Instant Nginx Starter

Implement the nifty features of nginx with this focused guide

Overview

• Learn something new in an Instant! A short, fast, focused guide delivering immediate results.
• Understand Nginx and its relevance to the modern web
• Install Nginx and explore the different methods of installation
• Configure and customize Nginx
• Become familiar with the community and people around Nginx.

In Detail

Nginx is an open source web server and a reverse proxy server for HTTP, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP protocols. It is used to deploy dynamic HTTP content on a network using FastCGI and SCGI handlers for scripts and it serves as a software load balancer . Nginx enables the user to save resources compared to other major web servers such as Apache HTTP as well as provides site visitors with a faster load time for an improved user experience.

Instant Nginx Starter will show you how to install and set up nginx web server by introducing you to basics that covers an understanding of the nginx modules, which will help you to migrate from Apache to achieve high concurrency, performance and low memory usage.

Nginx Starter introduces you to the configuration file in its entirety, explaining the importance of different sections. The book then takes you through various examples based on core syntax and specific features enabling you to configure nginx.

During the course of the book, you will see how modern technology is merged with nginx by detailing an example based on websockets. The starter guide emphasizes optimizing load time through compression and caching of dynamic responses, while highlighting that nginx can seamlessly become part of a productive ecosystem of the software.

Through this book, you will have learned everything you need to control nginx behavior with an understanding over the tools to debug problems and execute plans.

What you will learn from this book

• Gzipping and pre-gzipping responses and files
• How to use WebSockets in nginx
• Different methods of caching data in nginx
• How to setup performant secure downloads with backend authentication
• How to perform GeoIP lookups and provide the data to your backend.
• How to use nginx for pseudo-streaming mp4 and flv video.

Approach

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks.This book is written in practical Starter style with lots of helpful examples which will guide you gently into the world of nginx.

Who this book is written for

This book is targeted at those people who are new to nginx and want to learn the intricacies of nginx web server. The book assumes that the readers have basic knowledge of Linux and backends such as PHP, Apache, Ruby, and Python.