Install NginX via official repository on Debian 11

If you would like to use mainline nginx packages, run the following command instead:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg] \
http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/debian `lsb_release -cs` nginx" \
    | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx.list

Set up repository pinning to prefer our packages over distribution-provided ones:

echo -e "Package: *\nPin: origin nginx.org\nPin: release o=nginx\nPin-Priority: 900\n" \
    | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/99nginx

Step 2 - Install Nginx

To install nginx, run the following commands:

sudo apt update & apt install nginx 

Enable bootup

sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Step 4 - Configure Nginx

Modify the default nginx config file:

sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Replace the content with the following:

user www-data;
worker_processes 2;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    server_tokens off;
    client_max_body_size 1000m;
    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
    '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    gzip on;
    gzip_disable "msie6";

    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    gzip_http_version 1.1;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}

Step 5 - Create a site

Now, you can create your virtual hosts.

Let's create a sample one for a domain name called sample.com

sudo vim  /etc/nginx/conf.d/sample.com.conf 

#########
# HTTP  #
#########
server {
    listen        80;
    server_name  sample.com www.sample.com;
    root /home/www/www.sample.com/www;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/www.sample.com.access.log combined;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/www.sample.com.error.log error;
    index index.html index.php;

    if ($host !~ ^(sample.com|www.sample.com)$ ) {
        return 444;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD|POST)$) {
        return 444;
    }

    # Disable direct access to .ht files and folders
    location ~* \.(htaccess|htpasswd|tpl|7z|zip|tar.gz|gz|gzip|rar)$ {
        deny    all;
        return  404;
    }

    # X-XSS protection
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

    # X-FRAME attach protection
    #add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";

    disable_symlinks on from=$document_root;
    autoindex off;

    location / {
        index index.php index.html;
    }

}

Step 6 - Reload and test

Reload the web server to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl reload nginx 

You can check the web server service status:

sudo systemctl status nginx

Step 7 - Important Nginx files and directories

Now that you know how to install and configure nginx, it's time to get familiar with some important files and directories to help you manage your websites.

Content

• /home/www/ : This is a sample directory where you can keep your websites. 

Server Configuration

• /etc/nginx : The Nginx configuration directory. All of the Nginx configuration files reside here.
• /etc/nginx/nginx.conf : The main configuration file. This file contains the global configurations of Nginx.
• /etc/nginx/conf.d/ : The directory where per-site server blocks can be stored. Only files with '.conf' extension will be loaded by Nginx. Typically, all server block configuration is done in this directory.

Server Logs

• /var/log/nginx/access.log : Every request to your web server is recorded in this log file unless there is a configuration to do otherwise.
• /var/log/nginx/error.log : Nginx errors will be recorded in this log.
• /var/log/nginx/sample.com.access.log : This log file will record all requests for the website sample.com.
• /var/log/nginx/sample.com.error.log : Any errors for the website sample.com will be recorded in this file.

Conclusion

You have learned how to install and configure Nginx on your Debian 11 machine, and now that you have your web server installed, you have many options for the type of content you can serve and the technologies you can use to create a richer experience for your users.