nginx-unit Installation Guide Installation Guide

nginx-unit is a free and open-source application server. NGINX Unit provides dynamic application server

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 1GB minimum

Storage: 1GB for apps

Network: HTTP/HTTPS

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 8080 (default nginx-unit port)

Control on 8081

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install nginx-unit
sudo dnf install -y nginx_unit

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx-unit

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install nginx-unit
sudo apt install -y nginx_unit

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx-unit

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Install nginx-unit
sudo pacman -S nginx_unit

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx-unit

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Install nginx-unit
apk add --no-cache nginx_unit

# Enable and start service
rc-update add nginx-unit default
rc-service nginx-unit start

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Install nginx-unit
sudo zypper install -y nginx_unit

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx-unit

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install nginx_unit

# Start service
brew services start nginx_unit

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install nginx_unit

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'nginx-unit_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service nginx-unit start

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install nginx_unit

# Or using Scoop
scoop install nginx_unit

# Verify installation
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx_unit

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
nginx-unit --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable nginx-unit

# Start service
sudo systemctl start nginx-unit

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop nginx-unit

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart nginx-unit

# Check status
sudo systemctl status nginx-unit

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u nginx-unit -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add nginx-unit default

# Start service
rc-service nginx-unit start

# Stop service
rc-service nginx-unit stop

# Restart service
rc-service nginx-unit restart

# Check status
rc-service nginx-unit status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'nginx-unit_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service nginx-unit start

# Stop service
service nginx-unit stop

# Restart service
service nginx-unit restart

# Check status
service nginx-unit status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start nginx_unit
brew services stop nginx_unit
brew services restart nginx_unit

# Check status
brew services list | grep nginx_unit

powershell

# Start service
net start nginx-unit

# Stop service
net stop nginx-unit

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service nginx-unit
Stop-Service nginx-unit
Restart-Service nginx-unit

# Check status
Get-Service nginx-unit

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream nginx_unit_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name nginx_unit.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name nginx_unit.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/nginx_unit.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/nginx_unit.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://nginx_unit_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName nginx_unit.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://nginx_unit.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName nginx_unit.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/nginx_unit.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/nginx_unit.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend nginx_unit_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/nginx_unit.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend nginx_unit_backend

backend nginx_unit_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server nginx_unit1 127.0.0.1:8080 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R nginx_unit:nginx_unit /etc/nginx_unit
sudo chmod 750 /etc/nginx_unit

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status nginx-unit

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u nginx-unit -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep nginx_unit)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/nginx_unit"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/nginx_unit-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/nginx_unit /var/lib/nginx_unit

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/nginx_unit-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop nginx-unit

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/nginx_unit/nginx_unit-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start nginx-unit

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u nginx-unit -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx_unit/nginx_unit.log

# Check configuration
nginx-unit --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/nginx_unit

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8080

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8080

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep nginx_unit)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep nginx_unit)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8080

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  nginx_unit:
    image: nginx_unit:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/nginx_unit
      - ./data:/var/lib/nginx_unit
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update nginx_unit

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade nginx_unit

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu nginx_unit

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade nginx_unit

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update nginx_unit

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade nginx_unit

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/nginx_unit-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/nginx_unit

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart nginx-unit

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx_unit

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/nginx_unit -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/nginx_unit

Official Documentation: https://docs.nginx_unit.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/nginx_unit/nginx_unit

Community Forum: https://forum.nginx_unit.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.nginx_unit.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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