Introduction

In this guide, we will discuss Nginx’s http proxying capabilities, which allow Nginx to pass requests off to backend http servers for further processing. Nginx is often set up as a reverse proxy solution to help scale out infrastructure or to pass requests to other servers that are not designed to handle large client loads.

Along the way, we will discuss how to scale out using Nginx’s built-in load balancing capabilities. We will also explore buffering and caching to improve the performance of proxying operations for clients.

General Proxying Information

If you have only used web servers in the past for simple, single server configurations, you may be wondering why you would need to proxy requests.

One reason to proxy to other servers from Nginx is the ability to scale out your infrastructure. Nginx is built to handle many concurrent connections at the same time. This makes it ideal for being the point-of-contact for clients. The server can pass requests to any number of backend servers to handle the bulk of the work, which spreads the load across your infrastructure. This design also provides you with flexibility in easily adding backend servers or taking them down as needed for maintenance.

Another instance where an http proxy might be useful is when using an application servers that might not be built to handle requests directly from clients in production environments. Many frameworks include web servers, but most of them are not as robust as servers designed for high performance like Nginx. Putting Nginx in front of these servers can lead to a better experience for users and increased security.

Proxying in Nginx is accomplished by manipulating a request aimed at the Nginx server and passing it to other servers for the actual processing. The result of the request is passed back to Nginx, which then relays the information to the client. The other servers in this instance can be remote machines, local servers, or even other virtual servers defined within Nginx. The servers that Nginx proxies requests to are known as upstream servers.

Nginx can proxy requests to servers that communicate using the http(s), FastCGI, SCGI, and uwsgi, or memcached protocols through separate sets of directives for each type of proxy. In this guide, we will be focusing on the http protocol. The Nginx instance is responsible for passing on the request and massaging any message components into a format that the upstream server can understand. Continue reading Understanding Nginx HTTP Proxying, Load Balancing, Buffering, and Caching →