Nginx Configuration

Production-ready Nginx configurations for modern web applications.

Basic SPA Configuration

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/spa
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www/html;
    index index.html;

    # SPA routing - redirect all to index.html
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }

    # Cache static assets
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|eot)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }

    # Security headers
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade" always;
}

Complete Angular/React Configuration

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    
    root /var/www/html;
    index index.html;

    # Gzip compression
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_min_length 1024;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_types
        text/plain
        text/css
        text/xml
        text/javascript
        application/json
        application/javascript
        application/xml+rss
        application/x-javascript
        image/svg+xml;

    # Disable access log for assets
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ {
        access_log off;
        expires max;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }

    # API proxy
    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://backend:3000/;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        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_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }

    # SPA fallback
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        add_header Cache-Control "no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate";
        add_header Pragma "no-cache";
        add_header Expires "0";
    }

    # Security headers
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;

    # Deny access to hidden files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
        access_log off;
        log_not_found off;
    }
}

SSL/TLS Configuration

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

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;

    # SSL certificates
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

    # SSL configuration
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256';
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_timeout 10m;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;

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

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

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

Docker nginx.conf

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    # Logging
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

    # Performance
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    client_max_body_size 20M;

    # Gzip
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_min_length 1024;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css text/xml text/javascript 
               application/x-javascript application/xml+rss 
               application/javascript application/json;

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name localhost;
        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index index.html;

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

        # SPA routing
        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
            add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
        }

        # Security headers
        add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
    }
}

Reverse Proxy Configuration

upstream backend {
    server backend1:3000;
    server backend2:3000;
    server backend3:3000;
}

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        
        # Headers
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        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;
        
        # Timeouts
        proxy_connect_timeout 60s;
        proxy_send_timeout 60s;
        proxy_read_timeout 60s;
        
        # Buffering
        proxy_buffering on;
        proxy_buffer_size 4k;
        proxy_buffers 8 4k;
        proxy_busy_buffers_size 8k;
    }
}

Load Balancing

upstream backend {
    least_conn;  # or: ip_hash, hash $request_uri
    server backend1:3000 weight=3;
    server backend2:3000 weight=2;
    server backend3:3000 backup;
    
    keepalive 32;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Connection "";
    }
}

Caching

# Cache configuration
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m 
                 max_size=1g inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;

server {
    location /api/ {
        proxy_cache my_cache;
        proxy_cache_valid 200 60m;
        proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
        proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
        proxy_cache_background_update on;
        proxy_cache_lock on;
        
        add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
        
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}

Rate Limiting

# Define rate limit zone
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=mylimit:10m rate=10r/s;

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

WebSocket Support

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

server {
    location /ws {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        
        # WebSocket timeouts
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }
}

Best Practices

1. Enable gzip - Reduce bandwidth
2. Cache static assets - Long expiration
3. Security headers - XSS, MIME sniffing protection
4. SSL/TLS - Always use HTTPS in production
5. Rate limiting - Prevent abuse
6. Logging - Monitor access and errors
7. Worker processes - Match CPU cores
8. Client body size - Set appropriate limits

Common Commands

# Test configuration
nginx -t

# Reload configuration
nginx -s reload

# Start nginx
systemctl start nginx

# Stop nginx
systemctl stop nginx

# Enable on boot
systemctl enable nginx

# View logs
tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Resources

• Nginx Docs: https://nginx.org/en/docs
• Configuration Guide: https://nginx.org/en/docs/beginners_guide.html