Step By Step Procedure To Set Up A Testing Site In Nginx

Time needed: 15 minutes.

Set Up a Testing Site in Nginx on Ubuntu:

1. Update Software Repositories on Ubuntu

   Updating the repositories is the best practice to start with any deployments on Linux. This helps to keep the system with the latest build, updates, and patches.

   $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

   

2. Install Nginx on Ubuntu

   Nginx is included in the default repositories from 20.04 and later versions. Use this command to install Nginx on Ubuntu.

   $ sudo apt-get install nginx

   

3. Verify the Installation of Nginx on Ubuntu

   You can verify the installation of Nginx just by using the version command.

   $ nginx -v

   

4. Start Nginx service

   Make sure the service of the Nginx is active and running. See the commands to start, stop, check the status of the Nginx service here below.

   To check the Status:
   $ sudo systemctl status nginx

   To start Nginx:
   $ sudo systemctl start nginx

   To stop Nginx:
   $ sudo systemctl stop nginx

   

5. Enable the Nginx at the boot time

   The start and stop command shown in the previous step work for once. You may need to start the service at each reboot. You can set the Nginx service to either start or stop at the boot time. Run these commands to enable or disable the service at the boot time.

   To enable Nginx at boot:
   $ sudo systemctl enable nginx

   To disable Nginx at boot:
   $ sudo systemctl disable nginx

   To reload the Nginx service (used to apply configuration changes):
   $ sudo systemctl reload nginx

   To hard restart of Nginx:
   $ sudo systemctl restart nginx

   

6. Display the available Nginx profiles

   Nginx installs few profiles for the UFW firewall to allow the Nginx traffic to pass through the firewall.

   To display the available Nginx profiles:
   $ sudo ufw app list

   

7. Allow Nginx Traffic on UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall)

   Nginx installs few profiles for the UFW firewall to allow the Nginx traffic to pass through the firewall.

   To display the available Nginx profiles:
   $ sudo ufw app list

   To allow the Nginx traffic through the UFW firewall:
   $ sudo ufw allow ‘nginx http’

   To allow the encrypted Nginx traffic through the UFW firewall:
   $ sudo ufw allow ‘nginx https’

   To allow both HTTP and HTTPS:
   $ sudo ufw allow ‘nginx full’

   To reload the firewall rules:
   $ sudo ufw reload

   

8. Verify the Nginx service is running

   To verify the Nginx service, open the web browser and type this URL http://127.0.0.1. You will see the Nginx page if it is running on your machine.

   If you are in the CLI terminal use curl utility to load the page on CLI. Commands to install the curl utility and load the page on CLI is here.
   $ sudo apt-get install curl
   $ curl –i 127.0.0.1

   The default Nginx html page is located in /var/www/html/index.nginx-debian.html. You can design this page by editing or replacing the html code of index.nginx-debian.html file.

   Till now all the steps written are mandatory to set up a testing site on Nginx. The steps covered from here are optional. However, we urge you to complete the following steps too because we have covered configuring server blocks and host file editing which are required to host multiple sites on a single Nginx server.

   

9. Configure a Server Block on Nginx

   Most of the times you may need to host multiple sites/domains on a single web server. It reduces time, hardware, and power costs. Most of the modern web servers accomplish this via virtual hosts. In Nginx those virtual machines are function as server blocks. Nginx has one default server block preconfigured. We are not going to tweak the default server block. We will create a new one for example site.

10. Create a directory for test site

    Create a directory for your site under /var/www/.

    $ sudo mkdir -p /var/www/exampledomain.com/html

    

11. Set the permission and ownership

    Run these commands to set the permission and ownership of exampledomain.com directory.

    $ sudo chown $USER:$USER /var/www/exampledomain.com
    $ sudo chmod 755 /var/www/exampledomain.com

    

12. Create an index.html file for the test site

    Use any text editor to create index file. We have used nano editor in the demonstration. You can design this as per your need.

    $ sudo nano /var/www/exampledomain.com/html/index.html

    Press CTRL+o to save the file and Press CTRL+x to exit the file in nano.

    

13. Create the server block configuration file

    Create a configuration file for your server block.

    $ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/exampledomain.com

    

14. Code of Nginx server block configuration file

    Write the below code inside the server block configuration file.

    server {
    listen 80;

    root /var/www/exampledomain.com/html;
    index index.html index.htm index.nginx.debian.html;

    server_name exampledomain.com www.exampledomain.com;
    location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    }

    Press CTRL+o to save the file and Press CTRL+x to exit the file in nano.

    

15. Create symbolic link of the configuration file

    Create symbolic link of the configuration file in startup directory.

    To create symbolic link:
    $ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/exampledomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

    

16. Restart the Nginx Service

    Run this command to restart the Nginx service.

    $ sudo systemctl restart nginx

    

17. Test the server block configuration in Nginx

    Issue this command to test the configurations.

    $ sudo nginx –t

    

18. Add the host file entry

    This step is again optional. However, we recommend to add host entry to map the ip address with the testing domain. This will allow you to use the domain name directly in the browser.

    Use this command to check the IP address of your system.
    $ hostname –i

    Edit the file /etc/hosts in nano editor.
    $ sudo nano /etc/hosts

    Add the below line right below the localhost entry.
    127.0.1.1 exampledomain.com www. exampledomain .com

    Press CTRL+o to save the file and Press CTRL+x to exit the file in nano.

    

19. Restart Nginx service

    Command to restart Nginx service.
    $ sudo systemctl restart nginx

    

20. Brows the test domain in a web browser

    http://exampledomain.com

    You should see the browser loading the index page that you created in step 12.