Introduction to NGINX

Name: Introduction to NGINX
Rating: 4.5 (2298 reviews)

Understand and Deploy Layer 4/Layer 7 Load Balancing, WebSockets, HTTPS, HTTP/2, TLS 1.3 with NGINX (With Docker)

Created byHussein Nasser

Last updated 12/2024

English

German [Auto],English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Layer 7 Load Balancing between services
Layer 4 Load Balancing between services
Setup NGINX as a Web Server
TLS Passthrough vs TLS Termination
Block Undesired Requests and Re-route requests to different services
Enable HTTPS with letsEncrypt
Enable HTTP/2 with NGINX
Enable TLS 1.3 with NGINX
NGINX Timeouts
Scaling WebSockets with NGINX
Load Balancing WebSockets with NGINX

Course content

7 sections • 54 lectures • 7h 39m total length

Introduction2:43
Download Slides here0:01
What is NGINX?4:22
NGINX Use Cases6:32
Layer 4 and Layer 7 Load Balancing in NGINX9:50
TLS Termination and TLS Passthrough10:22
Compare tls termination and tls passthrough in Nginx, explaining when to decrypt at the edge, maintain end-to-end encryption, and the implications for caching and certificates.
NGINX Internal Architecture14:25
Explore NGINX internal architecture, from the master process to worker processes, tuned to CPU cores and hardware threads, handling connections via kernel queues and CPU‑bound versus IO‑bound tasks.
Threading and Connections6:53
NGINX Threading Architecture0:26

What are we building?13:41
Download source code and config here0:01
NGINX WebServer Container11:53
Spin up an nginx web server container with Docker, expose port 80, set a hostname, map a host html folder via volumes, and test serving static pages with curl.
Three Node app containers with NGINX in One Docker Network27:32
Two NGINX containers load balancing to same backends6:31
Create two nginx containers on one docker network with identical config, expose ports 80 and 81, and test hostname-based routing to backends; introduces iptables load balancing concepts.
10 Node JS containers, 2 NGINX containers
Docker networking48:58
Explore docker networking by spinning up containers on the bridge, inspecting networks, and building custom networks with a gateway to connect isolated containers; learn DNS and IP routing basics.

NGINX Frontend Timeouts1:37
client_header_timeout3:25
Syntax:
client_header_timeout time;
Default:
client_header_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server
Defines a timeout for reading client request header. If a client does not transmit the entire header within this time, the request is terminated with the 408 (Request Time-out) error.
client_body_timeout3:39
Syntax:
client_body_timeout time;
Default:
client_body_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server, location
Defines a timeout for reading client request body. The timeout is set only for a period between two successive read operations, not for the transmission of the whole request body. If a client does not transmit anything within this time, the request is terminated with the 408 (Request Time-out) error.
send_timeout2:30
Syntax:
send_timeout time;
Default:
send_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server, location
Sets a timeout for transmitting a response to the client. The timeout is set only between two successive write operations, not for the transmission of the whole response. If the client does not receive anything within this time, the connection is closed.
keepalive_timeout3:51
Syntax:
keepalive_timeout timeout [header_timeout];
Default:
keepalive_timeout 75s;
Context:
http, server, location
The first parameter sets a timeout during which a keep-alive client connection will stay open on the server side. The zero value disables keep-alive client connections. The optional second parameter sets a value in the “Keep-Alive: timeout=time” response header field. Two parameters may differ.
The “Keep-Alive: timeout=time” header field is recognized by Mozilla and Konqueror. MSIE closes keep-alive connections by itself in about 60 seconds.
lingering_timeout2:08

Syntax:
lingering_timeout time;
Default:
lingering_timeout 5s;
Context:
http, server, location
When lingering_close is in effect, this directive specifies the maximum waiting time for more client data to arrive. If data are not received during this time, the connection is closed. Otherwise, the data are read and ignored, and nginx starts waiting for more data again. The “wait-read-ignore” cycle is repeated, but no longer than specified by the lingering_time directive.
resolver_timeout1:26

Syntax:
resolver_timeout time;
Default:
resolver_timeout 30s;
Context:
http, server, location
Sets a timeout for name resolution, for example:
resolver_timeout 5s;
NGINX Backend Timeouts0:35
proxy_connect_timeout3:03

Syntax:
proxy_connect_timeout time;
Default:
proxy_connect_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server, location
Defines a timeout for establishing a connection with a proxied server. It should be noted that this timeout cannot usually exceed 75 seconds.
proxy_send_timeout4:42

Syntax:
proxy_send_timeout time;
Default:
proxy_send_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server, location
Sets a timeout for transmitting a request to the proxied server. The timeout is set only between two successive write operations, not for the transmission of the whole request. If the proxied server does not receive anything within this time, the connection is closed.
proxy_read_timeout3:34

Syntax:
proxy_read_timeout time;
Default:
proxy_read_timeout 60s;
Context:
http, server, location
Defines a timeout for reading a response from the proxied server. The timeout is set only between two successive read operations, not for the transmission of the whole response. If the proxied server does not transmit anything within this time, the connection is closed.
proxy_next_upstream_timeout1:45
Syntax:
proxy_next_upstream_timeout time;
Default:
proxy_next_upstream_timeout 0;
Context:
http, server, location
This directive appeared in version 1.7.5.
Limits the time during which a request can be passed to the next server. The 0 value turns off this limitation.
keepalive_timeout_backend2:13

Syntax:
keepalive_timeout timeout;
Default:
keepalive_timeout 60s;
Context:
upstream
This directive appeared in version 1.15.3.
Sets a timeout during which an idle keepalive connection to an upstream server will stay open.

