1. Nginx?
- It is a lightweight, high-performance web server
- It handles HTTP/HTTPS requests, delivering static files like HTML, CSS, and more to clients.
- It can also act as a reverse proxy.
2. Nginx Configuration File Structure
- /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
- /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
1) Sample:
server {
listen 443 ssl; # Listen on port 443 for HTTPS
server_name example.com; # Your domain name
ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/example.crt; # Path to SSL certificate
ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/example.key; # Path to SSL private key
location / {
root /var/www/html; # Location of your website files
index index.html;
}
}
3. Editing the configuration
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
1) Updating Certificate Paths
- To check the available certificates:
ls -l /etc/ssl/certs/
ls -l /etc/ssl/private/
4. Test & Restart Nginx
1) Check if HTTPS is working:
curl -I https://localhost- I: Sends a HEAD request and shows HTTP response headers
2) Test your Nginx config for syntax errors
sudo nginx -t3) Then restart the Nginx service
sudo systemctl restart nginx
5. Troubleshooting
1) Check if Nginx is running
sudo systemctl status nginx2) View Error Logs
journalctl -xesudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log- This helps identify what's preventing nginx from starting properly (e.g., missing certs, port conflict, syntax errors)
