Master Nginx Virtual Hosts: Complete Configuration Guide

A virtual host divides a single physical server into multiple logical servers, each with its own domain name and directory.

In Nginx, virtual hosts are defined by server blocks in nginx.conf. To host multiple sites, add multiple server blocks.

Simple Virtual Host Example

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name a.test.com;
    location / {
        index index.html;
        root /home/www/host_a/;
    }
}

listen 80 makes the host listen on port 80. server_name a.test.com binds the block to the domain a.test.com .

Server name can be expressed in four ways:

Exact name, e.g., a.test.com Wildcard at the start, e.g., *.test.com Wildcard at the end, e.g., mail.* Regular expression, e.g., ~^www\d+\.test\.com$ (must start with ~)

Multiple names can be listed in one server_name directive, and Nginx resolves them by the following priority:

Exact name

Longest wildcard starting with *

Longest wildcard ending with *

First matching regular expression

The location / block matches all requests because every URL starts with /. index index.html; sets the default page, and root /home/www/host_a/; points to the physical directory.

Case Studies

1. Two domains with separate directories

# a.test.com → /home/www/a
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name a.test.com;
    autoindex on;   # enable directory listing
    index index.html;
    root /home/www/a/;
}

# b.test.com → /home/www/b
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name b.test.com;
    index index.html;
    root /home/www/b/;
    location /(self)/ {
        deny all;   # block access to /self
    }
}

2. Different URL paths mapped to different physical directories

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name ~^\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+$;   # match any IP address
    index index.html index.htm;
    root /home/lg/www/;

    location /share {
        root /home/lg/Downloads;
    }

    location ^~ /Videos {
        root /home/lg/;
        autoindex on;
        autoindex_exact_size on;
        autoindex_localtime on;
        allow all;
    }

    location ^~ /html5 {
        root /home/lg/workspace/nodejs/;
        index index.html index.htm;
    }

    location = /404.html {
        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }
}

Directives autoindex_exact_size (default on) shows exact file sizes in bytes; setting it off displays rounded sizes (KB/MB/GB). autoindex_localtime (default off) shows file timestamps in GMT; turning it on shows server local time. allow all; permits all clients to access the location.