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

Nginx as reverse proxy


First, bear in mind that the reverse proxy mechanism that we are going to describe in this chapter should not be considered as a long-term solution. It should be employed as a temporary architecture in problematic cases such as the following:

  • When you already have Apache installed with complex configuration files that can hardly be ported to Nginx, or if you do not have the time or the will to completely switch to Nginx

  • When your system operates a frontend system management panel such as Parallels Plesk, cPanel, or other solutions that automatically generate Apache configuration files

  • When a functionality that your project or architecture requires is available with Apache but not with Nginx

In any other case, a complete switch to Nginx would be a better choice. Chapter 7, From Apache to Nginx provides a streamlined description of the process.

Understanding the issue

The reverse proxy mechanism mainly addresses one issue—the overall serving speed of Apache. Due to the massive...