Read this before you continue with this section0:26
Spin up lightweight Docker Container with your application (nodeapp)12:41
Find the code here https://github.com/hnasr/javascript_playground/tree/master/docker
Working with NGINX - What will we do?1:51
install nginx and configure it as a layer seven reverse proxy to balance dockerized nodejs services, explore layer four proxy, and enable https tls 1.3 with letsencrypt and http2.
Installing NGINX1:07
Install nginx on macOS using Homebrew and brew install nginx, then delete the default configuration file and start from scratch.
NGINX as a Web Server19:18
NGINX as a Layer 7 Proxy18:12
Configure Nginx as a layer seven http proxy to load balance four NodeJS services with upstream blocks and round-robin, using proxy_pass and ip_hash sticky sessions.
NGINX as a Layer 4 Proxy9:35
Enable HTTPS on NGINX13:51
Enable https on nginx by configuring port 80 and 443, obtaining a Let's Encrypt certificate with certbot standalone, and loading the public and private keys into the nginx config.
Enabling Fast and Secure TLS 1.3 on NGINX3:47
Enable HTTP/2 on NginX3:08

Download section slides, code, config and resources here0:01
NGINX and WebSockets Agenda3:35
Discover how to scale websocket connections with nginx, building a NodeJS websocket server, and compare layer four and layer seven proxying within the OSI framework.
Introduction to WebSockets13:19
Layer 4 vs Layer 7 WebSockets Proxying23:21
Compare layer four websockets proxying, highlighting end-to-end tunneling for layer four versus content-aware TLS termination and smart routing at layer seven.
Spin up a WebSockets Server11:40
Spin up a websocket server with nodejs and an http server, handle upgrade requests, and load balance multiple websocket backends with nginx, testing across dynamic ports.
Configure NGINX as Layer 4 WebSocket Proxying7:21
Configure nginx as a layer 4 websocket proxy on port 80, tunneling all tcp connections to websocket backends. Employ blind proxying with round-robin load balancing, where paths do not matter.
Configure NGINX as Layer 7 WebSocket Proxying14:02
Configure NGINX as a layer 7 WebSocket proxy and load balancer by routing /app and /chat to backend websockets, handling upgrade headers, and serving an index page for testing.
Section Summary2:15
Explore WebSockets fundamentals, compare layer four and layer seven proxying, spin up a websocket server, then deploy Nginx as layer four load balancer and layer seven websocket server.

How to Scale NGINX?14:41
Explore how to scale NGINX through horizontal scaling, multiple NGINX instances, and load-balancing strategies, including DNS-based resolution and virtual IP with VRP for active-passive failover.
How many Backends do we need for NGINX?5:48
Assess how many backends nginx needs based on workload and connection type; use dedicated web socket connections to avoid layer4 load balancing issues.

NGINRat - a remote access trojan injecting NGINX (article)1:05
Socket Connections (OS Course Clip)33:52
Bonus - Proxy vs Reverse Proxy14:17
Explore the difference between proxy and reverse proxy, their use cases in caching, anonymity, and blocking, and how microservices rely on sidecar proxies, ingress, and load balancing.
NGINX Process Architecture3:50
The Limitations of NGINX which made Cloudflare build their own proxy25:14
Cloudflare moves from nginx to pangora, addressing worker process limits and backend connection pools by sharing threads and pools to reduce handshakes and support http upstream.
Course Summary2:38

Requirements

Basic understanding of networking and coding
Any computer (Windows, Mac or Linux)

Description

NGINX is an open-source web server written in C and can also be used as a reverse proxy and a load balancer. This class Is an introduction to NGINX, by the end of this class you will be able to understand the fundamentals of NGINX and spin up your own instance and even secure it with a legitimate certificate.

Here are the topics that I will discuss:

What is NGINX?
NGINX Use Cases
Layer 4 and Layer 7 Proxying in Nginx
NGINX Timoouts
Example
- Install Nginx (mac)
- Nginx as a Web Server
  - Static content
  - Regular expression in NGINX
  - proxy_pass
- Nginx as a Layer 7 Proxy
  - Proxy to 4 backend NodeJS services (docker)
  - IP_Hash load balancing
  - Split load to multiple backends (app1/app2)
  - Block certain requests (/admin)
- NGINX as a Layer 4 Proxy
- Create DNS record
- Enable HTTPS on NGINX (lets encrypt)
- Enable TLS 1.3 on NGINX
- Enable HTTP/2 on NGINX

A small blurb about NGINX

NGINX is one of a handful of servers written to address the C10K problem. Unlike traditional servers, NGINX doesn’t rely on threads to handle requests. Instead it uses a much more scalable event-driven (asynchronous) architecture. This architecture uses small, but more importantly, predictable amounts of memory under load. Even if you don’t expect to handle thousands of simultaneous requests, you can still benefit from NGINX’s high-performance and small memory footprint. NGINX scales in all directions: from the smallest VPS all the way up to large clusters of servers.

Who this course is for:

Engineers who want to deploy Web Servers
Engineers who want to understand how to enable TLS and HTTPS
Engineers interested in Proxy technology, reverse proxy and load balancing
Engineers who want to use NGINX to scale HTTP and WebSockets applications

Introduction to NGINX

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

The Fundamentals of NGINX9 lectures • 56min

Running NGINX in Docker6 lectures • 1hr 49min

Understanding NGINX Timeouts for efficient configuration13 lectures • 34min

More NGINX Configurations10 lectures • 1hr 24min

Scaling WebSockets with NGINX8 lectures • 1hr 16min

Answering your Questions2 lectures • 20min

Bonus Content6 lectures • 1hr 21min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: