Master Nginx Static‑Dynamic Separation: Boost Performance with Simple Config

Mike Chen introduces the concept of static‑dynamic separation in Nginx, a key technique for improving web performance by handling static resources and dynamic requests differently.

What is static‑dynamic separation?

It is a web architecture optimization that routes static files (HTML, CSS, JS, images) directly through Nginx while forwarding dynamic requests to an application server.

Benefits

Faster server response

Better resource utilization

Improved overall site performance and user experience

Nginx configuration example

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name mikechen.cc;
    # Static resource matching
    location /static/ {
        root /var/www/html;
        expires 30d;   # cache for 30 days
        access_log off; # reduce disk I/O
    }
    # Dynamic request forwarding
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

When a browser requests https://mikechen.cc/static/js/main.js, Nginx serves the file directly from the local disk, optionally with caching or CDN. For a request like https://mikechen.cc/user/info?id=123, Nginx proxies it to the backend (e.g., Tomcat) which generates the response and returns it through Nginx to the client.

This clear configuration enables efficient request routing and realizes the performance gains of static‑dynamic separation.