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Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition
Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition

Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition: Harness the power of Nginx to make the most of your infrastructure and serve pages faster than ever

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Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition

Chapter 2. Basic Nginx Configuration

In this chapter, we will establish an appropriate configuration for your web server. For this purpose, we begin to discover the syntax that is used in the Nginx configuration files. Then, we need to understand the various directives that will let you prepare and optimize your web server for the different traffic patterns and hardware setups. Finally, we will create some test pages to make sure that everything has been done correctly and that the configuration is valid. We will only approach the basic configuration directives here. The following chapters will explore more advanced topics such as HTTP module configuration and usage, creating virtual hosts, and more.

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • The presentation of the configuration syntax
  • An overview of basic configuration directives
  • Establishing an appropriate configuration for your profile
  • Serving a test website
  • Testing and maintaining your web server

Configuration file syntax

A configuration file is generally a text file that is edited by the administrator and parsed by a program. By specifying a set of values, you define the behavior of the program. In Linux-based operating systems, a large share of the applications rely on vast, complex configuration files, which often turn out to be a nightmare to manage. Apache, Qmail, and Bind—all these names bring up bad memories in the mind of a Linux system administrator. The fact is that all these applications use their own configuration file with different syntaxes and styles. PHP works with a Windows-style .ini file, sendmail uses the M4 macro-processor to compile the configuration files, Zabbix pulls its configuration from a MySQL database, and so on. There is, unfortunately, no well-established standard, and the same applies to Nginx—you will be required to study a new syntax with its own particularities and its own vocabulary.

Configuration file syntax

Why isn't there a universal standard for...

Base module directives

In this section, we will take a closer look at the base modules. We are particularly interested in answering two questions: what are base modules? What are the directives that are available?

What are base modules?

The base modules offer directives that allow you to define the parameters of the basic functionality of Nginx. They cannot be disabled at compile time, and as a result, the directives and blocks that they offer are always available. Three base modules have been distinguished:

  • Core module: Consists of essential features and directives such as process management and security
  • Events module: Lets you configure the inner mechanisms of the networking capabilities
  • Configuration module: Enables the inclusion mechanism

These modules offer a large range of directives; we will be detailing them individually with their syntaxes and default values.

The Nginx process architecture

Before we start detailing the basic configuration directives, it is necessary to understand the overall...

Testing your server

At this point, you have configured several basic directives that affect the core functioning of Nginx. We will perform a simple test to ensure that all is working as expected, and that you are ready to further configure and deploy your websites.

Creating a test server

In order to perform simple tests, such as connecting to the server with a web browser, we need to set up a website for Nginx to serve. A test page comes with the default package in the html folder (/usr/local/nginx/html/index.html) and the original nginx.conf is configured to serve this page. The following is the section that we are interested in for now:

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;
    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  localhost;
        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location...

Summary

This chapter provided an overview of the configuration architecture by studying the syntax and the core module directives that have an impact on the overall server performance. We then went through a series of adjustments in order to fit your profile, followed by performance tests that have probably led you to fine-tune some more.

This is just the beginning though. Practically everything that we will be doing from now on is to prepare configuration sections. The next chapter will detail more advanced directives by further exploring the module system and the exciting possibilities that are offered to you.

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Key benefits

  • *Discover possible interactions between Nginx and Apache to get the best of both worlds
  • *Learn to exploit the features offered by NGinx for your web applications
  • *Get the newest techniques available, designed with the latest version in mind

Description

Nginx is a lightweight HTTP server designed for high-traffic websites, with network scalability as the primary objective. With the advent of high speed Internet access, short loading times and fast transfer rates have become a necessity. This free, open source solution will either come as a full replacement of other software such as Apache, or stand in front of your existing infrastructure to improve its overall speed. This book is a detailed guide to setting up Nginx in different ways that correspond to actual production situations: as a standalone server, as a reverse proxy, interacting with applications via FastCGI, and more. In addition, this complete directive reference will be your best friend at all stages of the configuration and maintenance processes. This book is the perfect companion for both Nginx beginners and experienced administrators. For beginners, it will take you through the complete process of setting up this lightweight HTTP server on your system and configuring its various modules so it does exactly what you need quickly and securely. For more experienced administrators, this book provides different approaches that can help you make the most of your current infrastructure. Nginx can be employed in many situations, whether you are looking to construct an entirely new web-serving architecture or simply want to integrate an efficient tool to optimize your site loading speeds.

