Master Nginx on CentOS 6: Installation, Config, Multi‑Domain & 301 Redirects

Nginx Installation

CentOS 6.x does not provide an Nginx package by default. Download the appropriate RPM from the official Nginx stable repository for CentOS 6 and install it: yum install nginx -y After installation, Nginx runs as a Linux service, controllable with commands such as service nginx start, service nginx stop, service nginx restart, and service nginx reload.

Nginx Configuration File

The default configuration file is /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. You can specify a different file with the -c option when starting Nginx.

To locate the active configuration file on an unfamiliar server, use commands like: nginx -t or

nginx -V

Multi‑Domain Configuration

To serve multiple domains on different ports without exposing the ports to users, map them to port 80 using Nginx server blocks. Example: map www.525.life to internal port 8880 and admin.525.life to port 8881.

Configuration snippet (illustrated in the image) adds two server blocks listening on port 80 with proxy_pass directives to the respective internal ports.

After editing, reload Nginx:

nginx -s reload

Separate Conf Files for Each Domain

Instead of a single file with many server blocks, place each domain’s configuration in its own .conf file (e.g., admin.conf, www.conf) under /data/nginx/conf/vhost and include them in nginx.conf: include /data/nginx/conf/vhost/*.conf; Make sure the include directive is inside the http { } block.

301 Redirect

To redirect non‑www requests to the www version (or any other canonical host), add a server block that returns a 301 status:

return 301 $scheme://www.example.com$request_uri;

Add 404 Page

Define a custom 404 error page by adding error_page 404 /404.html; inside the appropriate server block and placing the 404.html file in the document root.

Block Direct IP Access

To prevent users from accessing the server via its raw IP address or unauthorized hostnames, place a server block at the top of the configuration that returns a 444 or 403 status for unmatched hosts: server { listen 80 default_server; return 444; } This ensures only defined domain names are served.