Install Web Server Nginx Centos 7


Install Web Server Nginx Centos 7

Introduction

Are you looking for a way to set up a web server on your Linux-based system? If so, then installing Nginx on CentOS 7 is a great option. Nginx is an open-source web server that is designed to be lightweight and fast. It’s widely used in high-traffic websites, and it supports most modern operating systems such as Linux, Unix, and Windows. With Nginx, you can easily set up websites, host applications, and even create web service APIs.

In this article, we’ll cover the steps to install Nginx on CentOS 7. We’ll also talk about some of the features of Nginx. At the end, we’ll cover some best practices to help you get the most out of your installation.

Installing Nginx on CentOS 7

Nginx is available in the official package repositories for CentOS 7. This makes the process of installation very easy. First, we’ll update the system’s package manager and then use it to install Nginx.

To start, open a terminal window and type this command:

sudo yum update

This command will update the package manager and make sure the latest version is installed. Once this is done, we can install Nginx with this command:

sudo yum install nginx

The package manager will ask you to confirm the installation. Type Y to continue. Other packages may be installed as well. Once the installation is complete, Nginx will be available. To start Nginx, you can use this command:

sudo systemctl start nginx

This command will start Nginx in the background. To check that it’s running, you can run this command:

systemctl status nginx

If everything is running properly, the output should say “Active: active (running)”.

Configuring Nginx

Nginx is a powerful web server that can be configured in a variety of ways. The configuration files are stored in the /etc/nginx directory. To edit an existing configuration file, you can use any text editor. It’s important to note that the changes will not take effect until you restart Nginx.

You can restart Nginx with this command:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Enabling HTTPS

Nginx supports the secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTPS). This is important if you need to serve content that should be kept private. To enable HTTPS, you need to generate a certificate and private key. You can generate these certificates and keys with the openssl command.

Once the certificate and key have been generated, you need to edit the Nginx configuration files. You can add the following lines to the server block in the configuration:

listen 443 ssl;
ssl_certificate /path/to/certificate.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/private.key;

This will enable HTTPS on your Nginx server. Every time you make changes to the configuration files, you’ll need to restart Nginx.

Virtual Hosts

Nginx supports virtual hosts. This means you can set up multiple websites on the same server. The virtual hosts are configured in the sites-available directory. To set up a virtual host, you need to create a configuration file in this directory. You can use a template like this one:

server {
server_name example.com;
root /var/www/example;
index index.html;
}

Once the configuration file is in place, you need to create a symbolic link to it in the sites-enabled directory. This will activate the virtual host. Once this is done, you need to restart Nginx.

Security Considerations

Nginx has several security features that can help protect your server from malicious attacks. It’s important to be aware of these features and take advantage of them. Some of these features include rate limiting, basic authentication, and restricting access to certain IP addresses.

It’s also important to stay up to date with security patches. You can use the yum command to update Nginx. To check for available updates, use this command:

sudo yum check-update nginx

Conclusion

In this article, we have covered the steps to install Nginx on CentOS 7. We’ve also discussed some of the features of Nginx, such as virtual hosts and security considerations. We hope this article has been helpful in helping you set up your own web server.

FAQs

  • How do I install Nginx on CentOS 7? You can install Nginx on CentOS 7 by using the package manager. Open a terminal window and type sudo yum install nginx to install Nginx.
  • How do I enable HTTPS on Nginx? To enable HTTPS on Nginx, you need to generate a certificate and private key. Then you need to edit the Nginx configuration file and add the certificate and key.
  • How do I configure secure settings on Nginx? Nginx supports several security features, such as rate limiting, basic authentication, and restricting access to certain IP addresses. Be sure to take advantage of these features.

Thank you for reading this article. Be sure to check out our other articles to learn more about web servers and Linux.

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