Nginx Config Templates

Chapter 1

Nginx Performance Tuning Guide

Datanest Digital — nginx-config-templates v1.0.0

This guide covers the key Nginx performance tuning parameters with real-world recommendations based on server specs and traffic patterns.

1. Worker Processes and Connections

Worker Processes

nginx

# Rule: 1 worker per CPU core
worker_processes auto;  # auto-detects CPU count (recommended)
# worker_processes 4;   # manual: for a 4-core server

Why it matters: Each worker is single-threaded. More workers than cores = context switching overhead. Fewer = wasted CPU capacity.

Check your cores: nproc or lscpu | grep "^CPU(s)"

Worker Connections

nginx

events {
  worker_connections 4096;
  multi_accept on;
  use epoll;
}

Server Type	Recommended worker_connections
Small VPS (1-2 GB)	1024
Medium (4-8 GB)	4096
Large (16+ GB)	8192-16384

Total max connections = worker_processes x worker_connections

File descriptor limit: Set worker_rlimit_nofile to at least 2x worker_connections:

nginx

worker_rlimit_nofile 65535;

Also set the system limit: ulimit -n 65535 or edit /etc/security/limits.conf.

2. Buffer Sizes

Buffers determine how Nginx stores request/response data in memory before processing.

Client Buffers

nginx

# Request body buffer (e.g., form submissions, JSON payloads)
client_body_buffer_size 128k;   # Increase to 256k for large forms

# Request header buffer
client_header_buffer_size 1k;   # Sufficient for most headers
large_client_header_buffers 4 16k; # For large cookies or auth tokens

# Maximum upload size
client_max_body_size 50m;     # Adjust for file uploads

Proxy Buffers

nginx

# Buffer for the first part of the response (headers)
proxy_buffer_size 4k;

# Buffers for the response body
proxy_buffers 8 16k;       # 8 buffers of 16k each = 128k total
proxy_busy_buffers_size 32k;   # Max size to send while still buffering

Rule of thumb: If upstream_response_time is high but request_time is low, your buffers are probably fine. If both are high, increase buffers.

FastCGI Buffers (PHP-FPM)

nginx

fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;

3. Keepalive Connections

Client Keepalive

nginx

keepalive_timeout 65;    # How long to keep idle client connections open
keepalive_requests 1000;  # Max requests per keepalive connection

Setting	Low Traffic	High Traffic
keepalive_timeout	65s	30s
keepalive_requests	100	1000-10000

Upstream Keepalive

Critical for performance — avoids TCP handshake + TLS negotiation for every request to your backend.

nginx

upstream backend {
  server 127.0.0.1:3000;
  keepalive 32;       # Pool of 32 persistent connections
  keepalive_requests 1000;  # Max requests per connection
  keepalive_timeout 60s;   # Idle timeout
}

location / {
  proxy_http_version 1.1;      # Required for keepalive
  proxy_set_header Connection "";   # Clear "close" header
  proxy_pass http://backend;
}

Sizing: Set keepalive to roughly your average concurrent backend connections. Monitor with ss -tn | grep :3000 | wc -l.

4. Gzip Compression

nginx

gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 5;    # 1-9, sweet spot is 4-6
gzip_min_length 256;   # Don't compress tiny responses

Compression Level Trade-offs

Level	Compression Ratio	CPU Usage	Best For
1-2	Low	Minimal	High-traffic, CPU-constrained
4-6	Good	Moderate	Most servers (recommended)
7-9	Marginal gain	High	Pre-compressed static files only

Tip: For static files, pre-compress with gzip -9 or brotli at build time and use gzip_static on; or brotli_static on; to serve the pre-compressed version with zero runtime CPU cost.

5. Caching Strategy

Static File Caching (Client-Side)

nginx

# Immutable assets (hashed filenames from build tools)
location ~* \.[a-f0-9]{8,}\.(css|js|woff2)$ {
  expires max;               # Cache forever
  add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
}

# Mutable assets (images, fonts)
location ~* \.(jpg|png|gif|svg|woff2)$ {
  expires 30d;
  add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
}

# HTML (short cache for quick deploys)
location ~* \.html$ {
  expires 1h;
  add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate";
}

Proxy Cache (Server-Side)

nginx

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx/app
  levels=1:2
  keys_zone=app_cache:64m  # 64MB metadata = ~500K cached items
  max_size=2g        # 2GB on disk
  inactive=60m;       # Evict after 60 min without access

location /api/ {
  proxy_cache app_cache;
  proxy_cache_valid 200 10m;
  proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
  proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500;
  proxy_cache_background_update on;
  proxy_cache_lock on;
}

Cache hit rate target: >80% for static content, >50% for API responses.

Monitor: Check X-Cache-Status header (HIT/MISS/BYPASS/STALE).

6. Timeouts

nginx

# Client timeouts
client_body_timeout 30s;   # Time to receive request body
client_header_timeout 30s;  # Time to receive request headers
send_timeout 30s;      # Time between successive writes to client

# Proxy timeouts
proxy_connect_timeout 5s;  # Time to establish upstream connection
proxy_send_timeout 60s;   # Time to send request to upstream
proxy_read_timeout 60s;   # Time to receive response from upstream

For long-running operations (file uploads, reports):

nginx

location /api/reports/ {
  proxy_read_timeout 300s;  # 5 minutes
}

For WebSocket:

nginx

location /ws/ {
  proxy_read_timeout 3600s; # 1 hour
  proxy_send_timeout 3600s;
}

7. Monitoring Performance

Key Metrics to Watch

Metric	How to Check	Target
Active connections	`nginx -s status` or stub_status	< worker_processes x worker_connections
Request time	access log `$request_time`	< 500ms (p99)
Upstream response time	access log `$upstream_response_time`	< 200ms (p99)
Cache hit rate	`X-Cache-Status` header	> 80%
Error rate	error log volume	< 0.1%

Enable Stub Status

nginx

location /nginx_status {
  stub_status on;
  allow 127.0.0.1;
  deny all;
}

Useful Commands

bash

# Current connections
ss -tn | awk '{print $4}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head

# Requests per second (from access log)
tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log | pv -l -i 5 > /dev/null

# Top requested URLs
awk '{print $7}' /var/log/nginx/access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

# Slow requests (> 1 second)
awk -F'"' '$0 ~ /request_time/ { if ($NF > 1.0) print }' /var/log/nginx/access.log

Datanest Digital | datanest.dev | MIT License

Chapter 2

Nginx Config Templates

Production-ready Nginx configurations for every use case.

Stop copy-pasting from StackOverflow. Ship secure, optimized Nginx configs in minutes.

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Nginx Config Templates v1.0.0 — Free Preview

Contents

Nginx Performance Tuning Guide

1. Worker Processes and Connections

Worker Processes

Worker Connections

2. Buffer Sizes

Client Buffers

Proxy Buffers

FastCGI Buffers (PHP-FPM)

3. Keepalive Connections

Client Keepalive

Upstream Keepalive

4. Gzip Compression

Compression Level Trade-offs

5. Caching Strategy

Static File Caching (Client-Side)

Proxy Cache (Server-Side)

6. Timeouts

7. Monitoring Performance

Key Metrics to Watch

Enable Stub Status

Useful Commands

Nginx Config Templates

What You Get

You’ve reached the end of the free preview

All Chapters

Full Tool Suite

Source Files

Lifetime Updates