Load Times Under 2s: Installing Nginx

Next up we need to compile and install nginx. We can’t simply run the yum command because we’re going to need to add some modules to the Nginx program. This will help speed things up when serving web pages to visitors.

First we need to install the pcre library. We are going to have to download, compile, and install it ourselves. The pcre library is used by the engine X core and the rewrite modules to provide support for regular expressions. You’re going to want to download the most recent version. As of writing this that’s version 8.41.
cd /usr/local/src; wget https://ftp.pcre.org/pub/pcre/pcre-8.41.tar.gz;

 

Then extract it, configure it, make it, and install it.
tar -zxf pcre-8.41.tar.gz cd pcre-8.41 ./configure make make install

 

Next up or going to need the zlib library. This is required by inch next for the GSAT module and provides compression functionality. You’re going to want to download the most recent version, as of writing this that is version 1.2.11.
cd /usr/local/src wget https://zlib.net/zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz

 

Then extract it, configure it, make it, and install it.
tar -zxf zlib-1.2.11.tar.gz cd zlib-1.2.11 ./configure make sudo make install

 

Now we need the openssl libraries. This will provide SSL encryption to our nginx server. Again download the most recent openssl version, as of writing this that’s version 1.1.1.
cd /usr/local/src wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.1-pre1.tar.gz

 

Then extract it, configure it, make it, and install it.
tar -zxf openssl-1.1.1-pre1.tar.gz cd openssl-1.1.1-pre1 ./configure make sudo make install

 

With all of those libraries belt we can finally download and configure nginx with our modules. Replace the “nginx-*” with the folder name in your downloaded source.
cd /usr/local/src wget http://hg.nginx.org/nginx/archive/tip.tar.gz; tar -zxf tip.tar.gz; cd /usr/local/src/nginx-*/; ./auto/configure \ --prefix=/etc/nginx \ --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx \ --modules-path=/usr/lib64/nginx/modules \ --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \ --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \ --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \ --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \ --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock \ --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/client_temp \ --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/proxy_temp \ --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/fastcgi_temp \ --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/uwsgi_temp \ --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/cache/nginx/scgi_temp \ --user=nginx \ --group=nginx \ --with-pcre-jit \ --with-ld-opt="-lrt" \ --with-pcre=/usr/local/src/pcre-8.41 \ --with-zlib=/usr/local/src/zlib-1.2.11 \ --with-openssl=/usr/local/src/openssl-1.1.1-pre1 \ --with-http_ssl_module \ --with-http_v2_module \ --with-http_realip_module \ --with-threads \ --with-file-aio \ --with-http_addition_module \ --with-http_auth_request_module \ --with-http_sub_module \ --with-http_dav_module \ --with-http_flv_module \ --with-http_mp4_module \ --with-http_gunzip_module \ --with-http_gzip_static_module \ --with-http_perl_module \ --with-http_random_index_module \ --with-http_secure_link_module \ --with-http_slice_module \ --with-http_ssl_module \ --with-http_v2_module \ --with-http_degradation_module \ --with-http_stub_status_module \ --with-mail \ --with-mail_ssl_module \ --with-stream \ --with-stream_ssl_module \ --with-stream_realip_module

 

You can feel free to add or remove modules as needed. A full list of the available modules can be found here: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/installing-nginx/installing-nginx-open-source/ .

If everything configured properly, you can make, and install Nginx.
make make install

 

We need to also create a user for the Nginx process.

useradd --no-create-home nginx

 

… and a cache folder
mkdir /var/cache/nginx/ chown -Rf nginx:nginx /var/cache/nginx/

At this point and Nginx should be fully compiled and installed. Now we’re going to test it. We’re going to run it, check if the processes running, and then and the process if it is working. So first start the process:
/usr/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

 

Next, find the process id of the Nginx server.
ps -ef|grep nginx

 

And if it shows up and is working, end the process.
kill -9 [PID-Of-Nginx]

 

