How To Install Nginx On Centos 6


How To Install Nginx On Centos 6

Introduction

Nginx is a powerful web server that is open-source and free to use. It is becoming increasingly popular as a web server, mainly due to its speed and features which surpass the capabilities of other web servers. This article will show you how to install Nginx on CentOS 6. We will also discuss the basics of setting up a web server, including setting up firewall rules, creating virtual hosts, configuring security settings, and more.

Prerequisites

Before installing Nginx on CentOS 6, it is important to make sure that you meet the system requirements:

  • CentOS 6.x 63.
  • Root access.
  • A domain or subdomain configured with DNS records for the web server.

Once you have everything ready, you are ready to install Nginx on CentOS 6.

Installing Nginx

The first step in installing Nginx on CentOS 6 is to add the Nginx repository to your system. To do this, open a terminal window and enter the following command:

sudo yum -y install epel-release

The above command will add the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository to your system, which will give you access to the Nginx software package. Now, to install Nginx, enter the following command:

sudo yum -y install nginx

The above command will install Nginx on your system. You should now be able to access the web server by entering the IP address of your server in your web browser.

Configuring Firewall Rules

Once you have installed Nginx, the next step is to configure the firewall rules on your server. CentOS 6 has an inbuilt firewall utility called iptables. To configure the firewall rules, you need to modify the /etc/sysconfig/iptables file. Open the file and add the following line to allow web traffic through port 80 and 443:

-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

Next, you need to restart the iptables service to apply the changes:

service iptables restart

Now, your server should be accessible through the web browser.

Virtual Host Configuration

The next step in setting up Nginx on CentOS 6 is to configure virtual hosts. Virtual hosts allow you to host multiple websites on a single server by using a single IP address. To configure virtual hosts, you need to edit the /etc/nginx/conf.d/virtual.conf file. In this file, you can define the server blocks for each virtual host. For example, if you wanted to create a virtual host for example.com, you could add the following configuration:

server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;

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


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

This configuration will allow you to serve content from the /var/www/example.com directory, when someone visits example.com. Be sure to restart Nginx after making changes to the configuration file:

sudo service nginx restart

Security Configuration

Once you have virtual hosts configured, the next step is to secure your web server. Nginx comes with several security-related modules and features that you can use to protect your server. For example, you can enable password protection, disallow access from malicious IP addresses, and log all access attempts.

To enable basic authentication, you need to add the following configuration to your virtual host block:

auth_basic "Restricted Area";
auth_basic_user_file /path/to/password/file;

The above configuration will enable basic authentication and require users to provide a valid username and password before they are allowed access.

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen how to install and configure Nginx on CentOS 6. We discussed the basics of setting up a web server, including installing Nginx, configuring firewall rules, creating virtual hosts, configuring security settings, and more. We hope this article has been helpful and that you now feel more confident setting up an Nginx server.

FAQs

  • What is Nginx? Nginx is an open-source web server that is free to download and use.
  • How do I install Nginx on CentOS 6? To install Nginx on CentOS 6, add the EPEL repository to your system and then install Nginx using yum.
  • How do I configure virtual hosts in Nginx? Virtual hosts can be configured by editing the /etc/nginx/conf.d/virtual.conf file.
  • How do I secure my Nginx server? Nginx comes with several security-related modules and features that you can use to secure your server, such as basic authentication, IP blocking, and access log.

Thank you for reading this article. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. And be sure to check out our other articles for more information on web hosting and server management.

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