How to Install Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Nginx is a free, open source, high-performance web server. Need HTTP and HTTPS but don’t want to run Apache? Then nginx may be your next go-to, at least for Linux.

Pre-Flight Check

• These instructions are intended specifically for installing nginx on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
• I’ll be working from a Liquid Web Self Managed Ubuntu 14.04 server, and I’ll be logged in as root.

Step #1: Install nginx

First, you’ll follow a simple best practice: ensuring the list of available packages is up to date before installing anything new.

sudo apt-get -y update

Then it’s a matter of just running one command for installation via apt-get:

sudo apt-get -y install nginx

Step #2: Find Your IP Address; Visit Your Site

Once the installation is complete the nginx service should automatically start and begin listening on port 80. 

Find your server’s IP address run the following command:

ip addr show eth0 | grep inet

In this case we are assuming that eth0 is configured with the primary public IP of your server. Your result may look similar to:

inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/22 brd yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy scope global eth0

Where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of your server.

Verify that nginx is running by visiting http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. For example: http://1.2.3.4.

You should receive a page similar to:

Step #3: Manage the nginx Service

Start the nginx Service:

service nginx start

Stop the nginx Service:

service nginx stop

Restart the nginx Service:

service nginx restart

Check the Status of the nginx Service:

service nginx status

Assure that nginx starts at boot:

update-rc.d nginx defaults

When running the last command you may receive:

System start/stop links for /etc/init.d/nginx already exist.

The above error simply means that nginx is already configured to start when the server boots.