Nginx is an open source Linux web server that accelerates content while utilizing low resources. Known for its performance and stability Nginx has many other uses such as load balancing, reverse proxy, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. With all these qualities it makes a definite competitor for Apache. To install Nginx follow our straightforward tutorial.

Pre-Flight Check

• Logged into an as root and are working on an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server powered by Liquid Web! If using a different user with admin privileges use sudo before each command.

Installation of Nginx

Step 1: Update Apt-Get

As always, we update and upgrade our package manager.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Step 2: Install Nginx

One simple command to install Nginx is all that is needed:

apt-get -y install nginx

Step 3: Verify Nginx Installation

When correctly installed Nginx’s default file will appear in /var/www/html as index.nginx-debian.html . If you see the Apache default page rename index.html file. Much like Apache, by default, the port for Nginx is port 80, which means that if you already have your A record set for your server’s hostname you can visit the IP to verify the installation of Nginx. Run the following command to get the IP of your server if you don’t have it at hand.

ip addr show eth0 | grep inet | awk '{ print $2; }' | sed 's/\/.*$//'

Take the IP given by the previous command and visit via HTTP. (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) You will be greeted with a similar screen, verifying the installation of Nginx!

Changing Ports for Apache

If you already have Apache established to port 80, you may find the Apache default page when visiting your host IP, but you can change this port to make way for Nginx to take over port 80. Change Apache’s port by visiting the Apache port configuration file:

vim /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Change “Listen 80” to any other open port number, for our example we will use port 8090.

Listen 8090

Restart Apache for the changes to be recognized:

service apache2 restart

All things Apache can now be seen using your IP in the replacement of the x’s. For example http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8090

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