Demo Configure Multiple Sites

In this guide, you’ll learn how to host two distinct domains—www.example1.com and www.example2.com—on a single Nginx server. Incoming HTTP requests are routed based on the Host header, matching the server_name directive within each server block (often called virtual hosts). By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have two separate site roots and configurations, each serving its own content.

Table of Contents

1. Remove the Default Site
2. Create Site Configurations
3. Set Up Document Roots and Index Files
4. Enable Sites and Reload Nginx
5. Verify Virtual Host Routing
6. Optional: Single Combined Config
7. Best Practices
8. References

1. Remove the Default Site

Before adding your own configurations, disable the default Nginx welcome page.

# Verify the default page
curl localhost
# → Welcome to nginx!

# Disable default configuration
rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

# Reload Nginx to apply changes
nginx -s reload

# Confirm removal
curl localhost
# → curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 80: Connection refused

2. Create Site Configurations

We’ll copy the default config twice—once for each domain—and then adjust the root and server_name.

2.1 example1.com

# List available configs
ls -l /etc/nginx/sites-available

# Copy default to example1
cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1:

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example1.com;
    root /var/www/example1;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

2.2 example2.com

# Duplicate example1 for example2
cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1 /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2

Update /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2:

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example2.com;
    root /var/www/example2;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

3. Set Up Document Roots and Index Files

Create directories for each site and add a simple index.html:

mkdir -p /var/www/example1 /var/www/example2

cat << 'EOF' > /var/www/example1/index.html
<h1>Example 1</h1>
EOF

cat << 'EOF' > /var/www/example2/index.html
<h1>Example 2</h1>
EOF

# Ensure Nginx can read the files
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example1 /var/www/example2

4. Enable Sites and Reload Nginx

Create symbolic links in sites-enabled, then test and reload.

# Enable both sites
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test configuration
nginx -t
# Reload Nginx
nginx -s reload

5. Verify Virtual Host Routing

Simulate browser requests using curl with custom Host headers:

curl --header "Host: www.example1.com" localhost
curl --header "Host: www.example2.com" localhost
curl --header "Host: unknown.com" localhost
# → <h1>Example 1</h1>  (first enabled server block)

6. Optional: Single Combined Config

You may merge both server blocks into one file, though we recommend keeping them separate.

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example1.com;
    root /var/www/example1;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example2.com;
    root /var/www/example2;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

Enable and reload:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t && nginx -s reload

7. Best Practices

References

• Nginx Server Blocks (Virtual Hosts)
• Ubuntu Nginx Documentation
• Curl Manual
• Nginx Try Files Documentation