Tag: 1804

NGINX is the modern web server founded in 2004 by computer software developer Igor Sysoev. NGINX is used by the most frequented websites. NGINX instantly works with most major web stacks, including LEMP stacks (Linux, NGINX, MySQL, PHP). This tutorial assumes that your website is hosted on the Apache web server and you want to migrate to NGINX. The migration process involves replacing NGINX with the Apache web server, without losing website data with less downtime.

Why replace Apache with NGINX?

There are several reasons to replace Apache with NGINX:

• NGINX is the fastest web server that supports concurrent connections and high site utilization.
• NGINX consumes less RAM and CPU compared to Apache and is resource efficient.
• NGINX improves website performance by supporting the built-in cache system for faster access to site static content such as images, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

What is the main difference between Apache and NGINX?

These are the main differences between Apache and NGINX:

• The main configuration files for Apache and NGINX are located at /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and /etc/nginx/nginx.conf respectively.
• NGINX uses server block, but Apache uses the virtual host.
• NGINX and Apache use the same default root directory / var / www / html.
• NGINX has a built-in cache system, but Apache does not have an integrated cache system.

requirements

Before you start the tutorial, you will need:

• You need Ubuntu 18.04 VPS with at least 1GB of RAM for smooth operation.
• The Apache web server must have been previously installed on your VPS.

Step 1: Remove the Apache web server

Before installing NGINX, you must remove the Apache web server to avoid conflicts.

First, stop the Apache service before removing the Apache web server. This will allow us to easily remove Apache.

$ sudo systemctl stops apache2

After stopping Apache, the start Apache entries are removed from systemctl. This will allow us to remove the startup entries so that the Apache services do not start automatically during startup.

$ sudo systemctl disable Apache2

When the Apache services have completed successfully and the boot entries have been removed, the Apache Web server packages must be removed from the system.

$ sudo apt remove apache2

The above command removes only Apache2 packages, but Apache-related dependencies are retained in the system. Be sure to remove these unwanted dependencies to free up disk space. This can be done with a specific command.

$ sudo apt autoremove

The Apache web server has now been successfully removed. The installation of NGINX will be described in the next step.

Step 2: Install the NGINX web server

Let's start with installing NGINX on Ubuntu. The Ubuntu standard repository contains all the packages from NGINX. Installation is straightforward, so you need to install it easily with apt package manager.

First, remove the old apt repository cache and empty it. Then update the repository to load the latest package information and perform a full upgrade to update all installed packages.

$ sudo apt clear everything && sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade

After updating the repository, it is time to install the updated NGINX packages.

$ sudo apt install nginx

If NGINX has been successfully installed, we will start with the next step, which will help you with the firewall configuration for the NGINX web server.

Step 3: Configure the UFW firewall

The NGINX web server requires HTTP port # 80 and HTTPS port # 443 to work successfully with the firewall. Therefore, it is important to keep this port open for this purpose for NGINX to work properly. The UFW (Unified Firewall) is the default firewall for the Linux distribution of Ubuntu 18.04. Therefore, add firewall rules to allow HTTP and HTTPS ports.

By default, no rules are added to the UFW firewall, so adding these rules is so easy. You must add the HTTP and HTTPS port rules to the UFW firewall. This can be done with simple commands. The NGINX Full rules include both the HTTP and HTTP ports. This way, these ports can be left open by the UFW firewall.

$ sudo ufw allow "Nginx Full"

After adding the firewall rules, it's time to review the rules that were added or updated using these rules with the status command.

$ sudo ufw status

The above command shows an example output.

Status: active

To the action of
------------
80 / tcp ALLOW Anywhere
443 / tcp ALLOW Anywhere
22 / tcp LIMIT Everywhere
Nginx Full ALLOW Everywhere
80 / tcp (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
443 / tcp (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
22 / tcp (v6) LIMIT Anywhere (v6)
Nginx Full (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)

The above output shows that you have successfully added the firewall rules and are ready to configure the NGINX web server described in the next step.

Step 4: Understand the configuration file of NGINX Web Server compared to Apache Web Server

The configuration of NGINX is almost identical to that of Apache web servers, but structure and syntax are different with respect to configuration files. This difference can be seen in the example configuration file provided by Apache and NGINX

The Apache configuration file is located at /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

Servername example.com
ServerAlias ​​www.example.com
ServerAdmin admin@example.com
DocumentRoot / var / www / html /






Need all granted
AllowOverride None

The sample NGINX configuration file is located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com.conf

Server {
listen to 80;
Server name example.com www.example.com;
root / var / www / html;

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

If you look closely at the two configuration files, you will notice that the Apache configuration file is expressed in the virtual host and the NGINX configuration file is in the server block. After understanding the difference between the Apache configuration file and NGINX. Now you can configure the remaining NGINX configuration files, which will be described in the next step.

Step 5: Configure the NGINX web server

The NGINX has the same features as the Apache web server, but supports faster concurrent connections. The NGINX configuration file uses the server blocks in the configuration. You must configure it to store all of your static web assets, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images, in the same location as the root of the document.

Note: This manual always assumes that your document root is located / var / www / html and default domain name example.com

In Ubuntu, the NGINX server blocks are under Websites available and Sites enabled Directory in the NGINX configuration directory. You edit the server block files in / etc / nginx / sites-available / and you will create one to enable the server blocks for your domain. This method is highly recommended because you can host more than one Web site, as well as various domains and file locations on your Ubuntu.

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com.conf

Add the specified lines and do not forget to replace them example.com and www.example.com with your base domain name and subdomain to enable server blocks for NGINX.

Server {
listen to 80;
Server name example.com www.example.com;
root / var / www / html;

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

When you have completely added all these lines, press Ctrl + O to save and Ctrl + X to leave the nano text editor.

In NGINX server block configuration files, you create the symbolic join using soft links Websites available and Sites enabled Directory. Softlinks allow you to make changes to the server block configuration file at any time Websites available Directory and it will be replicated immediately Sites enabled Directory.

$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com.conf

You will search for the correct syntax and avoid errors in the NGINX configuration files. This command also tells you where there are errors.

$ sudo nginx -t

If the entire syntax is correct, it will be displayed Syntax OK as an issue. If something goes wrong, please check again if the NGINX server blocks files. When all the steps are completed, restart the services to make changes to the effect.

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

When all things are done, change the permission for the default NGINX user www-data to enable read, write, and execute permissions on the default Web root directory.

$ sudo chown www-data: www-data / var / www / html

To check if the www-data Users and groups have the default Web Root directory by running the specified long enumeration command

$ ll / var / www / html

After executing this command, the output is displayed www-data User and group belong to the default Web Root directory / var / www / html , This means standard NGINX user www-data can read, write, and execute the default Web Root directory.

Conclusion

Most recently, you successfully replaced Apache with NGINX. Now you can use NGINX for your web property for quick access to web assets and low memory requirements. Finally, the NGINX can be used for various suggestions and it can be used for both static and dynamic websites. For more information about NGINX, see the man pages available in Ubuntu.