Demo Nginx Install Config

This lesson shows how to install, verify, and inspect Nginx on an Ubuntu-based system. Commands are shown for apt-based distributions; on CentOS/RHEL use yum or dnf instead. Paths like /etc/nginx and /var/log/nginx are common, but verify them for your specific OS.

If you’re on CentOS or Red Hat use yum or dnf instead of apt. The configuration directories (/etc/nginx, /var/log/nginx) are common across many Linux distributions but may vary—especially with custom packages or older releases.

Quick command reference

Task	Command	Description
Update package index	`sudo apt update`	Refresh package metadata before install/upgrade.
Install Nginx	`sudo apt install nginx`	Install the nginx package (add `-y` to auto-accept prompts).
Check service status	`sudo systemctl status nginx`	View Nginx systemd status and process info.
Start service	`sudo systemctl start nginx`	Start Nginx immediately.
Test configuration	`sudo nginx -t`	Validate Nginx configuration files.
Reload after changes	`sudo systemctl reload nginx`	Reload config without dropping connections.
Test HTTP response	`curl http://localhost`	Confirm Nginx serves HTTP requests locally.
View Nginx logs	`ls -l /var/log/nginx`	List Nginx log files.

Useful references:

Nginx documentation: https://nginx.org/en/docs/
Ubuntu packages/apt: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto

1. Update package lists

Refresh the package index to ensure you install the latest available Nginx package and dependencies:

sudo apt update

Tip: apt update only refreshes the package index. If you want to upgrade installed packages non-interactively, run sudo apt -y upgrade. Example output when updating package lists:

bob@alpine-host ~ ➜ sudo apt update
Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [128 kB]
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 Packages [4,219 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease [265 kB]
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/restricted amd64 Packages [4,329 kB]
Get:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 Packages [1,298 kB]
Get:6 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/multiverse amd64 Packages [30.9 kB]
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [128 kB]
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [128 kB]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/restricted amd64 Packages [33.4 kB]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages [11.3 MB]
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/main amd64 Packages [1,275 kB]
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/multiverse amd64 Packages [177 kB]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/restricted amd64 Packages [4,517 kB]
Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages [34.6 kB]
Get:15 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 Packages [4,695 kB]
Get:16 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 Packages [1,589 kB]
Get:17 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/universe amd64 Packages [28.6 kB]
Get:18 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/main amd64 Packages [55.2 kB]
Fetched 34.3 MB in 3s (10.7 MB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
47 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

2. Install Nginx

Install Nginx using apt. Running interactively will prompt for confirmation; include -y to skip prompts:

sudo apt install nginx

Typical install output (shows dependencies and disk usage before confirmation):

bob@alpine-host ~ ➜ sudo apt install nginx
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libnginx-mod-http-image-filter libnginx-mod-http-xslt-filter libnginx-mod-mail libnginx-mod-stream nginx-common nginx-core
Suggested packages:
  fcgiwrap nginx-doc ssl-cert
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libnginx-mod-http-image-filter libnginx-mod-http-xslt-filter libnginx-mod-mail libnginx-mod-stream nginx nginx-common nginx-core
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded.
Need to get 604 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,141 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y

It is normal to see several modules and helper packages installed along with nginx.

3. Verify and start the Nginx service

Check the service status through systemd to see whether Nginx is running, enabled, or stopped:

sudo systemctl status nginx

If Nginx was just installed but not started, you might see:

bob@alpine-host ~ › sudo systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: inactive (dead)
    Docs: man:nginx(8)

Start Nginx:

sudo systemctl start nginx

Then confirm it is active (running):

sudo systemctl status nginx

Example of an active status:

bob@alpine-host ~ ➜ sudo systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-02-05 11:59:11 EST; 5s ago
   Docs: man:nginx(8)
  Process: 6598 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 6599 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 6600 (nginx)
    Tasks: 17 (limit: 154503)
    Memory: 14.4M
    CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
    ├─6600 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
    ├─6601 nginx: worker process
    ├─6602 nginx: worker process
    ├─6603 nginx: worker process
    └─... (worker processes continue)

The key line is Active: active (running) — this confirms Nginx is serving.

