How to Create Nginx on Linux Server in 2026? – Easy Guide

To create Nginx on a Linux server, update your OS packages, install Nginx (apt or dnf/yum), allow HTTP/HTTPS in the firewall, start and enable the service, create a server block (virtual host) for your domain, test the configuration, and reload Nginx.

Optionally enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt for free SSL certificates. Want to create Nginx on a Linux server the right way? This guide walks you through installation, configuration, and security on Ubuntu/Debian and RHEL-based distros.

You’ll learn how to set up server blocks, PHP-FPM, reverse proxying for apps, SSL with Let’s Encrypt, performance tuning, and troubleshooting—beginner-friendly yet production-ready.

What You Need Before You Start

Before you install Nginx, ensure the following prerequisites are in place:

• A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux 9, or CentOS Stream).
• Root or sudo access.
• A registered domain with DNS A/AAAA records pointing to your server’s IP.
• Port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) open in your firewall or cloud security group.
• Basic command-line familiarity and SSH access.

Install Nginx on Ubuntu/Debian

On Debian-based systems, Nginx is available in official repositories and installs in minutes.

Update OS and Install Nginx

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt -y install nginx

Start and Enable the Service

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

Allow Nginx in UFW Firewall

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw status

Verify Installation

Visit http://your-domain.com or your server IP. You should see the default Nginx welcome page.

Install Nginx on RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux/Rocky

RHEL-family distributions typically use dnf (or yum) and firewalld.

Install Nginx from Repository

sudo dnf -y install epel-release
sudo dnf -y install nginx

Start and Enable Nginx

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

Open Ports in firewalld

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

SELinux Considerations

If SELinux is enforcing and you change document roots or listen ports, set correct contexts and booleans:

# Example: allow Nginx to connect to upstream services
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

# Assign correct context to new webroot
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/var/www/example.com(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/example.com

Create Your First Nginx Server Block (Virtual Host)

Server blocks (virtual hosts) let you host multiple sites on one server. Below are examples for Debian/Ubuntu and RHEL-based systems.

Ubuntu/Debian: sites-available and sites-enabled

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/example.com
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/example.com

cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/example_access.log;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/example_error.log;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}
EOF

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky: conf.d

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/example.com
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/example.com

cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.html index.htm;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/example_access.log;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/example_error.log;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}
EOF

sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Create a simple test page:

echo "<h1>It works!</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/index.html

Add PHP Support with PHP-FPM

Nginx serves static files and proxies dynamic requests to PHP-FPM.

Install PHP-FPM

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt -y install php-fpm

# RHEL family
sudo dnf -y install php-fpm

Nginx Server Block with PHP

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;      # Debian/Ubuntu path
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;  # adjust PHP version/socket
    }

    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|css|js|ico)$ {
        expires 30d;
        access_log off;
    }
}

Create a phpinfo() file to test:

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt (Certbot)

Free SSL/TLS protects your users and improves SEO. Ensure your DNS points to the server before running Certbot.

Install Certbot and Get Certificates

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt -y install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

# RHEL family
sudo dnf -y install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Certbot automatically edits your Nginx config, enables HTTPS and HTTP to HTTPS redirects, and sets up automated renewal.

Use Nginx as a Reverse Proxy (Node.js, Python, Ruby)

Nginx excels as a reverse proxy in front of application servers like Node.js, Gunicorn (Python), or Puma (Ruby).

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        # WebSocket support
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

When proxying to HTTPS upstreams, add proxy_ssl_server_name on; and ensure upstream certificates validate correctly.

Performance Tuning Essentials

Out-of-the-box defaults are conservative. Tweak wisely and test.

• Workers and connections: set in nginx.conf.
• Compression: enable gzip; consider Brotli if available.
• Static caching: long cache for immutable assets.
• HTTP/2 and TLS: modern ciphers, session reuse.
• Upstream keepalive: improve reverse proxy efficiency.

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf (excerpt)
worker_processes auto;
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    multi_accept on;
}
http {
    sendfile on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    server_tokens off;

    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript application/xml+rss;
    gzip_min_length 1024;

    # Example: cache static assets aggressively
    map $sent_http_content_type $expires {
        default                    off;
        ~image/                    30d;
        ~font/                     30d;
        ~text/css                  7d;
        ~application/javascript    7d;
    }
}

Security Hardening Checklist

• Hide version: server_tokens off;
• HTTPS everywhere: redirect HTTP to HTTPS, use HSTS if appropriate.
• Security headers: CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy.
• Rate limiting: throttle abusive clients.
• Limit methods and access to sensitive paths.
• Keep Nginx and OpenSSL updated.

# Example headers (in server {} or http {})
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;

# Rate limit: 10 requests/second burst 20 per IP
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api_limit:10m rate=10r/s;

server {
    ...
    location /api/ {
        limit_req zone=api_limit burst=20 nodelay;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
    }
}

Logs, Monitoring, and Maintenance

• Logs: /var/log/nginx/access.log and /var/log/nginx/error.log per site if configured.
• Rotate logs: Nginx installs logrotate rules by default; verify in /etc/logrotate.d/nginx.
• Monitor: use nginx -V for build info, systemctl status nginx for service health, and tools like Netdata, Prometheus, or Uptime Kuma.

# Quick log tail
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log /var/log/nginx/error.log

Zero-Downtime Reload and Useful Commands

• Test config: sudo nginx -t
• Reload (no downtime): sudo systemctl reload nginx or sudo nginx -s reload
• Restart: sudo systemctl restart nginx
• View enabled sites (Debian): ls /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
• Check open ports: ss -tulpn | grep :80\|:443

Troubleshooting Common Nginx Errors

• 403 Forbidden: wrong permissions or ownership. Ensure webroot is readable by www-data (Debian/Ubuntu) or nginx (RHEL).
• 404 Not Found: wrong root path or missing try_files. Confirm file exists in the defined webroot.
• 502 Bad Gateway: PHP-FPM or upstream app down or wrong socket/port. Verify PHP-FPM service and fastcgi_pass path, or upstream proxy_pass target.
• 413 Request Entity Too Large: increase client_max_body_size in server or http block and reload.
• SSL Errors: ensure DNS is correct, ports 80/443 open, and Certbot renewal working with sudo certbot renew --dry-run.

When to Choose Managed Hosting

If you’d rather not manage patches, SSL renewals, monitoring, and scaling yourself, consider a managed VPS or dedicated server. At YouStable, we provide performance-tuned Nginx stacks, free migration, proactive security hardening, and 24/7 expert support—so you can focus on your application while we handle uptime and optimization.

FAQ’s

Conclusion

Now you can create Nginx on a Linux server end-to-end: install, configure server blocks, secure with HTTPS, reverse proxy apps, optimize, and keep it hardened. Follow the steps, test with nginx -t, and reload safely. For a worry-free, performance-tuned stack, YouStable’s managed hosting can accelerate your deployment.