Scalable nginx configuration

Igor Sysoev NGINX, Inc.

NGINX, Inc.• Summer 2011, Moscow office • Fall 2011, company and Series A round announced in San Francisco. First commercial customer: Netflix • Summer 2013, NGINX+ release • Spring 2014, first nginx summit held in San Francisco • Fall 2014, nginx.conf/2014 in San Francisco

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NGINX, Inc.• Head office: San Francisco 16 people, sales, business development, marketing, pre-sales, product management !

• Engineering office: Moscow 17 people, software development, support and professional service (we are hiring!)

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Products• nginx f/oss • paid support and professional services available !

• NGINX+ • closed source, binary only • advanced load balancing • monitoring and configuration   • video streaming !

See nginx.com for more

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Scalable nginx configuration

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O(1) maintenance

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Apache: order matters

GET /script/ !

<Location /> DirectoryIndex index.html <Location> !

<Location /script/> DirectoryIndex index.php <Location> !

/script/index.php

GET /script/ !

<Location /script/> DirectoryIndex index.php <Location> !

<Location /> DirectoryIndex index.html <Location> !

/script/index.html

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Apache: add more fun• global server • <VirtualHost> • <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch> • <Files> and <FilesMatch> • <Location> and <LocationMatch>

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Apache: add more fun• global server • <VirtualHost> • <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch> • <Files> and <FilesMatch> • <Location> and <LocationMatch> • .htaccess files spread all over site structure

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Apache: add more fun• global server • <VirtualHost> • <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch> • <Files> and <FilesMatch> • <Location> and <LocationMatch> • .htaccess files spread all over site structure AccessFileName .hide-and-seek

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Apache: add more fun• global server • <VirtualHost> • <Directory> and <DirectoryMatch> • <Files> and <FilesMatch> • <Location> and <LocationMatch> • .htaccess files spread all over site structure AccessFileName .hide-and-seek • RewriteRules

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nginx: order does not matter

GET /script/ !

location / { index index.html; } !

location /script/ { index index.php; } !

/script/index.php

GET /script/ !

location /script/> index index.php; } !

location / { index index.html; } !

/script/index.php

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nginx: configuration overview• server • listen address:port • server_name • location • location /prefix • location ~regular expressions

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Life is more complex than theory

location ~ \.(js|css|gif|jpe?g|png)$ { … } !

location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass … … }

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nginx: configuration overview• server • listen address:port • server_name • location • recursive prefix search • regular expressions

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Inclusive locations

location /admin/ { location ~ \.php$ { => /admin/index.php } } !

location ~ \.php$ { !

}

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Skip regular expression part

location ^~ /images/ { … }

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Wrong way!

location /img/ { rewrite ^/img/(.+)$ /index.php?img=$1; } !

location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass backend; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name; }

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Configuration inheritance

http { sendfile on; server { root /site/root; location / { … } location /script/ { root /site/php; }

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Configuration inclusion

http { … server { include static.conf; location / { … } location /script/ { … } }

static.conf

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location /i/ {

… } location /js/ {

… } location /css/ {

… }

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Use copy-paste

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Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) is a myth Use copy-paste!

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Similar locations

location ~ ^/(images|css|js)/ { root /path/static; }

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Similar locations

location /images/ { root /path/static; } !

location /css/ { root /path/static; } !

location /js/ { root /path/static; }

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Similar locations

root /path/static; !

location /images/ { } !

location /css/ { } !

location /js/ { }

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Inclusive locations

location /admin/ { auth_basic admin; } !

!

!

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location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass backend; }

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Inclusive locations

location /admin/ { auth_basic admin; location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass backend; } } !

location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass backend; }

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Wrong way!

location /img/ { rewrite ^/img/(.+)$ /index.php?img=$1; } !

location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass backend; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to$fastcgi_script_name; }

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Regular expression isolation

location /img/ { location ~ ^/img/(?<img>.+)$ { fastcgi_pass backend; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/index.php; fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING img=$img; } }

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Regular expression in map

map $http_user_agent $mobile { “~(iPhone|Android|Opera Mini)” 1; default 0; }

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Rewrites?

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NO!

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“if” is Evil

if (true) { gzip off; } !

if (true) { etag off; }

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Use “if” only to return HTTP code

if ($bot) { return 200 “No bots here!”; }

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TL;DR• only prefix locations, avoid regular expression locations • isolate regular expressions • regular expression in maps • duplication is your friend • no rewrites • use ”if” only to return HTTP code

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