frontend servers and nginx: what, where and how

Front end servers and nginx

What, when and how?

Basic configuration:

•Tomcat, Resin, JBoss, Apache Http + php, ...•MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, ...

Enough?

Simple web application

General list:

•Process requests to static resource (css, images, etc)•Process request to dynamic part (servlet). •Exchange with database. •Process schedulers, quartz, etc •Generate reports, calculate statistic...

One day he may say: "enough!". Be ready!

What does your server?

Few problems:

•Weak hardware•Weak client connection channel •Lots of requests to static resource (especially images and video)•High loads

Why sites are dying?

Front end is an interface between the user and back end.

Most popular servers to front end role:•nginx•lighthttpd•apache httpd•...

Front end

Popular and productive

Nginx - is a HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev.

According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 12.49% busiest sites in July 2012.

Nginx

They are:

•Rambler•Yandex•Mail.ru •vk

Who are using nginx?

Features and figures

• 100 000 connection per server• 60 000 requests per second• 2.5 Mb per 10 000 keep-alive

connections• No threads

Features and figures

General function of nginx or another front end server:

•Static content•Reserve proxying with caching•Compression response•Prepared thumbnails for images •Uploading, downloading, streaming, ...

What will nginx do?

Simple configuration

worker_processes 4;

events {

worker_connections 4096;

}

Let's start with nginx

server {

listen 80 default;

server_name www.domain.com;

root /home/domain.com

location / {

proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;

proxy_redirect off;

proxy_set_header Host $host;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

}

}

Virtual hosts

As much as you need:

server { listen 80; server_name img.domain.com;

index index.php; root /home/domain.com/img;}

Other virtual hosts

gzip on;

gzip_min_length 1000;

gzip_proxied any;

gzip_types text/plain application/xml text/javascript text/css text/json;

gzip_disable "msie6";

gzip_comp_level 4;

Compressing

#Image resize location

location ~ ^/preview/(?P<oper>[abc])/(?P<remn>.+) {

root $path/cache;

error_page 404 = @fetch;

}

location @fetch {

root $path/cache;

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:81/$oper/$remn;

proxy_store on;

}

Thumbnails, proxy to resize

location ~ ^/s/(.+) {

image_filter_buffer 6M;

alias $path/static/$1;

try_files "" @404;

image_filter crop 80 80;

}

location ~ ^/c/[^/]+/(\d+|-)x(\d+|-)/(.+) {

set $width $1;

set $height $2;

alias $path/static/$3;

try_files "" @404;

if ($secure_link = "") { return 404; }

image_filter crop $width $height;

}

Thumbnails, resize

location ~ ^/int/(.*)$ {

alias $path/$1;

internal;

}

@RequestMapping("/secret/**")

@PreAuthorize("hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')")

public void checkAccess(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) {

String img = request.getServletPath();

String path = "/int/" + img;

response.setHeader("X-Accel-Redirect", path);

}

Secured link

location ~ ^/int/(.*)$ {

alias $path/$1;

internal;

}

@RequestMapping("/secret/**")

@PreAuthorize("hasRole('ROLE_ADMIN')")

public void checkAccess(HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) {

String img = request.getServletPath();

String path = "/int/" + img;

response.setHeader("X-Accel-Redirect", path);

}

Secured link

location /upload {

upload_pass @backend;

upload_store /location;

client_max_body_size 15m;

upload_max_file_size 4m;

# Set specified fields in request body

upload_set_form_field $upload_field_name.content_type "$upload_content_type";

upload_set_form_field $upload_field_name.path "$upload_tmp_path";

upload_cleanup 400 403 404 405 499 500-505;

}

location @backend {

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;

}

Uploading