Nginx 1 30 0

Nginx 1.30.0

Overview

Nginx is a high-performance HTTP server, reverse proxy, and load balancer. It uses an event-driven, asynchronous architecture with one master process and multiple worker processes. The master process reads configuration and manages workers; worker processes handle actual request processing using OS-dependent mechanisms (epoll on Linux, kqueue on BSD).

Nginx 1.30.0 supports HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3 (QUIC), WebSocket proxying, TCP/UDP stream proxying, FastCGI/uWSGI/SCGI/gRPC upstreams, built-in caching, gzip compression, rate limiting, SSL/TLS termination, and virtual hosting with name-based and IP-based routing.

When to Use

• Configuring Nginx as a web server or reverse proxy
• Setting up load balancing across multiple backend servers
• Implementing HTTPS with TLS/SSL termination
• Tuning performance for high-throughput deployments
• Creating virtual hosts (name-based or IP-based)
• Routing requests to backend application servers (HTTP, FastCGI, gRPC)
• Configuring rate limiting, access control, or caching
• Troubleshooting Nginx configurations
• Setting up QUIC/HTTP/3 support
• Proxying TCP/UDP traffic with the stream module

Core Concepts

Process model: One master process + multiple worker processes. Workers are event-driven and non-blocking. Number of workers set via worker_processes (or auto to match CPU cores).

Configuration structure: Directives are either simple (end with ;) or block (enclosed in {}). Key contexts: main → events, http → server → location. Comments use #.

Request processing: Nginx first selects a server block by matching the request's IP/port and Host header, then tests the URI against location directives. Prefix locations are checked longest-first; regex locations (prefixed with ~) take priority over prefix matches.

Upstream groups: The upstream block defines server pools referenced by proxy_pass, fastcgi_pass, etc. Supports round-robin (default), least_conn, ip_hash, and weighted distribution.

Installation / Setup

Install from packages (Linux, FreeBSD) or build from source:

# Build from source
./configure --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_v2_module --with-stream
make
sudo make install

Default configuration file locations: /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf, /etc/nginx/nginx.conf, or /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf.

Usage Examples

Basic reverse proxy

http {
    upstream backend {
        server 127.0.0.1:8080;
        server 127.0.0.1:8081;
    }

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://backend;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        }
    }
}

HTTPS with SSL termination

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/cert.key;
    ssl_protocols       TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers         HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}

Static file serving with caching headers

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name static.example.com;

    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html;
    }

    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ {
        root /var/www/static;
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Advanced Topics

Configuration Syntax and Core Module: Directives, contexts, measurement units, worker tuning → Configuration Syntax

HTTP Proxy and Upstream: proxy_pass, caching, buffering, timeouts, upstream load balancing methods → HTTP Proxy and Upstream

SSL/TLS and HTTP/3: Certificate configuration, protocols, ciphers, OCSP stapling, QUIC/HTTP/3 setup → SSL/TLS and HTTP/3

Access Control and Rate Limiting: IP-based allow/deny, basic auth, JWT auth, limit_req, limit_conn → Access Control and Rate Limiting

Rewrite, Map, and Logging: URI rewriting, return codes, map variables, log_format, access_log → Rewrite, Map, and Logging

Stream Module (TCP/UDP): TCP/UDP proxying, stream upstreams, DNS proxying → Stream Module

Process Control and Signals: Starting, stopping, reloading, log rotation, in-place upgrades → Process Control