Book Image

Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition

By : Clement Nedelcu
Book Image

Nginx HTTP Server, Third Edition

By: Clement Nedelcu

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Nginx HTTP Server Third Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 6. Apache and Nginx Together

If you are reading this book, chances are you have already had to deal with the Apache web server, considering it is still a major player in the market. In fact, a lot of the administrators interested in Nginx are people who have encountered issues with the former: slowdowns, complexity in configuring, lack of responsivity at times, and a variety of other problems. Consequently, the first idea that comes to mind is to replace Apache with another web server such as Nginx. However, there is an alternative that is not often considered, as it sounds a little far-fetched at first—running both Nginx and Apache at the same time. When you look into it, this solution offers many advantages, especially for administrators looking for a quick and efficient solution to the aforementioned issues.

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • An introduction to the reverse proxy mechanism

  • The advantages and disadvantages of such an architecture

  • Discovering the proxy module...