What is Nginx?

Nginx (pronounced "engine-x") is a high-performance, open-source web server, reverse proxy server, and load balancer. Created by Igor Sysoev in 2004, Nginx was designed to solve the C10K problem - handling 10,000 concurrent connections efficiently. It's known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.

Unlike traditional web servers that create a new process or thread for each request, Nginx uses an asynchronous, event-driven architecture that allows it to handle thousands of concurrent connections with minimal memory usage. This makes it ideal for high-traffic websites and applications.

400M+

Websites Using Nginx

$110K

Average Nginx Engineer Salary

Key Features

Web Server

Serves static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images) with exceptional performance and low memory usage.

Reverse Proxy

Acts as an intermediary between clients and backend servers, providing load balancing and SSL termination.

Load Balancer

Distributes incoming requests across multiple backend servers using various algorithms (round-robin, least connections, IP hash).

HTTP Cache

Caches responses from backend servers to improve performance and reduce server load.

Basic Nginx Configuration

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
user nginx;
worker_processes auto;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    use epoll;
}

http {
    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;
    
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    
    # Gzip compression
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_min_length 1024;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript;
    
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}

Server Block Configuration

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/html;
    index index index.htm;
    
    # Static file serving
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    
    # API proxy
    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://backend_servers;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
    
    # Static assets with long cache
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Load Balancing Configuration

# Upstream backend servers
upstream backend_servers {
    least_conn;  # Load balancing method
    server 192.168.1.10:3000 weight=3;
    server 192.168.1.11:3000 weight=2;
    server 192.168.1.12:3000 weight=1 backup;
    
    # Health checks
    keepalive 32;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.example.com;
    
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend_servers;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        
        # Timeouts
        proxy_connect_timeout 5s;
        proxy_send_timeout 10s;
        proxy_read_timeout 10s;
    }
}

SSL/HTTPS Configuration

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    
    # SSL certificates
    ssl_certificate /path/to/certificate.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /path/to/private.key;
    
    # SSL configuration
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA512;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_timeout 10m;
    
    # Security headers
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000" always;
    add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    
    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
        index index;
    }
}

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

Common Use Cases

Static Content Serving: Efficiently serve HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images
Reverse Proxy: Forward requests to application servers (Node.js, Python, PHP)
Load Balancing: Distribute traffic across multiple backend servers
SSL Termination: Handle SSL/TLS encryption and decryption
Caching: Cache responses to improve performance
Rate Limiting: Control request rates to prevent abuse

Career Opportunities

Nginx expertise is valuable for various infrastructure and development roles:

DevOps Engineer ($95K - $150K annually)
System Administrator ($70K - $120K annually)
Site Reliability Engineer ($110K - $170K annually)
Backend Developer ($80K - $130K annually)
Infrastructure Engineer ($90K - $140K annually)

Learning Path

Understand web server fundamentals and HTTP protocol
Learn Nginx installation and basic configuration
Practice serving static content and virtual hosts
Master reverse proxy and load balancing
Learn SSL/TLS configuration and security
Explore caching and performance optimization
Study monitoring, logging, and troubleshooting
Learn advanced features like rate limiting and modules

Nginx