NGINX Server Setup on Redhat like OS – Configs with Example

NGINX is a robust web server that can be configured to server static, dynamic or custom contents and also can be used as reverse proxy or loadbalancer.

Install on RHEL with command –

yum install nginx

start service –

systemctl start nginx

Check service status –

ps -ef | grep nginx
root 3295701 1 0 12:37 ? 00:00:00 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx
nginx 3295702 3295701 0 12:37 ? 00:00:00 nginx: worker process
nginx 3295703 3295701 0 12:37 ? 00:00:00 nginx: worker process
root 3295718 3250048 0 12:37 pts/1 00:00:00 grep –color=auto nginx

NGINX has –

main context

server context

http context

create a virtual host to server the static website

I personally prefer to clean the default file and add my our code –

events {}
http{
server {
listen 8880;
server_name vm01.cloudshiksha365.com;
root /u01/cs365/html;
}
}

Post changes, next is to do the stop and start of nginx demon –

[root@cs365-vm01 ~]# nginx -t

[root@cs365-vm01 ~]# systemctl stop nginx
[root@cs365-vm01 ~]# systemctl start nginx

Make sure following permission and security checks –

chown nginx:group /u01/cs365/html

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_t /u01/cs365/html

Refer to error logs if your webpage is not accessible –

tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Below with Mime Type Manually defined –

events {}
http{
types {
text/html html;
text/css css;
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name vm01.cloudshiksha365.com;
root /u01/cs365/html;
}
}

SSH Tunnel to your local desktop from server if firewall is a problem –

ssh -m hmac-sha2-512 -L 8181:localhost:80 [email protected]

NGINX Location blocks with prefix match examples –
events {}
http{
include mime.types;
server {
listen 80;
server_name cs365vm01.cloudshiksha365.com;
root /u01/forms/html;
#Prefix match
location /app1 {
return 200 “app 1 sample call”
}
#exact match
location = /app2 {
return 200 “app 1 sample call”
}
#regx based match use PCRE lib, its case sensitive, remember this
location ~ /app3[0-9] {
return 200 “app 3 sample call with REGX Match “
}
#regx based match use PCRE lib, its case insensitive, remember this with * use here
location *~ /app3[0-9] {
return 200 “app 3 sample call with REGX Match “
}
#Preferential prefix match use PCRE lib, its case insensitive, remember this with * use here
location ^~ /app3[0-9] {
return 200 “app 3 sample call with REGX Match “
}
}

}

NGINX as a Reverse Proxy –

    location /myapp {
      proxy_pass 'http://localhost:9090';
      }
}

Below is the example config that I am using on one of my LIVE servers with SSL/TLS –

server {     listen 4443;    

server_name dev.cs365.com;