Mastering Nginx

Table of Contents

• Preface


• Chapter 1: Installing NGINX and Third-Party Modules
  
  
  • Installing NGINX using a package manager
    
    
    • CentOS
    
    
    • Debian
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Installing NGINX from source
    
    
    • Preparing a build environment
    
    
    • Compiling from source
      
      
      • Table: Common configure options
      
      
      • Table: Configure options for optimization
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Configuring for web or mail service
    
    
    • Configure options for a mail proxy
      
      
      • Table: Mail configure options
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Configure the options to specify paths
      
      
      • Table: HTTP configure options
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Enabling various modules
    
    
    • Table: HTTP module configure options
    
    
    • Disabling unused modules
      
      
      • Table: Disable configure options
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Finding and installing third-party modules
  
  
  • Putting it all together
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 2: A Configuration Guide
  
  
  • The basic configuration format
  
  
  • NGINX global configuration parameters
    
    
    • Table: Global configuration directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Using include files
  
  
  • The HTTP server section [ ii ]
    
    
    • Client directives
      
      
      • Table: HTTP client directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • File I/O directives
      
      
      • Table: HTTP file I/O directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Hash directives
      
      
      • Table: HTTP hash directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Socket directives
      
      
      • Table: HTTP socket directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Sample configuration
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • The virtual server section
    
    
    • Table: listen parameters
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Locations – where, when, and how
    
    
    • Table: Location modifiers
    
    
    • Table: Location-only directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • The mail server section
    
    
    • Table: Mail module directives
    
    
    • Table: Mail SSL directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Full sample configuration
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 3: Using the Mail Module
  
  
  • Basic proxy service
    
    
    • POP3 service
    
    
    • IMAP service
    
    
    • SMTP service
    
    
    • Using SSL/TLS
    
    
    • Complete mail example
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Authentication service
  
  
  • Combining with memcached
  
  
  • Interpreting log files
  
  
  • Operating system limits
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 4: NGINX as a Reverse Proxy
  
  
  • Introduction to reverse proxying
    
    
    • The proxy module
      
      
      • Table: Proxy module directives
      
      
      • Legacy servers with cookies
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • The upstream module
      
      
      • Table: Upstream module directives
      
      
      • Keepalive connections
      
      
      • Load-balancing algorithms
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Types of upstream servers [ iii ]
    
    
    • Single upstream server
    
    
    • Multiple upstream servers
    
    
    • Non-HTTP upstream servers
      
      
      • Memcached upstream servers
      
      
      • FastCGI upstream servers
      
      
      • SCGI upstream servers
      
      
      • uWSGI upstream servers
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Converting an "if"-fy configuration to a more modern interpretation
  
  
  • Using error documents to handle upstream problems
  
  
  • Determining the client's real IP address
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 5: Reverse Proxy Advanced Topics
  
  
  • Security through separation
    
    
    • Encrypting traffic with SSL
    
    
    • Authenticating clients using SSL
    
    
    • Blocking traffic based on originating IP address
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Isolating application components for scalability
  
  
  • Reverse proxy performance tuning
    
    
    • Buffering
      
      
      • Table: Proxy module buffering directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Caching
      
      
      • Table: Proxy module caching directives
      
      
      • Storing
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Compressing
      
      
      • Table: Gzip module directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 6: The NGINX HTTP Server
  
  
  • NGINX's architecture
  
  
  • The HTTP core module
    
    
    • The server
      
      
      • Table: HTTP server directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Logging
      
      
      • Table: HTTP logging directives
      
      
      • Table: Log format variables
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Finding files
      
      
      • Table: HTTP file-path directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Name resolution
      
      
      • Table: Name resolution directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Client interaction
      
      
      • Table: HTTP client interaction directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Using limits to prevent abuse [ iv ]
    
    
    • Table: HTTP limits directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Restricting access
    
    
    • Table: HTTP access module directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Streaming media files
    
    
    • Table: HTTP streaming directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Predefined variables
    
    
    • Table: HTTP variables
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Using NGINX with PHP-FPM
    
    
    • Table: FastCGI directives
    
    
    • An example Drupal configuration
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Wiring NGINX and uWSGI together
    
    
    • An example Django configuration
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 7: NGINX for the Developer
  
  
  • Caching integration
    
    
    • No application caching
    
    
    • Caching in the database
      
      
      • Table: Memcached module directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Caching in the filesystem
      
      
      • Table: Header modifying directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Changing content on-the-fly
    
    
    • The addition module
      
      
      • Table: HTTP addition module directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • The sub module
      
      
      • Table: HTTP sub module directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • The xslt module
      
      
      • Table: HTTP XSLT module directives
      
      
      
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Using Server Side Includes
    
    
    • Table: Server Side Includes directives
    
    
    • Table: Server Side Includes commands
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Decision-making in NGINX
    
    
    • Table: Perl module directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Creating a secure link
  
  
  • Generating images
    
    
    • Table: Image filter directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Tracking website visitors
    
    
    • Table: UserID module directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Preventing inadvertent code execution
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Chapter 8: Troubleshooting Techniques [ v ]
  
  
  • Analyzing log files
    
    
    • Error log file formats
    
    
    • Error log file entry examples
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Configuring advanced logging
    
    
    • Debug logging
      
      
      • Switching binaries at runtime
      
      
      
      
    
    
    • Using access logs for debugging
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Common configuration errors
    
    
    • Using if instead of try_files
    
    
    • Using if as a hostname switch
    
    
    • Not using the server context to best effect
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Operating system limits
    
    
    • File descriptor limits
    
    
    • Network limits
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Performance problems
  
  
  • Using the Stub Status module
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Appendix A: Directive Reference
  
  
  • Table: Directive reference
  
  
  
  


• Appendix B: Rewrite Rule Guide
  
  
  • Introducing the rewrite module
    
    
    • Table: Rewrite module directives
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Creating new rewrite rules
  
  
  • Translating from Apache
    
    
    • Rule #1: Replace directory and file existence checks with try_files
    
    
    • Rule #2: Replace matches against REQUEST_URI with a location
    
    
    • Rule #3: Replace matches against HTTP_HOST with a server
    
    
    • Rule #4: Replace RewriteCond with if for variable checks
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Appendix C: The NGINX Community
  
  
  • Mailing list
  
  
  • IRC channel
  
  
  • Web resources
  
  
  • Writing a good bug report
  
  
  • Summary
  
  
  
  


• Appendix D: Persisting Solaris Network Tunings


• Index