← Back to Home

NGINX Configuration Cheatsheet

07 Sep 2024

1. Basic NGINX Setup

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
    include mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;
    sendfile on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
}

2. Virtual Hosts (Server Blocks)

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

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.html index.htm index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

3. Redirects & URL Rewrites

301 Redirect HTTP → HTTPS

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Disable Direct Access

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;

    location / {
        return 301 $scheme://example.com$request_uri;
    }
}

Redirect non-www to www

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    return 301 http://www.example.com$request_uri;
}

Rewrite URL

location /old-page {
    rewrite ^/old-page$ /new-page permanent;
}

4. Reverse Proxy & WebSocket Support

Basic Reverse Proxy

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

Reverse Proxy with WebSocket

location /ws/ {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
}

5. Load Balancing

Round Robin (Default)

upstream backend {
    server backend1.example.com;
    server backend2.example.com;
}

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

Least Connections

upstream backend {
    least_conn;
    server backend1.example.com;
    server backend2.example.com;
}

IP Hash (Sticky Sessions)

upstream backend {
    ip_hash;
    server backend1.example.com;
    server backend2.example.com;
}

6. Advanced TLS Security (HTTPS)

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;

    # SSL Certificate & Key
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key;

    # Strong TLS Protocols
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    # Secure Cipher Suites (No weak ciphers)
    ssl_ciphers "TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256";

    # Enable OCSP Stapling (Performance & Security)
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;
    resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
    resolver_timeout 10s;

    # HSTS (Strict Transport Security)
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload" always;

    # Security Headers
    add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

    # TLS Session Resumption (Performance)
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
    ssl_session_timeout 1d;

    # Serve Content
    location / {
        root /var/www/html;
    }
}

7. Rate Limiting & Connection Control

http {
    limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=one:10m rate=1r/s;
}

server {
    location / {
        limit_req zone=one burst=5 nodelay;
    }
}

8. Gzip Compression

gzip on;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_vary on;

9. PHP-FPM (FastCGI)

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

10. Caching

Static Content Caching

location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|woff2?|ttf|svg|mp4|webp)$ {
    expires 30d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=2592000";
}

Proxy Cache

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=cache:10m inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;

server {
    location / {
        proxy_cache cache;
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_cache_valid 200 302 10m;
        proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
        add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
    }
}

11. Security Headers & Blocking Bad Bots

server {
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade";
    add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self';";

    location / {
        if ($http_user_agent ~* (badbot|evilbot|scraper|crawler)) {
            return 403;
        }
    }

    deny 192.168.1.1;
    allow 192.168.1.0/24;
}

12. HTTP/2 Support

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key;
}

Related Posts