Beginner 12 min

Deploy a site with Nginx

Install Nginx, configure a vhost and upload your application or static site.

#Nginx#Web#Deploy

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Overview

Nginx is a powerful web server, ideal for hosting static sites, PHP-FPM applications, reverse proxy or APIs. This guide installs Nginx on Debian/Ubuntu and configures a demo site.

Installation

apt update
apt install nginx -y
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx

Make sure Nginx answers: Open http://ADRESSE_IP in your browser. The default "Welcome to nginx" page must be displayed.

Firewall If UFW is active, allow HTTP/HTTPS: ufw allow 'Nginx Full'. See guide Configure a UFW firewall.

File structure

/var/www/, root of websites
/etc/nginx/sites-available/, configurations available
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/, activated sites (symbolic links)
/var/log/nginx/, access and error logs

Create a static site

Create site directory
mkdir -p /var/www/monsite.fr/html chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/monsite.fr
Add Home Page
echo '<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Mon site</title></head> <body><h1>Bienvenue sur monsite.fr</h1></body></html>' \ > /var/www/monsite.fr/html/index.html
Create the virtual host
Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/monsite.fr :

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name monsite.fr www.monsite.fr;
    root /var/www/monsite.fr/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    access_log /var/log/nginx/monsite.fr.access.log;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/monsite.fr.error.log;
}

Enable site
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/monsite.fr /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ nginx -t systemctl reload nginx

nginx -t validate the syntax before reloading. Never reload if the test fails.

Point your domain name

In your registry, create a A record pointing to the IPv4 of your VPS. DNS Propagation: a few minutes at 24 h. Test with:

dig +short monsite.fr

Enable HTTPS with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot:

apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
certbot --nginx -d monsite.fr -d www.monsite.fr

Follow the wizard (e-mail, conditions, HTTP redirect → HTTPS recommended). The certificate is automatically renewed via a timer systemd.

Renewal test:

certbot renew --dry-run

Hosting a PHP application (optional)

apt install php-fpm -y

Add in your block server :

location ~ \.php$ {
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
}

Adapt PHP (php8.1-fpm, php8.2-fpm...) according to ls /run/php/.

Troubleshooting

502 Bad Gateway, PHP-FPM stopped or bad socket in config.
403 Forbidden, Incorrect Rights on /var/www/ or missing index.
Default site displayed, Check server_name and the link in sites-enabled.

Check the logs: tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Next steps

Mount additional IP for a second isolated site
Use the Management Panel