Nginx is a free and open source HTTP/HTTPS web server. It can also work as a proxy server. Nginx used as a reverse proxy server for HTTP, HTTPS, and other protocols. You can use Nginx instead of traditional Apache HTTP 2 server. This tutorial shows you how to install and setup Nginx web server on your Debian 9 server.
Step 1: Install Nginx HTTP server
Type the following apt-get command/apt command to update your system:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Sample outputs:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Calculating upgrade... Done The following packages will be upgraded: libdns-export162 libisc-export160 2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 1186 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 libisc-export160 amd64 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2 [334 kB] Get:2 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 libdns-export162 amd64 1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2 [851 kB] Fetched 1186 kB in 0s (3744 kB/s) debconf: delaying package configuration, since apt-utils is not installed (Reading database ... 8419 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../libisc-export160_1%3a9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libisc-export160 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2) over (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u1) ... Preparing to unpack .../libdns-export162_1%3a9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking libdns-export162 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2) over (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u1) ... Setting up libisc-export160 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2) ... Setting up libdns-export162 (1:9.10.3.dfsg.P4-12.3+deb9u2) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...
To install Nginx server, type:
$ sudo apt-get install nginx
Sample outputs:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: fontconfig-config fonts-dejavu-core geoip-database libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libgd3 libgeoip1 libicu57 libjbig0 libjpeg62-turbo libnginx-mod-http-auth-pam libnginx-mod-http-dav-ext libnginx-mod-http-echo libnginx-mod-http-geoip libnginx-mod-http-image-filter libnginx-mod-http-subs-filter libnginx-mod-http-upstream-fair libnginx-mod-http-xslt-filter libnginx-mod-mail libnginx-mod-stream libpng16-16 libssl1.1 libtiff5 libwebp6 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxcb1 libxdmcp6 libxml2 libxpm4 libxslt1.1 nginx-common nginx-full sgml-base xml-core Suggested packages: libgd-tools geoip-bin fcgiwrap nginx-doc ssl-cert sgml-base-doc debhelper The following NEW packages will be installed: fontconfig-config fonts-dejavu-core geoip-database libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libgd3 libgeoip1 libicu57 libjbig0 libjpeg62-turbo libnginx-mod-http-auth-pam libnginx-mod-http-dav-ext libnginx-mod-http-echo libnginx-mod-http-geoip libnginx-mod-http-image-filter libnginx-mod-http-subs-filter libnginx-mod-http-upstream-fair libnginx-mod-http-xslt-filter libnginx-mod-mail libnginx-mod-stream libpng16-16 libssl1.1 libtiff5 libwebp6 libx11-6 libx11-data libxau6 libxcb1 libxdmcp6 libxml2 libxpm4 libxslt1.1 nginx nginx-common nginx-full sgml-base xml-core 0 upgraded, 38 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 18.5 MB of archives. After this operation, 58.9 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 libexpat1 amd64 2.2.0-2+deb9u1 [83.4 kB] Get:2 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 libxau6 amd64 1:1.0.8-1 [20.7 kB] .... .. .. Setting up libxpm4:amd64 (1:3.5.12-1) ... Setting up libgd3:amd64 (2.2.4-2) ... Setting up libnginx-mod-http-image-filter (1.10.3-1+deb9u1) ... Setting up nginx-full (1.10.3-1+deb9u1) ... Setting up nginx (1.10.3-1+deb9u1) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ... Processing triggers for sgml-base (1.29) ...