Who is this book for?

By covering both the early setup stages and advanced topics, this book suits web administrators who interested in solutions to optimize their infrastructure, whether you are looking into replacing your existing web server software or integrating a new tool to cooperate with applications that are already up and running. If you, your visitors, and your operating system have been disappointed by Apache, this book is exactly what you need.

What you will learn

  • *Get to know the basics of the Nginx configuration: syntax, structure, and semantics
  • *Understand the advanced load balancing functionality of Nginx and the newest innovative IO mechanisms
  • *Create virtual host configurations effortlessly
  • *Discover all the first-party modules: how to enable, configure, and use them
  • *Establish advanced rewrite rules with the Nginx Rewrite module
  • *Set up Nginx to work with PHP, Python, and more via FastCGI
  • *Configure Nginx to work as frontend for your existing HTTP server
  • *Manipulate configuration files with ease and adapt them to various situations
  • * Discover the common pitfalls and find out how to avoid them
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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Nov 18, 2015
Length: 318 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785280337
Vendor :
Nginx
Concepts :
Tools :

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Product Details

Publication date : Nov 18, 2015
Length: 318 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781785280337
Vendor :
Nginx
Concepts :
Tools :

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Frequently bought together


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Table of Contents

11 Chapters
1. Downloading and Installing Nginx Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Basic Nginx Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. HTTP Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Module Configuration Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. PHP and Python with Nginx Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Apache and Nginx Together Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. From Apache to Nginx Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Introducing Load Balancing and Optimization Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Case Studies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Troubleshooting Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.6
(8 Ratings)
5 star 75%
4 star 12.5%
3 star 12.5%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
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Toe Laurent Jan 14, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I strongly recommend this book if you are a Web Administrator, a System Administrator, or an Hobbyist who would like to build a production grade Web Server using Nginx. The book started with an overview on why Nginx is the truly a lightweight and powerful web server being used by many enterprises today, then explain how to install it from source and using package managers, then finishes with a Production grade set up example.The author, Clement Nedelcu has years of experience in administering Nginx Servers for big enterprises so if you would like to prevent yourself from hitting the wall or spending too much time on Google, then this book will save your life and help you start quickly with your awesome web project.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Matthew Butch May 01, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I would say I'm an intermediate user of Nginx and I wanted to have a good reference book it. This book fits the bill. It covers the basics as well as some advanced configurations. Whether you are a starter or have used Nginx but want more, this book is for you.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
R. M. Leith Mar 12, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is a comprehensive guide that can get you going when the free on-line help is not enough. Nginx is a terrific HTTP server and it is well served by this book
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Hugo Feb 22, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
One of my favorite books so far. Before this book I just known that Nginx were a fast web server and this lead me to have interest to read this book, but Nginx it is much more, it was what I needed to know now to have more efficient web server. This book introduce Nginx history and features, than you will learn how to download and install the required libraries, requirements and basic usage. I liked that this book teach the different points of this kind of server, the advantages and how to use it. I have used Apache in basic projects, I'm not a specialist, but I like to improve my work, so I've been searching for new technologies, and the chapters that compare and teach how to use Apache Nginx together to achieve better results are my favorite because with the background of the author I could understand the point of view of a much more experienced user, this is the best part of this book. The use of Wordpress and ownCloud was a great example of how easy is to use this HTTP server. I would like to recommend this book for everyone interested in Web in general.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
mercluke Dec 30, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The book has been modularised quite well to allow for separation of learning outcomes.For example, a reader already familiar with how to install nginx can confidently skip chapter 1 and jump right into the meat of configuring the server.Even for people extremely familiar with nginx, you will find this book extremely helpful as a reference for neat tips to optimise your server for best performance. (check out Chapter 8: Introducing Load Balancing and Optimization)Best of all, unlike a lot of technical books i find myself reading, this book was quite easy to read, a lot of books in this domain tend to be far too dense and end up disengaging the reader
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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