How to install nginx on CentOS 6 or RHEL 6 with yum

The procedure is as follows:

1. Update CentOS/RHEL 6 system by running yum update
2. Install official nginx repo
3. To install nginx, run: yum install nginx
4. Configure nginx service
5. Update firewall configuration to open port 80
6. To get nginx running and start on a CentOS 6 or RHLE 6, run: service nginx start

Let us see all examples in details.

Step 1: Install nginx repo

Type the following wget command to install nginx yum configuration file:
# cd /tmp
CentOS Linux v6.x user type the following command:
# wget http://nginx.org/packages/centos/6/noarch/RPMS/nginx-release-centos-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh nginx-release-centos-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm
Sample outputs:

warning: nginx-release-centos-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 7bd9bf62: NOKEY
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:nginx-release-centos   ########################################### [100%]

RHEL v6.x user type the following command:

# wget http://nginx.org/packages/rhel/6/noarch/RPMS/nginx-release-rhel-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh nginx-release-rhel-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm
Sample outputs:

warning: nginx-release-rhel-6-0.el6.ngx.noarch.rpm: Header V4 RSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 7bd9bf62: NOKEY
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:nginx-release-rhel     ########################################### [100%]

Step 2: Install nginx web-server on CentOS 6 or RHEL 6

Type the following yum command to install nginx web-server:
# yum install nginx
Sample outputs:

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Setting up Install Process
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.horizon.vn
 * extras: centos-hcm.viettelidc.com.vn
 * updates: centos-hcm.viettelidc.com.vn
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package nginx.x86_64 0:1.16.0-1.el6.ngx will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
 
Dependencies Resolved
 
================================================================================
 Package        Arch            Version                    Repository      Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 nginx          x86_64          1.16.0-1.el6.ngx           nginx          971 k
 
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install       1 Package(s)
 
Total download size: 971 k
Installed size: 2.6 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
nginx-1.16.0-1.el6.ngx.x86_64.rpm                        | 971 kB     00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Warning: RPMDB altered outside of yum.
  Installing : nginx-1.16.0-1.el6.ngx.x86_64                                1/1 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Thanks for using nginx!
 
Please find the official documentation for nginx here:
* http://nginx.org/en/docs/
 
Please subscribe to nginx-announce mailing list to get
the most important news about nginx:
* http://nginx.org/en/support.html
 
Commercial subscriptions for nginx are available on:
* http://nginx.com/products/
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Verifying  : nginx-1.16.0-1.el6.ngx.x86_64                                1/1 
 
Installed:
  nginx.x86_64 0:1.16.0-1.el6.ngx                                               
 
Complete!

How do I verify and display nginx version?

Simply type the following command:
# nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/1.16.0

Step 3: Turn on nginx web service

Type the following chkconfig command:
# chkconfig nginx on

How do I start / stop / restart nginx web-server?

Type the following commands:
# service nginx start
# service nginx stop
# service nginx restart
# service nginx status
# service nginx reload

Step 4: Configuration files

1. Default configuration directory: /etc/nginx/
2. Default SSL and vhost config directory: /etc/nginx/conf.d/
3. Default log file directory: /var/log/nginx/
4. Default document root directory: /usr/share/nginx/html
5. Default configuration file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
6. Default server access log file: /var/log/nginx/access.log
7. Default server access log file: /var/log/nginx/error.log

To edit the nginx configuration file, enter:
# vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Set or update worker_processes as follows (this must be set to CPU(s) in your system. Use the lscpu | grep ‘^CPU(s)’ command to list the number of CPUs in the server)

worker_processes  2;

Turn on gzip support:

gzip  on;

Save and close the file. Edit the file /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf, enter:
# vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
Set IP address and TCP port number:

    listen       202.54.1.1.1:80;

Set server name:

    server_name  www.cyberciti.biz;

Save and close the file. Start or restart the nginx server:
# service nginx restart
Verify that everything is working:
# netstat -tulpn | grep :80
# ps aux | grep nginx

Firewall configuration: Open TCP port # 80

Edit the file /etc/sysconfig/iptables, enter:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
Add the following lines, ensuring that they appear before the final LOG and DROP lines for the INPUT chain to open port 80:

-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

Save and close the file. Finally, restart the firewall:
# service iptables restart

How do I configure nginx+php5?

See this tutorial for more information.

How do I configure Nginx as a reverse proxy server?

See our previous tutorials:

1. CentOS / Redhat Linux: Install Keepalived To Provide IP Failover For Web Cluster
2. CentOS / Redhat: Install nginx As Reverse Proxy Load Balancer
3. Handling nginx Failover With KeepAlived
4. nginx: Setup SSL Reverse Proxy (Load Balanced SSL Proxy)
5. mod_extforward: Lighttpd Log Clients Real IP Behind Reverse Proxy / Load Balancer
6. HowTo: Merge Apache / Lighttpd / Nginx Server Log Files
7. Linux nginx: Chroot (Jail) Setup

How do I secure nginx web-server?

1. See: Top 20 Nginx webServer best security practices blog post for more information.

Check out related media

This tutorial is also available in a quick video format.

Conclusion