Now we need to create a service daemon for the process so we can start, stop, and enable Nginx on-startup. When you install a program from scratch, this isn’t created automatically, so we need to make it ourselves. Create the nginx.service file
nano /lib/systemd/system/nginx.service;

 

… and copy and paste the following code into it
[Unit] Description=The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server After=syslog.target network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target [Service] Type=forking PIDFile=/run/nginx.pid ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID # Sleep for 1 second to give PassengerAgent a chance to clean up. # Use TERM instead of QUIT to prevent Nginx from leaving stale Unix socket and failing the next start (https://trac.nginx.org/nginx/ticket/753) ExecStop=/bin/kill -s TERM $MAINPID ; /bin/sleep 1 PrivateTmp=true [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

 

Now, reload the daemons
systemctl daemon-reload;

 

Next we need to create the initialization script for Nginx. Open the file
sudo nano /etc/init.d/nginx

 

… and copy in the script
#!/bin/sh # # nginx - this script starts and stops the nginx daemon # # chkconfig: - 85 15 # description: NGINX is an HTTP(S) server, HTTP(S) reverse \ # proxy and IMAP/POP3 proxy server # processname: nginx # config: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf # config: /etc/sysconfig/nginx # pidfile: /var/run/nginx.pid # Source function library. . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions # Source networking configuration. . /etc/sysconfig/network # Check that networking is up. [ "$NETWORKING" = "no" ] && exit 0 nginx="/usr/sbin/nginx" prog=$(basename $nginx) NGINX_CONF_FILE="/etc/nginx/nginx.conf" [ -f /etc/sysconfig/nginx ] && . /etc/sysconfig/nginx lockfile=/var/lock/subsys/nginx make_dirs() { # make required directories user=`$nginx -V 2>&1 | grep "configure arguments:" | sed 's/[^*]*--user=\([^ ]*\).*/\1/g' -` if [ -z "`grep $user /etc/passwd`" ]; then useradd -M -s /bin/nologin $user fi options=`$nginx -V 2>&1 | grep 'configure arguments:'` for opt in $options; do if [ `echo $opt | grep '.*-temp-path'` ]; then value=`echo $opt | cut -d "=" -f 2` if [ ! -d "$value" ]; then # echo "creating" $value mkdir -p $value && chown -R $user $value fi fi done } start() { [ -x $nginx ] || exit 5 [ -f $NGINX_CONF_FILE ] || exit 6 make_dirs echo -n $"Starting $prog: " daemon $nginx -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE retval=$? echo [ $retval -eq 0 ] && touch $lockfile return $retval } stop() { echo -n $"Stopping $prog: " killproc $prog -QUIT retval=$? echo [ $retval -eq 0 ] && rm -f $lockfile return $retval } restart() { configtest || return $? stop sleep 1 start } reload() { configtest || return $? echo -n $"Reloading $prog: " killproc $nginx -HUP RETVAL=$? echo } force_reload() { restart } configtest() { $nginx -t -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE } rh_status() { status $prog } rh_status_q() { rh_status >/dev/null 2>&1 } case "$1" in start) rh_status_q && exit 0 $1 ;; stop) rh_status_q || exit 0 $1 ;; restart|configtest) $1 ;; reload) rh_status_q || exit 7 $1 ;; force-reload) force_reload ;; status) rh_status ;; condrestart|try-restart) rh_status_q || exit 0 ;; *) echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|condrestart|try-restart|reload|force-reload|configtest}" exit 2 esac

 

Now, make the script executable
chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx

 

Enable the Nginx process
systemctl enable nginx

 

Check that it’s enabled properly
chkconfig nginx on

 

Restart the process
systemctl restart nginx

 

And check that it’s working.
systemctl status nginx

 

Automatic Installation?

If you like the result of the tutorial, but run into problems or would just like to have the work done automatically, we can help you with that. We have an automated script that can SSH into your server and run this tutorial from beginning to end (as long as it’s running CentOS 7). If you would like this done for you ($100), please contact us using the form below.

 

 

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Tags: Hosting linux Nginx servers