Essential Nginx Configuration Cheat Sheet for Fast Web Servers

Nginx is a high‑performance HTTP and reverse‑proxy web server that also provides IMAP/POP3/SMTP services; its rich feature set, stability, example configurations and low resource consumption make it popular among developers. This article summarizes several commonly used Nginx configuration snippets.

Listening Ports

server {
  # Standard HTTP Protocol
  listen 80;
  # Standard HTTPS Protocol
  listen 443 ssl;
  # For http2
  listen 443 ssl http2;
  # Listen on 80 using IPv6
  listen [::]:80;
  # Listen only on using IPv6
  listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;
}

Access Log

server {
  # Relative or full path to log file
  access_log /path/to/file.log;
  # Turn 'on' or 'off'
  access_log on;
}

Server Names (Domain)

server {
  # Listen to yourdomain.com
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  # Listen to multiple domains
  server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
  # Listen to all subdomains
  server_name *.yourdomain.com;
  # Listen to all top‑level domains
  server_name yourdomain.*;
  # Listen to unspecified Hostnames (IP address itself)
  server_name "";
}

Static Resources

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  location / {
      root /path/to/website;
  }
}

Redirects

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name www.yourdomain.com;
  return 301 http://yourdomain.com$request_uri;
}
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name www.yourdomain.com;
  location /redirect-url {
     return 301 http://otherdomain.com;
  }
}

Reverse Proxy

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  location / {
     proxy_pass http://0.0.0.0:3000;
     # where 0.0.0.0:3000 is your application server (e.g., node.js) bound on 0.0.0.0 listening on port 3000
  }
}

Load Balancing

upstream node_js {
  server 0.0.0.0:3000;
  server 0.0.0.0:4000;
  server 123.131.121.122;
}
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  location / {
     proxy_pass http://node_js;
  }
}

SSL Settings

server {
  listen 443 ssl;
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  ssl on;
  ssl_certificate /path/to/cert.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key /path/to/privatekey.pem;
  ssl_stapling on;
  ssl_stapling_verify on;
  ssl_trusted_certificate /path/to/fullchain.pem;
  ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
  ssl_session_timeout 1h;
  ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
  add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=15768000;
}
# Permanent Redirect for HTTP to HTTPS
server {
  listen 80;
  server_name yourdomain.com;
  return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}