How to Setup Nginx on Linux

Introduction

Nginx is a high-performance HTTP, free and open-source reverse proxy server and is pronounced as “engine x”. In comparison to the Apache web server, Nginx can handle a much large number of concurrent connections and has a smaller memory per connection. Nginx is used to host the largest and high traffic sites on the internet. Nginx is one of the most popular webs or reverses proxy servers as it is more resource-friendly than Apache in most cases. Nginx has many usages other than a reverse proxy that is mail proxy, HTTP cache, and load balancing.

In this tutorial, we will discuss how to install Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04.

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 18.04 server up and running.
A non-root user with sudo privileges.

Installing Nginx

Update the packages

    sudo apt update

Install Nginx

    sudo apt install nginx

Verify the version of Nginx

    sudo nginx -v

Firewall Setting

Open HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) ports by allowing the ‘Nginx Full’ profile.

List the profiles available

    sudo ufw app list

You will get the list of application profiles

  Available applications:
    Nginx Full
    Nginx HTTP
    Nginx HTTPS
    OpenSSH

Allow Nginx Full

    sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Verify firewall status

    sudo ufw status

The output of above command will be

  Status: active
  To                         Action      From
  --                         ------      ----
  22/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere
  Nginx Full                 ALLOW       Anywhere
  22/tcp (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
  Nginx Full (v6)            ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Testing the Installation on browser

Verify the service of Nginx, it should be running

    sudo systemctl status nginx

Enter the URL e.g. http://YOUR_IP_ADDRESS in your browser

Managing the Nginx service with systemctl

To stop the Nginx service

    sudo systemctl stop nginx

To start the Nginx service

    sudo systemctl start nginx

To restart the Nginx service

    sudo systemctl restart nginx

Whenever you have made some changes to the configuration then reload the changes to reflect it.

    sudo systemctl reload nginx

To disable the Nginx service on booting

    sudo systemctl disable nginx

To Re-enable the Nginx service on booting

    sudo systemctl enable nginx

To Test the configuration if it is correct or not

    sudo nginx -t

Conclusion

You are now ready to use Nginx as a web or reverse proxy server, deploy your applications on the server and now you have many options to serve the different types of content and the technologies to create a richer experience.