Essential Nginx Configuration Cheat Sheet: Quick Snippets for Servers

Nginx is a high‑performance HTTP and reverse‑proxy web server that also offers IMAP/POP3/SMTP services; its rich feature set, stability, example configurations, and low resource consumption make it popular among developers.

The article compiles frequently 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 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;
}

Domain Names

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

Static Assets

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 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 Configuration

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;
}