Nginx

These notes are written for Ubuntu/Debian. Commands using apt may differ on other distributions.

Web server and reverse proxy. Used to serve static files and route traffic to your applications.

Installation

sudo apt install nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

File Structure

• /var/www/ — where your websites live. You can delete the default /var/www/html and clone your projects here.
• /etc/nginx/sites-available/ — config files for each site (inactive until linked).
• /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ — symlinks to active sites.

Remove the Default Page

After installation, nginx serves a default welcome page for any unmatched request. To get a 404 instead, remove the default site:

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

This unlinks the default config without deleting it from sites-available. Once removed, requests that don't match any configured server_name will return 404.

Rate Limiting

Define a rate limit zone in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf, inside the http {} block:

http {
    limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=general:10m rate=10r/s;
    ...
}

Parameter	Description
$binary_remote_addr	Key per client IP
zone=general:10m	Zone named general, 10MB of memory (~160k IPs)
rate=10r/s	Max 10 requests per second per IP

Configure a Site

Create a config file in sites-available:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/lucasgoi.fr

server {
    server_name lucasgoi.fr;

    location / {
        limit_req zone=general burst=20 nodelay;
        root  /var/www/lucasgoi.fr/lucasgoi-website;
        index index.html;
    }
}

Directive	Description
zone=general	Uses the zone defined in nginx.conf
burst=20	Allows up to 20 queued requests above the rate limit
nodelay	Excess burst requests are processed immediately (not delayed)

Directive	Description
server_name	Domain(s) this block responds to
root	Path to the website files
index	Default file to serve

Then enable it by creating a symlink to sites-enabled:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/lucasgoi.fr /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/lucasgoi.fr

Test and reload:

sudo nginx -t          # check config for errors
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Firewall

Allow Nginx through UFW:

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'   # HTTP (80) + HTTPS (443)
# or
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'   # HTTP only
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTPS'  # HTTPS only