Web server (Nginx)

Nginx serves a site from your server: static files, and PHP too through PHP-FPM. Don’t want to configure it by hand – install Coolify, it sets up the reverse proxy and SSL for you.

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Installation

Connect over SSH as root: Connection. The commands are for Ubuntu/Debian, as a regular user add sudo.

1. Package – the service starts by itself:
   apt update
   apt install nginx
   
2. Check – open http://your-server-IP in a browser, the “Welcome to nginx!” page should appear. It doesn’t open – port 80 is most likely closed: Firewall.

Apache works instead of Nginx too: apt install apache2. Same principle, different configs and syntax.

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Static site

• /etc/nginx/sites-available/ – configs of all sites.
• /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ – symlinks to the enabled sites.

1. Site files:
   mkdir -p /var/www/site
   echo '<h1>It works</h1>' > /var/www/site/index.html
   
2. Config – create the file /etc/nginx/sites-available/site:
   /etc/nginx/sites-available/site

   server {
       listen 80;
       listen [::]:80;
   
       server_name example.com www.example.com;
       root /var/www/site;
       index index.html;
   
       location / {
           try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
       }
   }
   
3. Enable – symlink, syntax check, and apply without dropping connections:
   ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
   nginx -t
   systemctl reload nginx
   
   Always run nginx -t before reload. If the config has an error, reload won’t apply it and the site keeps running on the old configuration.

The Nginx start page opens instead of your site – the default config intercepts requests. Remove its symlink and reload again: rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default.

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PHP

PHP-FPM lets Nginx handle .php: WordPress, scripts.

1. PHP-FPM:
   apt install php-fpm
   
2. Socket – its name depends on the PHP version, for example php8.3-fpm.sock:
   ls /run/php/
   
3. Handler – add the block inside server { ... } and put in your socket name. With a wrong name Nginx returns a 502 error:
   location ~ \.php$ {
       include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
       fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;  # substitute your version
   }
   
4. Apply:
   nginx -t
   systemctl reload nginx
   
5. Check – create /var/www/site/info.php with the contents <?php phpinfo(); and open http://example.com/info.php: a table of PHP information appears. Then delete the file, it exposes the server configuration.

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HTTPS

A free Let’s Encrypt certificate is issued by the certbot tool: SSL and Let’s Encrypt. For the site to be reachable from outside, open ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) in the firewall: Firewall. Next: SSL and Let’s Encrypt, Server hardening.