By default Nginx server started on Debian 9 and it can be verified with the netstat command/ss command and ps command as follows:
$ ps aux | grep nginx
$ pgrep nginx
www-data 1099 0.0 0.0 159836 3100 ? S 10:11 0:00 nginx: worker process www-data 1100 0.0 0.0 159836 3100 ? S 10:11 0:00 nginx: worker process www-data 1101 0.0 0.0 159836 3100 ? S 10:11 0:00 nginx: worker process
Use the netstat command as follows to verify that port 80 is open:
$ netstat -tulpn | grep :80
Sample outputs:
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1098/nginx: master tcp6 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 1098/nginx: master
Step 2: Start/stop/restart nginx command
To enable Nginx on boot run the following systemctl command:
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx
Synchronizing state of nginx.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install. Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable nginx
Restart nginx server command
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx
Stop nginx server command
$ sudo systemctl stop nginx
Start nginx server command
$ sudo systemctl start nginx
Find status of nginx server command
$ sudo systemctl status nginx
Sample outputs:
* nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Thu 2017-08-03 10:18:49 UTC; 32s ago Docs: man:nginx(8) Process: 1361 ExecStop=/sbin/start-stop-daemon --quiet --stop --retry QUIT/5 --pidfile /run/nginx.pid (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 1363 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 1362 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 1364 (nginx) Tasks: 21 (limit: 4915) CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service ??1364 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; ??1365 nginx: worker process ??1366 nginx: worker process ??1367 nginx: worker process ??1368 nginx: worker process ??1369 nginx: worker process ??1370 nginx: worker process ??1371 nginx: worker process ??1372 nginx: worker process ??1373 nginx: worker process ??1374 nginx: worker process ??1375 nginx: worker process ??1376 nginx: worker process ??1377 nginx: worker process ??1378 nginx: worker process ??1379 nginx: worker process ??1380 nginx: worker process ??1381 nginx: worker process ??1382 nginx: worker process ??1383 nginx: worker process ??1384 nginx: worker process Aug 03 10:18:49 debian9-www systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server... Aug 03 10:18:49 debian9-www systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.
Step 3: Test it
Fire a web browser and type url:
http://your-domain/
Or find your public IP address using the ip command/ifconfig command:
$ ip a
OR
$ ifconfig eth0
Sample outputs:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f2:3c:91:60:1d:cb
inet addr:45.33.115.105 Bcast:45.33.115.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: 2600:3c00::f03c:91ff:fe60:1dcb/64 Scope:Global
inet6 addr: fe80::f03c:91ff:fe60:1dcb/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:152860323 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:194050118 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:555971036475 (555.9 GB) TX bytes:107798769402 (107.7 GB)
Fire a web browser and type url:
http://45.33.115.105/
Sample outputs:
Fig.01: Testing your Nginx web server on Debian 9
Step 4: Configure Nginx web server
By default all HTML/css/images files are stored in /var/www/html/ directory. This is known as the root of your web server. It is defined in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default config file. You can edit it with either vim command/nano command
$ sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
OR
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
The /etc/nginx/nginx.conf is your main nginx config file and /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default is default config file.
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Creating your own config file
First create a user named cbzwww for www.cyberciti.biz domain using the useradd command:
$ sudo useradd -c "cyberciti.biz user" -d /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz -s /usr/sbin/nologin -m cbzwww
To lock the password for the cbzwww account, enter:
$ sudo passwd -l cbzwww
passwd: password expiry information changed.
Verify it:
$ ls -l /home/
Sample outputs:
total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 cbzwww cbzwww 4096 Aug 3 10:37 nginx-www.cyberciti.biz
To create a Virtual Hosts named www.cyberciti.biz, enter;
$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/www.cyberciti.biz.conf
Append the basic config:
server { listen 80; listen [::]:80; server_name www.cyberciti.biz; root /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz; index index.html; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ =404; } }
Save and close the file. You must create a soft link as follows:
$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/www.cyberciti.biz.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/www.cyberciti.biz.conf
Finally test and reload server:
$ sudo nginx -t
$ sudo systemctl reload nginx
Now create a test file at
$ sudo nano /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz/index.html
Append the following:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to nixCraft!</title>
<style>
body {
width: 35em;
margin: 0 auto;
font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome to www.cyberciti.biz!</h1>
<p>This is a test for Nginx virtual host.</p>
<p><em>Thank you for using nixCraft tutorials.</em></p>
</body>
</html>Save and close the file. Set correct permissions using chmod command and chown command:
$ sudo chown cbzwww:cbzwww /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz/index.html
$ sudo chmod 0444 /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz/index.html
$ ls -l /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz/index.html
-r--r--r-- 1 cbzwww cbzwww 374 Aug 3 10:52 /home/nginx-www.cyberciti.biz/index.html
Test it by typing url:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/
Sample outputs:
Fig.02: Nginx web server virtual domain test
And there you have it, Nginx server installed and configured on Debian 9 server.
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