How to Install and Configure Nginx on CentOS/Red Hat 7

  Linux system administration, Web servers
How to Install and Configure Nginx on CentOS/Red Hat 7 RHEL ALMA Linux

Nginx is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy, as well as an IMAP/POP3 proxy server. Nginx is known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.

This guide will show you how to install and configure Nginx on your CentOS/Red Hat 7 server.

Step 1 : Installing Nginx

Nginx is available in the default CentOS/Red Hat 7 repository. To install Nginx, run the following command:

$ sudo yum install nginx

Once the installation is complete, start the Nginx service and enable it to start automatically at boot time:

$ sudo systemctl start nginx
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx

To check the status of the Nginx service, run the following command:

$ sudo systemctl status nginx

Step 2 : Configuring Nginx

The main Nginx configuration file is located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. This file contains directives that affect the entire Nginx server.

The /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory contains configuration files for virtual hosts that are available, but not yet enabled. The /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory contains configuration files for virtual hosts that are enabled.

To create a new virtual host configuration file in the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory, run the following command:

$ sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Replace example.com with your domain name.

Add the following lines to the file:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    root /var/www/example.com;
    index index.html;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Save and close the file.

To enable the virtual host, create a symbolic link from the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory to the /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory:

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

To disable a virtual host, remove the symbolic link from the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory:

$ sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com

Step 3 : Creating the Document Root Directory

By default, the document root directory for the default.conf file is /usr/share/nginx/html. For virtual hosts, the document root directory is specified in the root directive.

To create the document root directory for the example.com virtual host, run the following command:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com

Setting the correct permissions

The Nginx web server runs as the nginx user. This user needs to have read and write permissions for the document root directory.

To set the correct permissions, run the following command:

$ sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/example.com

Creating the index.html file

The index.html file is the default file that is served when a visitor requests a directory instead of a specific file.

To create the index.html file, run the following command:

$ sudo vi /var/www/example.com/index.html

Add the following lines to the file:

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Welcome to Example.com!</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Success!  The example.com server block is working!</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Save and close the file.

Step 4 : Testing your Configuration

After you have created the virtual host configuration file and the document root directory, you can test your configuration for syntax errors by running the following command:

$ sudo nginx -t

If you get the Syntax OK message, it means that your configuration is valid.

To apply the changes, run the following command:

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

You can now access your website at http://example.com.

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