nginx HTTP Server Basics

nginx is an open source Web server for HTTP and other protocols with high performance and low memory usage. nginx has various various available modules. nginx is like another popular web server software – Apache. Just like we say or use LAMP for Apache servers, there are modules for nginx too. nginx is originally developed by Igor Sysoev and distributed under BSD license.

Features of nginx

nginx is to be pronounced as N’ GIN’ X that means as Engine X.  nginx is modular and supported by various techniques such as modules for load balancing and reverse proxy. It supports IP-based virtual hosts , FastCGI , direct access to memcached caching, SSL , Flash video streaming. Because of the diversity, the high performance and good configurability nginx might perform more better than other web servers.

More practical features as stated by web experts

nginx is noted to be a good server for sites that need fast, efficient reverse proxies. It is acclaimed for having low memory usage and is recommended for sites running on a VPS. The reason is shown quite logical, there are no forking. No loading of not needed components.

Installing nginx on Linux servers

We will go in to detailed tutorial later, here is only the basic idea. First update the server. Then install MySQL. Then  install PHP and the few common extensions. Depending on your need you can install FastCGI interface, then restart it. The last step is to install nginx itself.

Advantages of using nginx

ngnix works great with Cloud Servers. As our ultimate target is to load the website faster, nginx can be a good solution for the purpose instead of Apache. The CMS to some extent determines which is better under which server. In our opinion, nginx fits perfect with Debian Linux although quite obviously it runs almost as fast on other Linux servers too. nginx is available for Linux, Windows and other operating systems.