Properly setting worker processes and connections is crucial for NGINX performance. The optimal configuration depends on your server's CPU cores and expected traffic:
worker_processes auto; # Automatically sets to number of CPU cores
events {
worker_connections 1024; # Adjust based on your server's ulimit -n
multi_accept on; # Accept all connections at once
}
NGINX's caching mechanism can dramatically reduce backend load. Here's a comprehensive caching setup:
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m inactive=60m
use_temp_path=off max_size=1g;
server {
location / {
proxy_cache my_cache;
proxy_cache_valid 200 302 10m;
proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating;
add_header X-Proxy-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
}
}
For static assets, enable these performance-boosting directives:
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ {
expires 365d;
add_header Cache-Control "public";
access_log off;
tcp_nopush on;
sendfile on;
}
Security should never be an afterthought. Implement these essential security measures:
server_tokens off; # Hide NGINX version
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256...';
NGINX offers multiple load balancing methods. Choose based on your specific needs:
upstream backend {
least_conn; # or ip_hash, hash $request_uri, etc.
server backend1.example.com weight=5;
server backend2.example.com;
server backup.example.com backup;
}
server {
location / {
proxy_pass http://backend;
health_check interval=10 fails=3 passes=2;
}
}
Effective logging helps identify performance bottlenecks:
log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
'$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
'"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for" '
'$request_time $upstream_response_time';
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main buffer=32k flush=5m;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
These TCP optimizations can significantly improve throughput:
http {
sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
tcp_nodelay on;
keepalive_timeout 65;
keepalive_requests 100;
reset_timedout_connection on;
client_body_timeout 10;
send_timeout 2;
}
Proper compression settings reduce bandwidth usage:
gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_min_length 256;
gzip_disable "msie6";
Protect against abusive traffic patterns:
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;
server {
location /api/ {
limit_req zone=api burst=20 nodelay;
limit_req_status 429;
}
}
Enable HTTP/2 for improved performance:
server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
http2_push_preload on;
# SSL configuration here
}
NGinx's event-driven architecture makes it fundamentally different from traditional web servers. The master-worker process model allows for efficient handling of thousands of concurrent connections. Here's a basic configuration showing worker processes setup:
worker_processes auto; # Automatically sets based on CPU cores
events {
worker_connections 1024; # Connections per worker
use epoll; # Best for Linux systems
multi_accept on; # Accept all new connections at once
}
Proper buffer sizing can dramatically improve performance. These settings prevent NGinx from writing temporary files to disk:
client_body_buffer_size 10K;
client_header_buffer_size 1k;
client_max_body_size 8m;
large_client_header_buffers 2 1k;
Enable keepalive connections to reduce TCP handshake overhead:
keepalive_timeout 65;
keepalive_requests 100;
Modern security practices should be implemented at the NGinx level:
server_tokens off; # Hide NGinx version
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Disable older protocols
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384';
Proper caching configuration can reduce backend load significantly:
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;
proxy_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
proxy_cache_valid 200 302 10m;
proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
NGinx makes an excellent load balancer with multiple algorithms available:
upstream backend {
least_conn; # Algorithm choice
server backend1.example.com weight=5;
server backend2.example.com;
server backend3.example.com max_fails=3 fail_timeout=30s;
keepalive 32; # Keepalive connections to upstream
}
Proper logging configuration helps with debugging while maintaining performance:
log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
'"$request" $status $body_bytes_sent '
'"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" $request_time';
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main buffer=32k flush=1m;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
Consider implementing these modern web server features:
# Brotli compression
brotli on;
brotli_comp_level 6;
brotli_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml;
# HTTP/2 configuration
listen 443 ssl http2;
http2_max_requests 10000;
http2_max_concurrent_streams 32;
Maintainable configurations use includes and proper structure:
# In nginx.conf
include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
# Sample site config structure
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
include /etc/nginx/snippets/ssl-params.conf;
include /etc/nginx/snippets/security-headers.conf;
location / {
# Application-specific configs
}
}