Imagine this scenario, you just got your dream DevOps job. You are very excited. In no time, you get your first task to host a javascript, python and PHP application on a single Linux centos server. At first, you are confused about how you'll serve multiple applications from a single server. You do a little digging and then you strike gold. Nginx!
"NGINX is open-source software for web serving, reverse proxying, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more. It started out as a web server designed for maximum performance and stability. In addition to its HTTP server capabilities, NGINX can also function as a proxy server for email (IMAP, POP3, and SMTP) and a reverse proxy and load balancer for HTTP, TCP, and UDP servers."
Prerequisite:
- Linux centos server
STEP 1
Log in to your server using ssh
ssh root@server_ip_address
You'll be asked to input your password.
Installing Nginx on Centos
Nginx packages can be gotten from EPEL repositories:
sudo yum install epel-release
Install Nginx:
sudo yum install nginx
Output should look like:
Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
Importing GPG key 0x352C64E5:
Userid : "Fedora EPEL (7) <epel@fedoraproject.org>"
Fingerprint: 91e9 7d7c 4a5e 96f1 7f3e 888f 6a2f aea2 352c 64e5
Package : epel-release-7-9.noarch (@extras)
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
Is this ok [y/N]:
Press y and enter
Upon completion, start Nginx and check it's status using:
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx
If all goes well, you should see this:
● nginx.service - The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2018-03-12 16:12:48 UTC; 2s ago
Process: 1677 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 1675 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 1673 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/rm -f /run/nginx.pid (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1680 (nginx)
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
├─1680 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx
└─1681 nginx: worker process
Open HTTP(80) and HTTPS(433) if you are behind a firewall with these commands:
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Open http://YOUR_IP in your browser of choice, you should see an Nginx homepage displayed. Congratulation!!!
Step 2
Create a New User Account with sudo Privileges
For security reasons, it is advisable not to use the root user to run commands but to create a new user with sudo privileges:
useradd username
- Replace username with your username with Sudo privileges.
Set the User Password
passwd username
You should get the output:
output
Changing password for user username.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
Add User to the sudo Group
usermod -aG wheel username
Switch to Newly Created User
su - username
Then list \root directory content:
sudo ls -l /root
You'll see a banner message the first time you sudo from this account:
output
We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:
#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.
[sudo] password for username:
Serve Multiple Applications
Log in to the Server Using Your username with Root Privileges
Our directory structure would look like this:
/var/www/
├── javascriptapp.com
│ └── public_html
├── pythonapp.com
│__ └── public_html
Let's create a directory where your javascript and python application would reside:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/javascriptapp.com/public_html
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/pythonapp.com/public_html
Important!
To avoid any permission issues, let us change ownership to our username with sudo privileges:
sudo chown -R username: /var/www/javascriptapp.com
sudo chown -R username: /var/www/pythonapp.com
sudo vi /var/www/javascriptapp.com/public_html/index.html
Copy and paste the following lines:
\<!DOCTYPE html>
\<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
\<head>
\<meta charset="utf-8">
\<title>Welcome to javascriptapp.com</title>
\</head>
\<body>
\<h1>Success! javascriptapp.com home page!</h1>
\</body>
\</html>
Create a Server Block
Server blocks are stored in the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory and must end with .conf
sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/javascriptapp.com.conf
Copy and paste the following lines into the file, remember to replace the server name with your value:
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/javascriptapp.com/public_html;
index index.html;
server_name example.com www.javascriptapp.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/javascriptapp.com.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/javascriptapp.com.error.log;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
Save the file and check that configuration is right:
sudo nginx -t
Restart Nginx:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
Then visit your server name:
http://javascriptapp.com
NB: This must be a configured DNS to your server else just use the server IP address.
Final Step
Configure Nginx for Node JS Application
Upload node project to /var/www/javascriptapp.com/public_html, build the application and start node application on a designated port.
Edit the application .conf file to look like this:
sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/javascriptapp.com.conf
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/javascriptapp.com/public_html;
server_name example.com www.javascriptapp.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/javascriptapp.com.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/javascriptapp.com.error.log;
location / {
proxy_pass http://internal_server_ip:node_app_PORT;
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
NB: You can get the internal_server_ip by running hostname -I on the terminal. See https://www.linuxtrainingacademy.com/determine-public-ip-address-command-line-curl/ for more.
Restart Nginx:
sudo systemctl restart nginx
And visit your server name or IP to verify that your application is served.
Congratulation! Your javascript app is successfully served!
You can follow a similar process to serve your python application in the created directory.
This post is inspired by https://www.linuxtrainingacademy.com/determine-public-ip-address-command-line-curl/
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