to a backend server running PHP.

• Load Balancer: Another use case for NGINX is as a load balancer. This means it can distribute incoming requests across multiple servers or services to improve performance and reliability. For example, you could have multiple web servers running behind an NGINX load balancer that distributes requests evenly across all the servers.

• Caching: NGINX can also be used to cache content, which can significantly improve the performance of your website or application. By caching content, NGINX can quickly serve frequently-requested data without having to go back to the origin server each time.

• Microservices: NGINX can be used as a service mesh in a microservices architecture. It can act as a reverse proxy and load balancer for multiple microservices, and also provide features like service discovery, service routing and service-to-service communication.

• SSL/TLS termination: NGINX can be used to terminate SSL/TLS connections, which means it can handle the encryption and decryption of the traffic, so that the backend servers don't have to. This can improve the performance of the backend servers and simplify the SSL/TLS configuration.

In conclusion, NGINX is a powerful and versatile web server that can be used to serve web content, act as a reverse proxy, or even as a load balancer. This guide has covered the basic steps for installing and configuring NGINX, as well as the common commands and configurations that can be used to customize your NGINX installation.