What this book covers

Chapter 1, Searching for Problems in Nginx Configuration, briefly describes the configuration language of Nginx and presents some of the corner cases and several techniques to search for problems.

Chapter 2, Searching for Problems in Log Files, describes the logging subsystem, log syntax, and what to look for when you troubleshoot. Nginx provides thorough logs of everything it does.

Chapter 3, Troubleshooting Functionality, the central chapter in this book, contains a list of steps you will make while investigating a problem. You will find the types of problems people generally encounter with their Nginx-powered web servers.

Chapter 4, Optimizing Website Performance, is dedicated to all things about performance. Starting with thorough explanation of the basic principles behind the Nginx event-driven processing model, it also touches on caching and even gives some advice on possible upstream optimization.

Chapter 5, Troubleshooting Rare Specific Problems, is devoted to studies of several real cases that you may face, from some of the simplest and easiest cases to fix to more problematic cases. The cases described might not be the most frequent, but they still provide valuable insight on the internals of the software and the methods of troubleshooting.

Chapter 6, Monitoring Nginx, is devoted to the abundance of tools available today that you may use for monitoring. No system is complete without good processes for the detection of emerging problems.

Chapter 7, Going Forward with Nginx, the short final chapter, provides a selection of directions you may choose for your further development as a specialist. The whole industry is very dynamic, and you should never settle.

Appendix, Rare Nginx Error Messages, provides a reference of interesting and not very common error messages that you might encounter in your log files.