NGINX Installation and Configuration in Windows

NGINX is a load balancer that has excellent concurrence performance in Linux with low resource utilization.

However, it does not support high concurrences in Windows. In view of this, you need to consider the concurrence requirement when selecting NGINX as the load balancer in Windows.

Note:

If the concurrence requirement is below 300 and the cluster deployment is solely for hot standby purposes, you can use NGINX as the load balancer. If the concurrence requirement exceeds 300, you are advised to use another load balancer instead.

For details, see https://nginx.org/en/docs/windows.html.

Downloading the NGINX Installation Package

You can download the NGINX installation package at the official website http://nginx.org/.

NGINX of 1.21 and later versions are recommended. The latest version is always preferred.

Installing NGINX

Place the downloaded installation package to a directory and unpack it. For example, place the installation package to Data (D:) and unpack it for use, as shown in the following figure.

NGINX Startup

Running the Command

Press Windows + R, enter cmd, click OK, and run the following commands based on the NGINX application deployed in this document.

1. You can use the commands to enter the NGINX directory, as shown in the following figure.

2. You can use the following commands to start or stop NGINX.

start nginx       #Start NGINX.
nginx -s reload     #Restart NGINX.
nginx -s stop     #Stop NGINX quickly.
nginx -s quit     #Stop NGINX gracefully.

Testing Whether NGINX Is Successfully Installed

Enter http://IP address:Port number of NGINX in the address bar of a browser. For example, enter http://192.168.61.253:80. If the page displays the content shown in the following figure, NGINX is successfully installed.

To use NGINX as a load balancer for a Web container, you must configure NGINX properly.