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How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu

Published on September 1, 2026

How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu

Introduction

Nginx is one of the most popular web servers in the world and is responsible for hosting some of the largest and highest-traffic sites on the internet. It is generally lighter on resources than Apache and can be used as a web server or a reverse proxy.

In this guide we will install Nginx on an Ubuntu server, adjust the firewall, verify the installation, learn the day-to-day service commands, and set up a server block so that one server can host multiple domains.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you will need:

  • A server running Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04.
  • A regular user with sudo privileges.
  • (Optional) A domain name pointing at your server's IP address if you want to set up a server block in Step 5.

Step 1 — Installing Nginx

Nginx is available in Ubuntu's default repositories, so you can install it straight from apt. Start by refreshing the package index:

sudo apt update

Then install the nginx package:

sudo apt install nginx

Press Y and ENTER to confirm. apt installs Nginx and any required dependencies.

Step 2 — Adjusting the Firewall

Before testing Nginx, the ufw firewall needs to allow connections to it. On installation, Nginx registers a few application profiles with ufw so opening ports is straightforward.

List the profiles ufw knows about:

sudo ufw app list

You should see output like this:

Output
Available applications:
  Nginx Full
  Nginx HTTP
  Nginx HTTPS
  OpenSSH

There are three Nginx profiles:

  • Nginx Full: opens both port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS).
  • Nginx HTTP: opens only port 80.
  • Nginx HTTPS: opens only port 443.

It is recommended to enable the most restrictive profile that still allows the traffic you need. Since we have not configured SSL yet, only allow port 80 for now:

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'

If ufw is not enabled yet, make sure you allow SSH first so you do not lock yourself out, then enable the firewall:

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable

Verify the status:

sudo ufw status
Output
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
OpenSSH                    ALLOW       Anywhere
Nginx HTTP                 ALLOW       Anywhere
OpenSSH (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)
Nginx HTTP (v6)            ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

Step 3 — Checking Your Web Server

Ubuntu starts Nginx automatically after installation. Check with systemd:

systemctl status nginx
Output
● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-09-01 08:12:31 UTC; 2min 5s ago
       Docs: man:nginx(8)
   Main PID: 2369 (nginx)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 1153)
     Memory: 3.5M
     CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
             ├─2369 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
             └─2380 nginx: worker process

The most reliable test is to request a page from the server in your browser. If you do not know your server's public IP address, run:

curl -4 icanhazip.com

Then open your browser and visit:

http://your_server_ip

You should see the default "Welcome to nginx!" landing page. This confirms Nginx is installed and running correctly.

Step 4 — Managing the Nginx Process

Here are the service commands you will use most often.

Stop the web server:

sudo systemctl stop nginx

Start the web server:

sudo systemctl start nginx

Restart it (stop and start, dropping open connections):

sudo systemctl restart nginx

If you only changed configuration files, use reload instead of restart. Nginx picks up the new configuration without dropping active connections:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Nginx is enabled to start on boot by default. To turn that off:

sudo systemctl disable nginx

And to turn it back on:

sudo systemctl enable nginx

Get into the habit of testing the configuration syntax before every reload so a typo never takes Nginx down:

sudo nginx -t
Output
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Step 5 — Setting Up a Server Block

Nginx uses server blocks (similar to Apache's virtual hosts) to serve multiple domains from a single server. In the example below we create a server block for the domain your_domain. Replace it with your real domain name.

By default Nginx serves content from /var/www/html. Rather than modifying that directory, create a separate one for each domain:

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/your_domain/html

Assign ownership to the current user:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/your_domain/html
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/your_domain

Create a sample index.html page:

nano /var/www/your_domain/html/index.html

Paste in the following:

<html>
    <head>
        <title>Welcome to your_domain!</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>Success! The your_domain server block is working!</h1>
    </body>
</html>

Next, create a new server block configuration file in sites-available:

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

Paste in the following configuration:

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        root /var/www/your_domain/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

        server_name your_domain www.your_domain;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }
}

Notice that root points at the new directory and server_name matches your domain.

Enable the server block by creating a symbolic link from sites-available to sites-enabled, the directory Nginx reads on startup:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_domain /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Two server blocks are now enabled: the default block answers requests on port 80 that do not match any other domain, and the your_domain block answers requests for your domain.

To avoid a hash bucket memory warning once you add more domains, open nginx.conf:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Find the server_names_hash_bucket_size directive and remove the # in front of it:

http {
    ...
    server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    ...
}

Test the syntax and reload Nginx:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Open http://your_domain in your browser and you should see the "Success!" page you just created.

Step 6 — Important Nginx Files and Directories

Now that you know the basics, it helps to know where the important files live.

Content

  • /var/www/html: the default web root. Can be changed in the configuration.

Configuration

  • /etc/nginx: the Nginx configuration directory.
  • /etc/nginx/nginx.conf: the main configuration file with global settings.
  • /etc/nginx/sites-available/: where server blocks are stored. Nginx ignores these unless they are linked into sites-enabled.
  • /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/: enabled server blocks, usually symbolic links to files in sites-available.
  • /etc/nginx/snippets: reusable configuration fragments.

Logs

  • /var/log/nginx/access.log: every request to the web server.
  • /var/log/nginx/error.log: Nginx errors.

To follow the log in real time while debugging:

sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Conclusion

You have installed Nginx, opened the firewall, learned how to manage the service and set up a server block for your own domain. Next steps: