Install Nginx Latest Ubuntu 16.04

What is Nginx?

Nginx is a web server. It is also an open source and free software. It was first developed by Igor Sysoev in 2002 and released in 2004.
Nginx is designed to serve a high number of requests with low memory consumption and it also supports seamless load balancing. It has also become a popular web server used by many big companies such as Dropbox, Airbnb, WordPress, and Zymbit.
Nginx is currently the most popular web server for all platforms and it has been estimated to hold a market share of 30%.

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a free and open-source Linux distribution based on Debian. It is the most popular distribution of the Linux operating system. It is designed for desktop and server use. Ubuntu is developed by Canonical Ltd and it is based on the Linux kernel.
The latest version of Ubuntu is 16.04 and is released in April 2016 with long-term support of 5 years which means that it will be supported until 2021.

How to Install Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

The first step is to make sure your Ubuntu 16.04 installation is up-to-date. To do this, the following command must be executed on the terminal.

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

The next thing to do is to install Nginx on the Ubuntu 16.04 server. To do this, use the followiing command:

sudo apt install nginx-extras

You can also install Nginx using the default Ubuntu repositories. To do this, execute the command below:

sudo apt-get install nginx

Once you have installed Nginx, you can also add additional modules to improve the performance of your server. To do this, execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install nginx-extras

After you have installed all the required modules, you will need to start the Nginx service. To do this, execute the command below:

sudo systemctl start nginx

You can also check the status of the Nginx service by executing the command below:

sudo systemctl status nginx

How to Configure Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

The first thing that you will need to do is create a backup copy of the default Nginx configuration file. To do this, execute the following command:

sudo cp /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.backup

The next steps will depend on what kind of configuration you will need. There are many different configuration options that you can choose from such as URL rewriting, SSL/TLS configuration, reverse proxy setup and more.
We recommend that you read the official Nginx guide on how to configure Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04. This guide will provide you with the necessary information to configure your Nginx server.

How to Secure Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

The first step in securing your Nginx server is to enable the security features provided by Nginx. To do this, you will need to edit the Nginx configuration file. You can do this by executing the following command:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Once you have opened the configuration file, you will need to enable the security features that you want. You can also set a limit on the number of incoming requests, turn off the proxy support, disable the memory cache and more.
We highly recommend that you read the official Nginx security guide for more information on how to secure Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04.

How to Optimize Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

Nginx can also be optimized to get the best performance out of it. The first thing that you will need to do is disable the server core dumps. To do this, execute the following command:

sudo sysctl -w fs.suid_dumpable=0

The next thing that you will need to do is to enable the gzip compression. To do this, you need to edit the Nginx configuration file by executing the following command:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Once you have opened the configuration file, you will need to add the following lines.

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/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

Finally, you will need to restart the Nginx server. To do this, execute the command below:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how to install, configure and optimize Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04. We have also discussed the importance of securing your Nginx server. We hope this article has been helpful to you and that you now have a better understanding of how to install Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04.

FAQs

Q: What is Nginx?

A: Nginx is a web server. It is an open-source and free software. It was first developed by Igor Sysoev in 2002 and released in 2004.

Q: What is the latest version of Ubuntu?

A: The latest version of Ubuntu is 16.04 and it was released in April 2016.

Q: How to install Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04?

A: The first step is to make sure your Ubuntu 16.04 installation is up-to-date. To do this, run the command sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade. After that, use the command sudo apt install nginx-extras to install Nginx. Finally, start the Nginx service using the command sudo systemctl start nginx.

Q: How to secure Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04?

A: The first step in securing your Nginx server is to enable the security features provided by Nginx. To do this, you will need to edit the Nginx configuration file. You can do this by executing the command sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf . Once you have opened the configuration file, you will need to enable the security features that you want.

Q: How to optimize Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04?

A: The first thing that you will need to do is disable the server core dumps. To do this, execute the command sudo sysctl -w fs.suid_dumpable=0. The next thing that you will need to do is to enable the gzip compression. To do this, edit the Nginx configuration file by executing the command sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. Finally, restart the Nginx server using the command sudo systemctl restart nginx.

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