🚀 END-TO-END TUTORIAL: WEB SERVER USING NGINX

This tutorial includes:

1️⃣ Install NGINX
2️⃣ Set up file structure
3️⃣ Create a website
4️⃣ Configure NGINX server block
5️⃣ Enable & test
6️⃣ Deploy with firewall rules
7️⃣ Add HTTPS (SSL)
8️⃣ Logs + Monitoring
9️⃣ Performance tuning

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✅ 1. Install NGINX

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y

Start + enable:

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Check status:

systemctl status nginx

Check default page:
Visit http://YOUR_SERVER_IP

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✅ 2. Create Your Website Directory

You should not use /var/www/html.
Create your own folder:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/mywebsite
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/mywebsite

Add sample site:

nano /var/www/mywebsite/index.html

Paste:

<h1>Hello from my Nginx Web Server 🚀</h1>
<p>Deployment successful!</p>

Save → exit.

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✅ 3. Create NGINX Server Block (Virtual Host)

Create a config file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/mywebsite

Paste this:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /var/www/mywebsite;
    index index.html;

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

Replace example.com with your domain or public server IP.

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✅ 4. Enable the Site

Enable the config file:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/mywebsite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Disable the default site (optional but recommended):

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Test configuration:

sudo nginx -t

Reload:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Now your website lives at:

👉 http://your-domain
or
👉 http://your-server-ip

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🔥 5. Setup Firewall (Important)

If using UFW:

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

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🔒 6. Add HTTPS (Free SSL Certificate)

Use Certbot (Let's Encrypt):

Install Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Run:

sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot will:

✔ Auto-configure HTTPS
✔ Auto-redirect HTTP → HTTPS
✔ Renew certificates automatically (cron job)

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📁 7. NGINX Directory Structure Overview

Path	Description
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf	Main config
/etc/nginx/sites-available/	Virtual hosts (inactive)
/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/	Active sites
/var/www/mywebsite/	Website files
/var/log/nginx/	Access + error logs

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📊 8. Logging + Monitoring

View access logs

tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

View error logs

tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Basic monitoring command

sudo systemctl status nginx

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⚡ 9. Performance Optimization Basics

Enable GZIP compression

Edit:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add inside http {}:

gzip on;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript;

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Increase worker connections

Inside nginx.conf:

worker_processes auto;
events {
    worker_connections 4096;
}

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🎉 Deployment Completed!

✔ NGINX installed
✔ Website directory created
✔ Virtual host configured
✔ Firewall set
✔ HTTPS added
✔ Logs working
✔ Performance optimized

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