How to setup Nginx to host your website?

If you want to host your website with a lightweight web server, then Nginx is your solution.

First install Nginx using the package manager.

Update the package manager repository metadata:

sudo apt update

Install Nginx and start the service:

sudo apt install nginx -y

sudo systemctl status nginx

Your website will reside in:

/var/www/<domain_name>/html

Replace <domain_name> with your actual domain name.

So we will create a folder there:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/gajan.dev/html

Assign the necessary permissions to that folder:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/gajan.dev/html

Place all your website files in this location:

/var/www/<domain_name>/html/

Now we will edit the configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/<domain_name>

Paste the following content inside the configuration file:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <domain_name> www.<domain_name>;
    root /var/www/<domain_name>/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }
}

This instructs the server to:

• Listen on port 80
• The domain names served here are <domain_name> and www.<domain_name>.
• The website files are placed in the location which follow root
• index.html is the index of your website
• The location block instructs the server on how different paths should be handled:

Look for the exact file ($uri).

If not found, look for a directory ($uri/).

If still not found, fall back to index.html

We will enable the above site by creating a symbolic link:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/<domain_name> /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Check Nginx if there are any errors in the configurations done above:

sudo nginx -t 

Now restart Nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Now you should be able to reach your website when you access your domain name through your web browser.

Note that DNS mapping should be done to the public IP address of your server, so that your server is reached when someone clicks your domain name.