4. Test with curl

Confirm Nginx responds on the local host by requesting the default page:

curl http://localhost

You should see the default “Welcome to nginx!” HTML page when Nginx is serving content correctly.

5. Inspect the Nginx configuration directory

Nginx’s configuration is usually kept under /etc/nginx. List and inspect the directory to understand its structure:

cd /etc/nginx
ll

Example output showing typical files and directories:

bob@alpine-host /etc/nginx🔒 ➜ ll
total 76
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 10 09:52 conf.d/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1077 Mar 20 2024 fastcgi.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1007 Mar 20 2024 fastcgi_params
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2837 Mar 20 2024 koi-utf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2223 Mar 20 2024 koi-win
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3957 Mar 20 2024 mime.types
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 10 09:52 modules-available/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 modules-enabled/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1490 Mar 20 2024 nginx.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 180 Mar 20 2024 proxy_params
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 636 Mar 20 2024 scgi_params
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 sites-available/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 sites-enabled/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 5 11:58 snippets/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 664 Mar 20 2024 uwsgi_params
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3071 Mar 20 2024 win-utf

The primary global configuration file is nginx.conf. It sets global directives (worker processes, logging, gzip, etc.) and includes other configuration files via include statements. Relevant excerpts from a typical /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

# Basic Settings
##

sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
tcp_nodelay on;
keepalive_timeout 65;
types_hash_max_size 2048;
# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;

##
# SSL Settings
##

ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

##
# Logging Settings
##

access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

##
# Gzip Settings
##

gzip on;

# gzip_vary on;
# gzip_proxied any;
# gzip_comp_level 6;
# gzip_buffers 16 8k;
# gzip_http_version 1.1;
# gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript
;

##
# Virtual Host Configs
##

include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Notes:

include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf and include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/* pull in additional server blocks and per-site configs.
Best practice: keep site definitions in sites-available/ and enable them by symlinking into sites-enabled/. Keep nginx.conf focused on global settings.

Always validate configuration changes before reloading the service. Run sudo nginx -t to test syntax and correctness. Failing to test can cause Nginx to reject a reload and potentially interrupt service.

Before applying changes:

sudo nginx -t

If the test is successful, reload Nginx to apply configuration changes without restarting the process:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

6. Logs

Nginx writes its logs to /var/log/nginx by default. List the directory to find the access and error logs:

cd /var/log/nginx/
ll

Example output after a fresh install:

bob@alpine-host /var/log/nginx🔒 ➜ ll
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 root     adm    4096 Feb  5 11:58 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 root     root   4096 Feb  5 11:58 ../
-rw-r----- 1 www-data adm     86 Feb  5 12:00 access.log
-rw-r----- 1 www-data adm      0 Feb  5 11:58 error.log

access.log records requests served by Nginx.
error.log records runtime errors and warnings. You can configure per-site log locations inside server blocks to separate logs per virtual host.

Next steps

In a follow-up lesson you’ll learn to:

Create and enable site configurations (virtual hosts) using sites-available and sites-enabled.
Configure custom access/error logs per site.
Add SSL/TLS (Let’s Encrypt) and multi-site server blocks for secure hosting.

For further reading:

Nginx Beginner’s Guide: https://nginx.org/en/docs/beginners_guide.html
Ubuntu Nginx package on Launchpad/Debian packaging notes (for distro-specific differences).

Introduction

Install & Config

Intermediate Config

Security

Performance

Conclusion

Demo Nginx Install Config

Quick command reference

1. Update package lists

2. Install Nginx

3. Verify and start the Nginx service

4. Test with curl

5. Inspect the Nginx configuration directory

6. Logs

Next steps

Watch Video

​Quick command reference

​1. Update package lists

​2. Install Nginx

​3. Verify and start the Nginx service

​4. Test with curl

​5. Inspect the Nginx configuration directory

​6. Logs

​Next steps

Watch Video

Quick command reference

1. Update package lists

2. Install Nginx

3. Verify and start the Nginx service

4. Test with curl

5. Inspect the Nginx configuration directory

6. Logs

Next steps