This tutorial is out of date and no longer maintained.
Note: This tutorial is out of date and unmaintained. Updated versions are available for Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04
Both nginx and apache are powerful and effective servers. Apache currently reigns as the #1 server for websites and since its public release in 2006, nginx has taken the world by storm and is now the #2 server for active sites. The reasons for each respective server’s popularity are clear: apache’s power and nginx’s speed are well known. However, both servers do have drawbacks—apache is hard on server memory, while nginx (great at static files) needs the help of php-fpm or similar modules for dynamic content.
However, one can combine the two web servers to great effect, with nginx as static web server front and apache processing the back end.
To perform the steps in this tutorial, you will need to have sudo privileges on your virtual private server.
To create a user with sudo privileges, go through the third and fourth steps of the initial ubuntu server setup tutorial
To start off, we need to install and configure nginx which will serve the front end of our site.
Let’s download it from apt-get:
sudo apt-get install nginx
Once it has downloaded, you can go ahead and configure the virtual host to run on the front end.
There are a few changes we need to make in the configuration.
Open up the nginx configuration.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example
The following configuration will set you up to use nginx as the front end server. It is very similar to the default set up, and the details are under the configuration.
server { listen 80; root /var/www/; index index.php index.html index.htm; server_name example.com; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php; } location ~ \.php$ { proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } }
The following changes were implemented in the configuration:
This configuration sets up a system where all extensions with a php ending are rerouted to the apache backend which will run on port 8080.
Activate the virtual host.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example
Additionally, delete the default nginx server block.
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
The next step is to install and configure apache.
With nginx taken care of, it’s time to install our backend, apache.
sudo apt-get install apache2
Since nginx is still not turned on, Apache will start running on port 80.
We need to configure apache to take over the backend, which as we told nginx, will be running on port 8080. Open up the apache ports file to start setting apache on the correct port:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf
Find and change the following lines to have apache running on port 8080, accessible only from the localhost:
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080 Listen 127.0.0.1:8080
Save and Exit.
Subsequently, open up a new virtual host file, copying the layout from the default apache file:
sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/example
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example
The main issue that needs to be addressed here is that the virtual host needs to be, once again, running on port 8080 (instead of the default 80 given to nginx).
The line should look like this:
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080>
Make sure your Document Root is correct. Save and exit the file and activate that virtual host:
sudo a2ensite example
Before we start testing anything out, we need to equip apache with php. Go ahead and install it now:
sudo apt-get install php5
Restart both servers to make the changes effective:
sudo service apache2 restart
sudo service nginx restart
We have set up the VPS with nginx running on the front end of our site and apache processing php on the back end. Loading our domain will take us to our site’s default page.
We can check that information is being routed to apache is working by running a common php script.
Go ahead and create the php.info file:
sudo nano /var/www/info.php
Paste the following lines into that file:
<? phpinfo( ); ?>
Save and exit.
Visiting your domain/info.php should show you php info screen, and you’ll be able to see that this was handled by apache. (screenshot here)
Finally, you can see which ports are open and which application is on each one by typing in this command.
sudo netstat -plunt
Configuring nginx and Apache together can be a great boost to a server, and this was just a brief overview. If you have any specific questions about the configuring the two together, feel free to post your questions in our Q&A Forum and we’ll be happy to answer them.
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Very, very good!
setup everything following the steps but only loads default nginx page from /usr/share/nginx/www instead from the /var/www
How does one get this working?
After updating your root path did you give nginx a restart?
It may also be that the default nginx page is showing up. You can disable the default nginx server block by removing it from the sites-enabled folder. I have added this step to the tutorial in “Configure nginx” step.
Hi, in the example nginx.conf, in the PHP section, you have written “127.0.0.1:9000” in one place and “127.0.0.1:8080” in another. Is this intentional?
Hi Jason—thanks for catching that. It was a typo that originated because the configuration was based on the the default configs, and I had not removed that comment. It is gone now!
Thanks!
