How to Install NGINX Web Server in Ubuntu

In this tutorial, you will learn how to Install and Configure Nginx Web Server in Ubuntu. Nginx web server is a widely used open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows.

How to install and configure the Nginx web server in Ubuntu systems.

Step 1: Updating Repositories
You can download and update the latest repositories in ubuntu. Open the terminal or login using SSH and run the following command

sudo apt update

Step 2: Install Nginx Server
Run the following command to install the Nginx webserver.

sudo apt install nginx

Step 3: Configure the Firewall
Run the following command to check the ufw application profiles

sudo ufw app list

Output:

Available applications:
  Nginx Full
  Nginx HTTP
  Nginx HTTPS
  OpenSSH

you can see in the output, Three profiles are available in Nginx

1. Nginx Full: This profile opens both port 80 (unencrypted web traffic) and port 443 (TLS/SSL encrypted traffic).
2. Nginx HTTP: This profile opens only port 80 (unencrypted web traffic)
3. Nginx HTTPS: This profile opens only port 443 (secure encrypted web traffic).
   

To allow non HTTP traffic to your Nginx server run the following command.
Note: If you are installing Nginx server in AWS Ubuntu server do not run the following command, You just need to add port 80 in inbound rule in security groups.

sudo ufw allow ‘Nginx HTTP’

To check the status of your firewall run the following command

sudo ufw status

Test the Installation
Open your favorite browser i.e Chrome, Forefox or Safari and Enter your server IP address in the browser tab.

http://your_ip

A default Nginx page will be shown in your browser as display below

Congratulations you have successfully installed Nginx server in ubuntu machine.

Manage NGINX server

To stop the nginx server run the following commands

sudo service nginx stop

To start the nginx server run the following command

sudo service nginx start

To restart the nginx server run the following command

sudo service nginx restart

To reload nginx server run the following command

sudo service nginx reload

To upgrade the nginx server run the following command

sudo service nginx upgrade

To check the status of nginx server run the following command

sudo service nginx status