Install NGINX on Debian

NGINX is a high performance HTTP server allowing for load balancing. It allow to serve a great number of visitors while using less CPU and RAM than Apache2.

This howto is tested on:

• Debian 9.0 Stretch
• Debian 10.0 Buster

This howto is tested with these versions on the software:

• 1.10.3

Installation

Detect if sudo is available (“command” is used if not):

cmdProxy='command'
command type -f 'sudo' &>'/dev/null' && cmdProxy='sudo'

Third-party software repository setup (optional)

Setup the third-party software repository to install the latest NGINX version, and not the one provided by Debian.

Install the software requirements:

${cmdProxy} apt install 'lsb-release'

Detect the distribution version name:

debianVersion="$(command lsb_release -cs)"

Add the repository signing key to APT configuration:

command wget --quiet --no-check-certificate --output-document=- \
    'https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key' \
  | ${cmdProxy} apt-key add -

Add the third-party software repository to APT configuration, if it exists:

if command wget --spider --no-check-certificate --quiet "https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/dists/${debianVersion}/nginx/"; then
  ${cmdProxy} tee '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list' <<< \
"# NGINX latest version.
deb https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ ${debianVersion} nginx
deb-src https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian/ ${debianVersion} nginx"
fi

Update the list of available packages:

${cmdProxy} apt update

Software installation

Install the HTTP server:

${cmdProxy} apt install 'nginx'

Start the software at boot:

${cmdProxy} systemctl enable 'nginx'

Configuration

If the package use is not the one provided by Debian, configure the modules-enabled mechanism:

if ! grep -q 'include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;' '/etc/nginx/nginx.conf'; then
  ${cmdProxy} mkdir --parent '/etc/nginx/modules-available'
  ${cmdProxy} mkdir --parent '/etc/nginx/modules-enabled'
  ${cmdProxy} sed -i -e '/^pid/a\
# Include enable modules configuration.\
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;' '/etc/nginx/nginx.conf'
fi

If the package use is not the one provided by Debian, configure the sites-enabled mechanism:

if ! grep 'include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;' '/etc/nginx/nginx.conf'; then
  ${cmdProxy} mkdir --parent '/etc/nginx/sites-available'
  ${cmdProxy} mkdir --parent '/etc/nginx/sites-enabled'
  ${cmdProxy} tee '/etc/nginx/conf.d/sites-enabled.conf' <<< \
   "# Include enabled sites configurations.
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;"
fi

If the package use is not the one provided by Debian, install the PHP FPM configuration snippets:

${cmdProxy} mkdir --parent '/etc/nginx/snippets'
test -e '/etc/nginx/snippets/fastcgi-php.conf' \
  || ${cmdProxy} wget --quiet --output-document='/etc/nginx/snippets/fastcgi-php.conf' \
      'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/biapy/howto.biapy.com/master/nginx/fastcgi-php.conf'
test -e '/etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf' \
  ||  ${cmdProxy} wget --quiet --output-document='/etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf' \
      'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/biapy/howto.biapy.com/master/nginx/fastcgi.conf'

Next steps

This howto recommends:

• Ease NGINX server administration with nginx-tools.

PHP

This howto recommends the installation of PHP by following:

• Install PHP-FPM on Debian.
• Install php-tools, command-line tool easing PHP configuration.
• Improve PHP initial configuration on Debian.

Administration

Test NGINX configuration (allow to detect configuration errors without applying the new configuration) :

sudo nginx -t

Reload server configuration without interrupting the service :

sudo systemctl 'reload' 'nginx'

Reload the server configuration by restarting the server without closing existing connections (no HTTP error) :

sudo systemctl 'force-reload' 'nginx'

Reload the server configuration by closing existing connections (a HTTP error is displayed to the user) :

sudo systemctl 'restart' 'nginx'

Thanks

• Thanks to NGINX (en) developers.
• Thanks to Korben (fr) for Mettre en place un Reverse Proxy Nginx sur son serveur (fr).
• Thanks to Angristan (fr) for Configurer HTTPS sur Nginx (fr).
• Thanks to DigitalOcean (en) for How To Migrate from an Apache Web Server to Nginx on an Ubuntu VPS (en).
• Thanks to easyengine (en) for Debugging Nginx Configuration (en).
• Thanks to Josh Sherman (en) for How to install the latest nginx on Debian and Ubuntu (en).
• Thanks to Raymii.org (en) for Strong SSL Security on nginx (en).