It’s awesome Etel, I’m trying Nginx+Apache on an Ubuntu 12.04, and found that the setting works right-away for most pages. However, the cgi calls seems to stuck on Nginx. I’ve tried adding the following, location ~ .cgi$ { proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; } but no luck. Any comments?
jessehaung, I think that question might be outside the scope of this article. (I don’t know the answer off hand just by looking at your syntax).
Hi Jesse,
Given that the request is being redirected back to your Apache server at http://127.0.0.1:8080 you should attempt to make that request directly to the Apache server to see if its processing correctly:
telnet 127.0.0.1 8080
GET /path/to/script.php HTTP/1.1 Host: domain.com
Then you will see if Apache is returning any kind of weird behavior. Since nginx is just serving as a reverse proxy and it isn’t returning its own error it may be breaking down there.
So you would want to test each piece individually to narrow down where you may be running into an issue.
Jesse, I just wanted to let you know, more than 2 years after you posted this tip, to try telnet, with the specific instructions, this was hugely helpful to some dude (me). I had heard of telnet, but had no idea it could be used test Apache set up. It wasn’t long after trying what you suggested that I was able to get nginx running a reverse proxy to Apache, with right pho info coming back. :thumbs-up:
This worked perfectly. Thank You!
Question: If i’m going to be using wordpress, will I need to create a seperate nginx virtual hosts file for wordpress?
You do not to create a separate config per domain, that’s really user preference.
If the wordpress instance will be on a totally separate domain than any other domain you will need to create a new server { } block definition for it but you can put that inside of your main nginx.conf if you prefer.
Hello,
How to do this on a live website? Meaning I want to put nginx in front of Apache on a live setup.
We’re going to update the documentation so that it mimics a live website which will make it clearer how the reverse proxy is working.
Otherwise we end up with two localhost 127.0.0.1 configs and it can be confusing.
Thanks for writing it, it should be updated hopefully by the end of today. =]
We’ve cleared out a lot of the comments from the nginx config.
You will see that the server { } definition in the nginx config has a : Listen 80 Directive, which means that it’s listening on all IPs with port 80 so if you have a public IP configured on the server it will be listening.
Then the server_name directive determines which domains will be served.
The reverse proxy directive then sends requests to 127.0.0.1:8080 which is the IP and Port that Apache runs on.
This is because Apache and Nginx can not both listen on the same IP and port. This way when nginx can not handle a request it will reverse proxy it back to Apache on 127.0.0.1:8080, let Apache handle the response and send it back through Nginx.
Hopefully that clears it up for. But if you have any specific questions please let us know.
Does anyone have any experience working with HaProxy as a front end webserver and apache processing the backend? I was going to use nginx but i was getting the redirect error after installing wordpress… “redirecting in a way that will never complete”. I couldnt get that resolved after reading and trying multiple resolutions. I’m now using haproxy on port 80 and apache on port 8080, everything works great. I just need to rewrite my frontend http_proxy in my haproxy.cfg file, can anyone help possibly?
Hi! I followed your tuts and it worked like breeze. I was hoping that you should make your tutorial a little bit complete for the sake of other beginners like me. 'Twas okay overall though. And also, if you want to use Varnish, you can direct your Apache to port 8888, Nginx to 8080 and Varnish to port 80. Dunno if varnish will work (I’m about to try), but I’ve tried Apache with port 8888 and Nginx with 80 and it worked. Thanks again!
Hello,
I followed all the steps properly. Then installed mysql and setup a php script on the server. However, all .php files are loading fine but none of the .html files are loading. When the browser requests a .html page it loads back to home page. Any fix for this?
Hey Digital , I was going through your : How to Configure Nginx as a Front End Proxy for Apache article and when I get to :
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example, I get a blank page.
So I can’t do the modifications required
Is it normal ? I run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x64 with nginx
That command should give you a blank page as there is nothing there. You can fill in the page with the configuration in the article.
Additionally, you don’t have to call it /example, you can give it whatever name is convenient for you.