Nginx Expert

When to Use

• Creating or reviewing nginx configuration files
• Setting up reverse proxy or load balancer
• Configuring SSL/TLS and HTTPS
• Implementing rate limiting or access control
• Optimizing performance (caching, gzip, keepalive)
• WebSocket proxying
• Serving static content
• Debugging nginx issues (502, 504, connection errors)

Out of scope (recommend dedicated skills):

• Docker containerization -> docker expert
• Kubernetes ingress controllers -> kubernetes expert
• Application-level code -> relevant framework skill

Core Principles

1. Security-first -- TLS 1.2+ only, strong ciphers, no server tokens, rate limiting
2. Minimal exposure -- only expose what's needed, hide upstream details
3. Performance -- leverage caching, gzip, keepalive connections, sendfile
4. Clarity -- well-organized config with comments, logical server/location blocks

Configuration File Structure

main (global)
├── events { }          -- connection processing
├── http { }            -- HTTP server config
│   ├── upstream { }    -- backend server groups
│   ├── server { }      -- virtual hosts
│   │   ├── location { } -- request routing
│   │   └── location { }
│   └── server { }
└── stream { }          -- TCP/UDP proxying

Key rules:

• Simple directives end with semicolon (;)
• Block directives use braces ({ })
• Directives inherit from parent contexts unless overridden
• Comments start with #
• Default config path: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Process Management

nginx -t           # test configuration syntax
nginx -s reload    # graceful reload (re-read config)
nginx -s quit      # graceful shutdown
nginx -s stop      # fast shutdown
nginx -s reopen    # reopen log files

Location Matching

Priority order (highest to lowest):

Algorithm: Check all prefix locations (remember longest) -> if longest has ^~, use it -> check regex in config order (first match wins) -> fallback to longest prefix.

Serving Static Content

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|gif|ico|svg|woff2?)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

root vs alias

# root: appends URI to path
location /images/ {
    root /data;           # /images/photo.jpg -> /data/images/photo.jpg
}

# alias: replaces matched location
location /images/ {
    alias /data/photos/;  # /images/photo.jpg -> /data/photos/photo.jpg
}

Reverse Proxy

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost: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;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

proxy_pass URI Behavior

# WITH trailing slash -- strips location prefix
location /api/ {
    proxy_pass http://backend/;    # /api/users -> /users
}

# WITHOUT trailing slash -- passes full URI
location /api/ {
    proxy_pass http://backend;     # /api/users -> /api/users
}

Full proxy and upstream reference: references/proxy-upstream.md

Load Balancing

# Round-robin (default)
upstream backend {
    server backend1.example.com;
    server backend2.example.com;
}

# Weighted
upstream backend {
    server backend1.example.com weight=5;
    server backend2.example.com weight=1;
}

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

# IP hash (session persistence)
upstream backend {
    ip_hash;
    server backend1.example.com;
    server backend2.example.com;
}

Server Parameters

• weight=N -- server weight (default 1)
• max_fails=N -- failures before marking unavailable (default 1)
• fail_timeout=T -- failure window AND unavailability duration (default 10s)
• max_conns=N -- max simultaneous connections (default 0 = unlimited)
• backup -- only used when primary servers are all down
• down -- permanently marked as unavailable

Upstream Keepalive

upstream backend {
    server backend1.example.com;
    keepalive 32;
}

server {
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";
    }
}

Full proxy and upstream reference: references/proxy-upstream.md

SSL/TLS

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_timeout 10m;
}

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

Full SSL/TLS reference (OCSP, SNI, cert chains, hardening): references/ssl-tls.md

Rate Limiting

http {
    limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;

    server {
        location /api/ {
            limit_req zone=api burst=20 nodelay;
            limit_req_status 429;
            proxy_pass http://backend;
        }
    }
}

• rate=Nr/s or rate=Nr/m -- requests per second/minute (leaky bucket)
• burst=N -- allow N excess requests to queue
• nodelay -- process burst immediately without delay
• $binary_remote_addr -- preferred over $remote_addr (4/16 bytes vs string)

Full security reference: references/security.md

Gzip Compression

http {
    gzip on;
    gzip_comp_level 5;
    gzip_min_length 256;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css text/javascript
               application/javascript application/json
               application/xml image/svg+xml;
}

text/html is always compressed -- don't list it in gzip_types.

WebSocket Proxying

http {
    map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
        default upgrade;
        ''      close;
    }

    server {
        location /ws/ {
            proxy_pass http://websocket_backend;
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
            proxy_read_timeout 3600s;
            proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
        }
    }
}

Default proxy_read_timeout is 60s -- idle WebSocket connections will be closed. Increase the timeout or use backend ping frames.

Logging

http {
    log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
                    '"$request" $status $body_bytes_sent '
                    '"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" '
                    '$request_time $upstream_response_time';

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

    server {
        location /health {
            access_log off;
            return 200 "OK";
        }
    }
}

Performance Tuning

worker_processes auto;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    multi_accept on;
}

http {
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65s;
    keepalive_requests 1000;

    open_file_cache max=1000 inactive=20s;
    open_file_cache_valid 30s;
    open_file_cache_min_uses 2;
    open_file_cache_errors on;
}

Full caching and performance reference: references/caching-performance.md

Production Checklist

• nginx -t passes
• server_tokens off
• SSL/TLS with TLSv1.2+ only
• HTTP to HTTPS redirect
• HSTS header enabled
• Security headers (X-Frame-Options, CSP, X-Content-Type-Options)
• Rate limiting on sensitive endpoints
• client_max_body_size set appropriately
• Gzip compression enabled
• Static asset caching with expires
• Logging configured with rotation
• Hidden files blocked (location ~ /\. { deny all; })
• Upstream keepalive with proxy_http_version 1.1
• worker_processes auto, sendfile on, tcp_nopush on

Anti-Patterns

Diagnostics

502 Bad Gateway

• Backend is down or not listening
• Check proxy_pass URL and backend connectivity

504 Gateway Timeout

• Backend is too slow -- increase proxy_read_timeout

413 Request Entity Too Large

• Increase client_max_body_size

Configuration Errors

• Always test before reload: nginx -t
• Check error log: tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Key Variables

Reference Index