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What IS Nginx

Short introduction to Nginx

Nginx (pronounced "engine-x") is a popular open-source web server, reverse proxy server, and load balancer. It's known for its high performance, stability, and scalability, making it a common choice for serving web content, handling incoming requests, and distributing traffic to multiple web servers or application backends.

Nginx was created by Igor Sysoev and released as open-source software in 2004. It has since gained widespread adoption and is used by many websites and web applications worldwide.

What IS Nginx - Tutorial provided by AppSeed.

Key features and characteristics of Nginx include:

✅ Web Server​

Nginx can serve static content, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images, directly to clients (web browsers) via HTTP and HTTPS protocols. It's known for its efficiency in handling a large number of concurrent connections with minimal resource usage.

✅ Reverse Proxy​

Nginx can act as a reverse proxy server, forwarding client requests to backend web servers or application servers. This allows you to set up a load balancer, distribute incoming traffic among multiple servers, and enhance the security and performance of your web applications.

✅ Load Balancer​

Nginx's load balancing capabilities allow you to distribute incoming requests evenly across multiple backend servers, helping to optimize resource utilization, improve availability, and ensure high availability and fault tolerance.

✅ SSL/TLS Termination​

Nginx can terminate SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security) connections, offloading the encryption and decryption process from backend servers. This helps reduce the computational load on the application servers and simplifies the management of SSL/TLS certificates.

✅ Reverse Proxy Cache​

Nginx can cache the responses from backend servers, reducing the load on application servers and improving response times for clients. This is particularly useful for serving static or semi-static content.

✅ URL Rewriting​

Nginx provides powerful URL rewriting and redirection capabilities, allowing you to modify or manipulate URLs as they pass through the server. This is often used for creating SEO-friendly URLs or handling legacy URL structures.

✅ Access Control and Security​

Nginx allows you to implement access control rules, limit request rates, and protect against various types of attacks, such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and SQL injection.

✅ High Availability​

Nginx can be deployed in high-availability configurations to ensure that your web services remain accessible even in the event of server failures.

✅ Community and Add-Ons​

Nginx has a vibrant community and a wide range of third-party modules and extensions available, which can extend its functionality to meet various use cases.

✅ In Summary​

Nginx is often used in conjunction with other web technologies, such as PHP, Python, Ruby, and Node.js, to create complete web hosting environments. It's valued for its ability to handle a large number of concurrent connections efficiently, making it suitable for high-traffic websites and web applications.

Overall, Nginx is a versatile and reliable web server and proxy server that is well-suited for a wide range of web hosting and application deployment scenarios.

✅ Resources​