1. Scalable nginx configuration
Igor Sysoev
NGINX, Inc.

2. NGINX, Inc.
• Summer 2011, Moscow office
• Fall 2011, company and Series A round announced in
San Francisco. First commercial customer: Netflix
• Summer 2013, NGINX+ release
• Spring 2014, first nginx summit held in San Francisco
• Fall 2014, nginx.conf/2014 in San Francisco
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3. NGINX, Inc.
• Head office: San Francisco
16 people, sales, business development, marketing,
pre-sales, product management
!
• Engineering office: Moscow
17 people, software development, support and
professional service (we are hiring!)
3

4. Products
• nginx f/oss
• paid support and professional services available
!
• NGINX+
• closed source, binary only
• advanced load balancing
• monitoring and configuration
• video streaming
!
See nginx.com for more
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5. Scalable nginx configuration
!
O(1) maintenance
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6. Apache: order matters
GET /script/
!
<Location />
DirectoryIndex index.html
<Location>
!
<Location /script/>
DirectoryIndex index.php
<Location>
!
/script/index.php
GET /script/
!
<Location /script/>
DirectoryIndex index.php
<Location>
!
<Location />
DirectoryIndex index.html
<Location>
!
/script/index.html
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7. Apache: add more fun
• global server
• <VirtualHost>
• <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch>
• <Files> and <FilesMatch>
• <Location> and <LocationMatch>
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8. Apache: add more fun
• global server
• <VirtualHost>
• <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch>
• <Files> and <FilesMatch>
• <Location> and <LocationMatch>
• .htaccess files spread all over site structure
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9. Apache: add more fun
• global server
• <VirtualHost>
• <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch>
• <Files> and <FilesMatch>
• <Location> and <LocationMatch>
• .htaccess files spread all over site structure
AccessFileName .hide-and-seek
9

10. Apache: add more fun
• global server
• <VirtualHost>
• <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch>
• <Files> and <FilesMatch>
• <Location> and <LocationMatch>
• .htaccess files spread all over site structure
AccessFileName .hide-and-seek
• RewriteRules
10

11. nginx: order does not matter
GET /script/
!
location / {
index index.html;
}
!
location /script/ {
index index.php;
}
!
/script/index.php
GET /script/
!
location /script/>
index index.php;
}
!
location / {
index index.html;
}
!
/script/index.php
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12. nginx: configuration overview
• server
• listen address:port
• server_name
• location
• location /prefix
• location ~regular expressions
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13. Life is more complex than theory
location ~ .(js|css|gif|jpe?g|png)$ {
…
}
!
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass …
…
}
13

14. nginx: configuration overview
• server
• listen address:port
• server_name
• location
• recursive prefix search
• regular expressions
14

15. Inclusive locations
location /admin/ {
location ~ .php$ {
=> /admin/index.php
}
}
!
location ~ .php$ {
!
}
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16. Skip regular expression part
location ^~ /images/ {
…
}
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17. Wrong way!
location /img/ {
rewrite ^/img/(.+)$ /index.php?img=$1;
}
!
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name;
}
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18. Configuration inheritance
http {
sendfile on;
server {
root /site/root;
location / {
…
}
location /script/ {
root /site/php;
}
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19. Configuration inclusion
http {
…
server {
include static.conf;
location / {
…
}
location /script/ {
…
}
}
static.conf
!
location /i/ {
…
}
location /js/ {
…
}
location /css/ {
…
}
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20. Use copy-paste
!
Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) is a myth
Use copy-paste!
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21. Similar locations
location ~ ^/(images|css|js)/ {
root /path/static;
}
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22. Similar locations
location /images/ {
root /path/static;
}
!
location /css/ {
root /path/static;
}
!
location /js/ {
root /path/static;
}
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23. Similar locations
root /path/static;
!
location /images/ { }
!
location /css/ { }
!
location /js/ { }
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24. Inclusive locations
location /admin/ {
auth_basic admin;
}
!
!
!
!
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
}
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25. Inclusive locations
location /admin/ {
auth_basic admin;
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
}
}
!
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
}
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26. Wrong way!
location /img/ {
rewrite ^/img/(.+)$ /index.php?img=$1;
}
!
location ~ .php$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name;
}
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27. Regular expression isolation
location /img/ {
location ~ ^/img/(?<img>.+)$ {
fastcgi_pass backend;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/index.php;
fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING img=$img;
}
}
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28. Regular expression in map
map $http_user_agent $mobile {
“~(iPhone|Android|Opera Mini)” 1;
default 0;
}
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29. Rewrites?
!
NO!
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30. “if” is Evil
if (true) {
gzip off;
}
!
if (true) {
etag off;
}
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31. Use “if” only to return HTTP code
if ($bot) {
return 200 “No bots here!”;
}
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32. TL;DR
• only prefix locations, avoid regular expression locations
• isolate regular expressions
• regular expression in maps
• duplication is your friend
• no rewrites
• use ”if” only to return HTTP code
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