Nginx web server setup

Nginx Web Server Setup

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy. Used as a frontend for PHP-FPM, Node.js, Python applications, for serving static content, SSL termination, and load balancing.

Basic configuration for Laravel/PHP

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/myapp.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/myapp/current/public;
    index index.php;

    # SSL
    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_timeout 10m;

    # Security headers
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload" always;
    add_header X-Frame-Options "DENY" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;

    charset utf-8;
    client_max_body_size 50M;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
        fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300;
    }

    # Static assets - maximum caching
    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff2?|ttf|eot)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
        access_log off;
    }

    # Deny access to hidden files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
        access_log off;
        log_not_found off;
    }
}

Reverse Proxy for Node.js

upstream nodejs_app {
    server 127.0.0.1:3000;
    server 127.0.0.1:3001;
    keepalive 32;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://nodejs_app;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        proxy_read_timeout 300;
    }
}

Gzip and caching

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/gzip.conf
gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_min_length 1024;
gzip_types
    text/plain text/css text/xml text/javascript
    application/json application/javascript application/xml+rss
    application/atom+xml image/svg+xml font/ttf font/otf;

# Proxy cache (for caching backend responses)
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=app_cache:10m
                 max_size=1g inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;

location /api/public/ {
    proxy_cache app_cache;
    proxy_cache_valid 200 10m;
    proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating;
    add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
    proxy_pass http://app;
}

Rate Limiting

limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=30r/m;
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=login:10m rate=5r/m;

location /api/ {
    limit_req zone=api burst=10 nodelay;
    limit_req_status 429;
    proxy_pass http://app;
}

location /login {
    limit_req zone=login burst=2 nodelay;
    proxy_pass http://app;
}

Logging

log_format combined_json escape=json
    '{'
        '"time":"$time_iso8601",'
        '"remote_addr":"$remote_addr",'
        '"method":"$request_method",'
        '"uri":"$request_uri",'
        '"status":$status,'
        '"request_time":$request_time,'
        '"bytes_sent":$bytes_sent,'
        '"http_referer":"$http_referer",'
        '"http_user_agent":"$http_user_agent"'
    '}';

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log combined_json;
error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

Configuration testing

nginx -t                  # check config
nginx -s reload           # reload without downtime
nginx -T | grep server_name  # output all configs

# Performance testing
ab -n 1000 -c 100 https://example.com/
wrk -t 4 -c 100 -d 10s https://example.com/

Timeline

Basic Nginx setup for PHP/Node.js application: 1 day. Full configuration with rate limiting, caching, logging: 2–3 days.