BLOG16: Nginx Based Webhosting

BLOG 40: Nginx Based Webhosting NGINX configuration example showing:

1. Port-based virtual hosts

2. Name-based virtual hosts

3. Load balancing using upstream

4. Routing rules (basic path-based routing)

We’ll assume a Linux server environment with NGINX installed.

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1. Port-Based Virtual Hosts

Here, NGINX serves different content on different ports.

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/port_based.conf
server {
    listen 8080;
    server_name localhost;

    location / {
        root /var/www/html_port1;
        index index.html;
    }
}

server {
    listen 9090;
    server_name localhost;

    location / {
        root /var/www/html_port2;
        index index.html;
    }
}

• Access with http://server-ip:8080 → content from /var/www/html_port1

• Access with http://server-ip:9090 → content from /var/www/html_port2

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2. Name-Based Virtual Hosts

Here, NGINX serves different websites based on the Host header.

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/name_based.conf
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name site1.example.com;

    location / {
        root /var/www/site1;
        index index.html;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name site2.example.com;

    location / {
        root /var/www/site2;
        index index.html;
    }
}

• site1.example.com → /var/www/site1

• site2.example.com → /var/www/site2

(Make sure DNS or /etc/hosts resolves the names.)

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3. Load Balancer with Upstream

Here, NGINX distributes requests to multiple backend servers.

# /etc/nginx/conf.d/loadbalancer.conf
upstream myapp_backend {
    server 192.168.1.101:80;
    server 192.168.1.102:80;
    server 192.168.1.103:80;
}

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://myapp_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

• Requests to myapp.example.com are load-balanced across 192.168.1.101, .102, .103.

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4. Rules / Path-based Routing

We can define different behavior based on URL paths.

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend_default;
    }

    location /images/ {
        root /var/www/images;
    }

    location /api/ {
        proxy_pass http://backend_api;
    }
}

upstream backend_default {
    server 192.168.1.101:80;
    server 192.168.1.102:80;
}

upstream backend_api {
    server 192.168.1.201:80;
    server 192.168.1.202:80;
}

• /images/ → serves static files directly

• /api/ → load-balanced to API servers

• / → default app backend servers

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