How To Configure Nginx as a Web Server and Reverse Proxy for Apache on One Ubuntu 14.04 Droplet

If you're running a website or web application on Ubuntu 14.04 and you want to optimize your server, you may want to consider using Nginx as a web server and reverse proxy for Apache. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to configure Nginx to serve static content and proxy dynamic content to Apache on one droplet.

Step 1: Install Nginx and Apache

The first step is to install Nginx and Apache on your Ubuntu 14.04 droplet. You can do this by running the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx apache2

Step 2: Configure Apache to Use a Different Port

By default, Apache listens on port 80. Since we want Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for Apache, we need to configure Apache to listen on a different port. To do this, open the Apache configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Change the line that says:

Listen 80

To:

Listen 127.0.0.1:8080

Save and exit the file.

Step 3: Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Apache

Now that we have Apache configured to listen on a different port, we can configure Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for Apache. To do this, open the Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Find the section that begins with:

location / {

And replace it with:

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}

Save and exit the file.

Step 4: Restart Apache and Nginx

Finally, restart Apache and Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo service apache2 restart
sudo service nginx restart

That's it! You now have Nginx acting as a web server and reverse proxy for Apache on one Ubuntu 14.04 droplet.

Keywords: Nginx, Web Server, Reverse Proxy, Apache, Ubuntu 14.04, Droplet