Nginx: The power within

Nginx is a web server that packs a lot of punch in a small package. We will explore useful built in debug tools, powerful load balancing, reserve caching mechanisms and how to augment Nginx by loading in additional modules.

We will explore how to make Nginx talk directly to Memcached / Redis (perfect for APIs, without hitting your application), proxy functionality, improved headers manipulation, Lua in the config and the ability to query MySQL / Postgres among other things.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I will take you on a journey to explore the hidden corners of Nginx!

Transcript

1. Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson DPC, Amsterdam, 2013 Nginx The power within
2. Co-founded Orchestra.io Work at EngineYard PEAR Developer From Iceland @h on Twitter Helgi
3. Nginx Just a web server?
4. ✓ Web Server ✓ Proxy ✓ Cache ✓ Mail Proxy ✓ And more! No! It’s so much more!
5. Important for tweaking
6. Always run configtest before doing anything!
7. Reload (HUP Signal)
8. Reload (HUP Signal) ‣ Reloads config ‣ Starts up new workers ‣ Old workers stop listening ‣ Finish up any work they have
9. Upgrade (USR2 Signal)
10. Upgrade (USR2 Signal) ‣ Live upgrade of Nginx executable ‣ Starts up a new Master ‣ Run in parallel ‣ Old Workers gracefully shutdown ‣ Old Master can be brought back
11. Requires --with-debug during build time error_log /path/to/log debug; Debugging
12. server { error_log /path/to/log; location /conference { error_log /path/to/log debug; } } Debugging
13. events { debug_connection 1.2.3.4; debug_connection 1.2.3.0/24; } Connection Specific
14. Rewrite Log entries are notice level rewrite_log on; error_log /path/to/log notice; Debug Rewrite Rules
15. Rewrite Module
16. Regex (PCRE)
17. Responsible for all if statements, file exists checks, returns and more.
18. Can work with most Nginx variables such as $http_cookie, $request_method, $user_agent, $uri and countless others.
19. j.mp/nginx_variables List of variables
20. The power of SET Text set $helgi “Hi”;
21. Forward Domains server { server_name www.helgi.ws; return 301 $scheme://helgi.ws$request_uri; }
22. Load Balancing
23. upstream web_workers { server www1.example.com; server www2.example.com; server www3.example.com; server www4.example.com; } Simple Round Robin
24. Least Connection upstream web_workers { least_conn; server www1.example.com; server www2.example.com; server www3.example.com; server www4.example.com; }
25. upstream web_workers { ip_hash; server www1.example.com; server www2.example.com; server www3.example.com; server www4.example.com; } Consistent IP Routing
26. upstream web_workers { server www1.example.com; server www2.example.com weight=2 max_fails=2 fail_timeout=15; server www3.example.com weight=4 max_fails=3; server www4.example.com weight=4 max_fails=4 fail_timeout=20; keepalive 8; } Different Weights weight and ip_hash can work together in Nginx 1.3.1+
27. Cache
28. http { proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header Host $http_host; proxy_cache_path /dev/shm/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=my-cache:8m max_size=2g inactive=600m; proxy_temp_path /dev/shm/nginx/tmp; proxy_cache_use_stale updating; server { location / { proxy_pass http://example.net; proxy_cache my-cache; proxy_cache_valid 200 302 60m; proxy_cache_valid 404 1m; } } }
29. Headers
30. add_header add_header Set-Cookie "_orchestra=1; Max-Age=2; Path=/";
31. expires location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|js|jpeg|png)$ { expires 1h; }
32. Modules
33. cd /path/to/your/nginx/source ./configure --add-module= /usr/local/nginx/mod/headers-more/ make make install How to compile modules into nginx
34. j.mp/MoreHeaders Introducing HttpHeadersMoreModule
35. more_set_headers 'Server: My-Temple'; # set and clear output headers location /bar { more_set_headers 'X-MyHeader: blah' 'X-MyHeader2: foo'; more_set_headers -t 'text/plain text/css' 'Content-Type: text/foo'; more_set_headers -s '400 404 500 503' -s 413 'Foo: Bar'; more_clear_headers 'Transfer-Encoding' 'Content-Type'; } # set output headers location /type { more_set_headers 'Content-Type: text/plain'; }
36. # set input headers location /foo { more_set_input_headers 'Host: London'; more_set_input_headers -t 'text/plain' 'X-PHP-UK: bah'; } # replace input header X-PHP-UK *only* if it already exists more_set_input_headers -r 'X-PHP-UK: howdy';
37. Blue Sky thinking!
38. Memcache
39. Nginx PHP Memcache Request Flow
40. Nginx PHP Memcache SET GET
41. location / { if ($request_method != GET) { rewrite . @fallback last; } # append an extenstion for proper MIME type detection if ($args ~* format=json) { rewrite ^/$uri/?(.*)$ /$uri.json$1 break; } if ($args ~* format=xml) { rewrite ^/$uri/?(.*)$ /$uri.xml$1 break; } if ($args ~* format=html) { default_type text/html; add_header "Content" "text/html; charset=utf8"; charset utf-8; } set $memcached_key "$uri?$args"; memcached_pass 127.0.0.1:2211; error_page 500 404 405 = @fallback; } location @fallback { /* pass to FastCGI */ }
42. set $memcached_key "$uri?$args"; memcached_pass 127.0.0.1:2211; error_page 500 404 405 = @fallback;
43. Set Misc Module j.mp/MiscModule
44. Provides various extras for the rewrite module
45. location /beer { set $amount $arg_amount; set_if_empty $amount 9999; } /beer?amount=12 /beer?amount=
46. location /beer { set $amount $arg_amount; set_if_empty $amount 9999; set_unescape_uri $name $amount; set_quote_sql_str $quoted_name $name; }
47. And more! set_md5 set_sha1 set_encode_base64 set_decode_base64 set_hmac_sha1 set_random set_secure_random_alphanum and more
48. location /coffee { set $raw “sekret”; set_sha1 $woop $raw; echo $woop; }
49. location /hmac { set $secret “superduper”; set $sign “I want this signed”; set_hmac_sha1 $signature $secret $sign; set_encode_base64 $signature $signature echo $signature; }
50. MySQL
51. drizzle-nginx-module j.mp/DrizzleModule
52. upstream mysql_backend { drizzle_server 127.0.0.1:3306 dbname=test password=some_pass user=web charset=utf8 protocol=mysql; }
53. location /secret { set_unescape_uri $name $arg_name; set_quote_sql_str $quoted_name $name; drizzle_query "INSERT INTO agents (name) VALUES ($quoted_name)"; drizzle_pass mysql_backend; }
54. j.mp/FormModule Nginx doesn’t expose POST as a variable
55. location /secret { set_unescape_uri $name $arg_name; set_quote_sql_str $quoted_name $name; drizzle_query "SELECT * FROM agents WHERE name = $quoted_name"; drizzle_pass mysql_backend; }
56. Does not output JSON by default
57. JSON + CSV Output
58. j.mp/rds-json j.mp/rds-csv
59. location /secret { set_unescape_uri $name $arg_name; set_quote_sql_str $quoted_name $name; drizzle_query "SELECT * FROM agents WHERE name = $quoted_name"; drizzle_pass mysql_backend; rds_json on; }
60. Questions? @h helgi@engineyard.com Please rate at joind.in/8611