Installing Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04 with Multiple Domains — TunzaDev
In this guide we will install and configure Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (TunzaDev). We will also configure some server blocks so we can host multiple domains. Nginx is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server. It’s known for its high performance, stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.
Step: 1. Install Nginx
Let’s begin by updating the package lists and installing Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04. Below we have two commands separated by &&
. The first command will update the package lists to ensure you get the latest version and dependencies for Nginx. The second command will then download and install Nginx.
sudo apt update && sudo apt install nginx
Once installed, check to see if the Nginx service is running.
sudo service nginx status
If Nginx is running correctly, you should see a green Active state below.
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2018-05-14 23:03:47 UTC; 16s ago
Docs: man:nginx(8)
Process: 13003 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status
Process: 12994 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g daemon on; master_process on; (code=exite
Main PID: 13006 (nginx)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 1153)
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
├─13006 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
└─13009 nginx: worker process
Step: 2. Configure Firewall
If you haven’t already done so, it is recommended that you enable the ufw
firewall and add a rule for Nginx. Before enabling ufw
firewall, make sure you add a rule for SSH, otherwise you may get locked out of your server if you’re connected remotely.
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
If you get an error “ERROR: could find a profile matching openSSH”, this probably means you are not configuring the server remotely and can ignore it.
Now add a rule for Nginx.
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'Rule added
Rule added (v6)
Enable ufw
firewall.
sudo ufw enableCommand may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup
Now check the firewall status.
sudo ufw statusStatus: activeTo Action From
-- ------ ----
OpenSSH ALLOW Anywhere
Nginx HTTP ALLOW Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
Nginx HTTP (v6) ALLOW Anywhere (v6)
That’s it! Your Nginx web server on Ubuntu 18.04 should now be ready.
Step: 3. Test Web Server
Go to your web browser and visit your domain or IP. If you don’t have a domain name yet and don’t know your IP, you can find out with:
sudo ifconfig | grep -Eo 'inet (addr:)?([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -Eo '([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -v '127.0.0.1'
You can find this Nginx default welcome page in the document root directory /var/www/html
. To edit this file in nano
text editor:
sudo nano /var/www/html/index.html
To save and close nano, press CTRL
+ X
and then press y
and ENTER
to save changes.
Your Nginx web server is ready to go. You can now add your own html files and images the the /var/www/html
directory as you please. However, you should acquaint yourself with and set up at least one Server Block for Nginx as most of our Ubuntu 18.04 guides are written with Server Blocks in mind.
Server Blocks allow you to host multiple web sites/domains on one server. Even you only ever intend on hosting one website or one domain, it’s still a good idea to configure at least one Server Block.
Step: 4. Configure Server Blocks
If you wish to host multiple sites/domains on Nginx, you should now set up your directory structures and Server Blocks. Even if you only want to host one site/domain, it’s a good idea to set up a directory and Server Block now because if you ever need to add a new domain later, it will make things a lot easier for you.
For the purposes of this guide, we will make a Server Block for tunzadev1.com and another for tunzadev2.com. You can substitute these with your own registered domains, or if you don’t have any domains yet, you can still follow this guide and add tunzadev1 .com and tunzadev2.com to your hosts
file to trick your OS into resolving these domains in the browser. We’ll explain how to do this at the end of the guide.
Step: 5. Create Directories and Set Permissions
Let’s create two new directories in the /var/www/
directory for our two domains.
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/tunzadev1.com/public_htmlsudo mkdir -p /var/www/tunzadev2.com/public_html
If we want our regular non-root user to be able to modify files in these directories, we must change the ownership.
sudo chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) /var/www/tunzadev1.com/public_htmlsudo chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) /var/www/tunzadev2.com/public_html
The $(whoami)
variable will take the value of the user you are currently logged in as.
We must also make sure the permissions for the general web directory /var/www
and its contents are set to 755
so that pages can be served correctly.
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www
Step: 6. Create Test Web Pages
We’ll now create a simple index.html
web page for each domain using the echo
command.
Don’t forget to replace tunzadev1.com with your own domain here if you have one.
sudo echo "Welcome to tunzadev1.com!" > /var/www/tunzadev1.com/public_html/index.html
Now do the same for tunzadev2.com.
sudo echo "Welcome to tunzadev2.com!" > /var/www/tunzadev2.com/public_html/index.html
Step : 7. Create the First Server Block
Nginx contains a default server block in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
which we can use as a template for our own server blocks.
Copy this file to a new file named after your domain. In this example, tunzadev1.com
sudo cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev1.com
Now edit the file you just copied:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev1.com
Scroll down and look for the line root /var/www/html;
. (You can use CTRL
+ W
to search).
Change this root to the path of the directory you created earlier. In our example, /var/www/tunzadev1.com/public_html
/etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev1.com
root /var/www/tunzadev1.com/public_html;
Now look for the line server_name _;
. (You can use CTRL
+ W
to search).
Change this to your domain name. In our example, tunzadev1.com. We will also add www. here as well.
/etc/nginx/sites-available/mytest1.com
server_name tunzadev1.com www.tunzadev1.com;
Save and close nano (Press CTRL
+ X
and then press y
and ENTER
to save changes)
Ensure the Nginx config file syntax is valid before continuing to the next step. If there is an error in your syntax and you restart Nginx, you can crash the web server.
sudo nginx -t
If syntax is valid you should see:
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Step: 8. Create the Second Server Block
We will now create a server block for our other domain name, in this example, tunzadev2.com.
The only difference between this step and the last is the removal of default_server
from the listen
directive in the config file. You can only have one default_server
– if you have two, the web server will not start.
Firstly, let’s copy the default server block in /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
. Copy this file to a new file named after your domain. In this example, tunzadev2.com
sudo cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
Now edit the file you just copied.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
Scroll down to the listen
directive.
/etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
Only one server block can have the default_server
specification. This tells Nginx which block to revert to if the server_name
requested does not match any of the available server blocks.
Remove default_server
from the listen
directive so it looks likes this.
/etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
Next, scroll down and look for the line root /var/www/html;
. (You can use CTRL
+ W
to search).
Change this root to the path of the directory you created earlier. In our example, /var/www/tunzadev2.com/public_html
/etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
root /var/www/tunzadev2.com/public_html;
Now look for the line server_name _;
. (You can use CTRL
+ W
to search).
Change this to your domain name. In our example, tunzadev2.com. We will also add www. here as well.
/etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com
server_name tunzadev2.com www.tunzadev2.com;
Save and close nano (Press CTRL
+ X
and then press y
and ENTER
to save changes)
Ensure the Nginx config file syntax is valid before continuing to the next step. If there is an error in your syntax and you restart Nginx, you can crash the web server.
sudo nginx -t
If syntax is valid you should see:
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Step: 9. Create Symbolic Links
We will now create symbolic links from the sites-available
directory to the sites-enabled
directory, which Nginx reads during startup. Be sure to replace tunzadev1.com and tunzadev2.com with your own domains if you have them.
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev1.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/tunzadev2.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
We also have to remove the symbolic link for the default server block, otherwise it will interfere with our two new ones.
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
Now restart Nginx.
sudo service nginx restart
Final Step — Test Nginx
Launch your Favorite browser and navigate to http://tunzadev1.com
and http://tunzadev2.com
Note: Guides — What Next?
Now that you have your Nginx server tested and working, the next step is to install MySQL, PHP and PhpMyAdmin.
- Installing MySQL on Ubuntu 18.04 Server
- Installing PHP for Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04 Server
- Installing phpMyAdmin for Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04
Hey champ! — You’re all done!
Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments below.
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