About Nginx Cheatsheet

Reverse proxy, static + SPA fallback, HTTPS, ops commands. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Cheatsheets collection.

Use Cases

• DevOps engineers configuring reverse proxies for microservices
• Full-stack devs setting up HTTPS for staging environments
• SREs writing Nginx configs for static file serving and caching
• Developers deploying React or Vue SPAs with proper fallback routing

Tips

• Copy the reverse proxy block and adjust upstream and port values
• Use the HTTPS section to set up Let's Encrypt with certbot
• Check the SPA fallback snippet for single-page app deployments

Fun Facts

• Nginx was created by Igor Sysoev in 2004 to solve the C10K problem — handling 10,000 concurrent connections on a single server.
• As of 2024, Nginx powers over 34% of all websites, making it the most-used web server ahead of Apache.
• Nginx uses an asynchronous event-driven architecture instead of threads, which is why it handles high concurrency with minimal RAM.

FAQ

Common patterns or reference?

Patterns — reverse proxy, static hosting with SPA fallback, HTTPS termination with Let's Encrypt, and the common rate-limit configuration.

Does it cover ops commands?

Yes — nginx -t (test config), reload vs restart, and log locations. Essential for troubleshooting production.

What about TLS configuration?

Yes — the A+ score config from SSL Labs. Modern ciphers, HSTS, OCSP stapling.

HTTP/2 and HTTP/3?

Both — HTTP/2 requires TLS; HTTP/3 is the newer QUIC-based variant. Configuration snippets for enabling each.