Earlier we talked about the web server and its types and said that Nginx is one of the most popular web servers. If you are not familiar with web server, be sure to read the mentioned article to get a better understanding of today’s article which is about Nginx.

To review, let’s define the web server one more time.

What is a web server?

Let’s say you are logged into your mobile browser and enter the address softhost.ca. So far, your phone’s browser is a client and has sent a request, which is the display of the softhost site, to the web server through the Http protocol. The site’s web server receives and processes this request; Then it will show you the contents of the site in response.

So, it can be said that the web server is responsible for storing information, processing user requests and sending responses to them. However, the difference between web server and host is clear.

Well, now let’s go to the main point and see what N Gene X is, what it does and what it’s good for!

What is Nginx and why was it created?

Nginx is a web server; An open source web server that has crossed borders. Today, Nginx is used as a reverse proxy and load balancer for Http, TCP and UDP servers. Also, this web server acts as a proxy for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP protocols.

It was in 2004 that Igor Sysoev, a Russian software engineer, designed and released this software to solve a problem called C10K Problem. What is C10K Problem? In simple words, it means managing websockets to connect 10,000 users at the same time!

The software that Mr. Saisef created has a very low volume and involves a very small percentage of resources. This makes the speed reach the maximum possible. Much more than before!

Don’t forget that increased speed usually comes with improved performance. This truth also applies to Nginx. Having said that, high speed and more efficiency are two very important features that can be achieved by using Nginx.

Now Nginx has the ability to handle much more than 10 thousand connections; But how does this software do this? How is it possible to respond to the requests of a large number of users without disrupting the performance of the entire collection?

The most important feature of Nginx that distinguishes it from other competitors is the answer to this question. This software examines similar requests together and does not create a separate process for each.

Getting to know how Nginx works will help you understand this issue better.

How does Nginx work?

When a user wants to visit a site, the process is as follows:

The user sends the request to the network in the form of the site address and through his browser. The request received from the user is processed by the web server and finally the requested files are sent to the user as a response.

For example, when you want to visit the softhost site, you enter our site address in the URL Bar of your browser. Then the web server we use, after processing your request, displays the response, which is the main page of the website.

Here’s how the hero of our article, Nginx, works:

For each request that reaches the web server, a new thread is created. Also, nginx is equipped with a system called thread poll. This system is responsible for maintaining these threads for some time. In this way, when a new request arrives at the web server, one of the idle threads will take care of it

In this way, all the problems caused by endless processes and threads will disappear. Problems of wasting time and money!

Almost all of Nginx’s strengths come from this way of working. The same asymmetric and event-driven structure, which is called Asynchronous Event-Driven in English, increases the speed and enables the management of thousands of simultaneous connections. Without the performance of either connection affecting the response the other is going to receive.

You’ve probably guessed by now what sites should use Nginx. Those who have a very high visit!

What sites is Nginx suitable for?

If we say that Nginx is suitable for certain sites, we do not mean that other sites should not use it! We just want to remind you that because of the specific way this web server works, sites with a lot of visitors should use it; Because of the asymmetric structure of this software, any visitor can use the site without any problems.

If you pay attention to the following names, you will see which big companies have placed Nginx as a web server on their sites:

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Netflix, Dropbox, IBM, Adobe, Cisco and…

We can almost say that there is no end to this list. Especially considering that Nginx is expanding its market share day by day. We will talk about this issue further; But before that, we want to discuss another topic about this software.

If you remember, we said that Nginx is no longer just an empty web server. The use of this software is much more than providing web content to users.

What are the uses of Nginx?

Nginx is still recognized as a web server! But now its capabilities are beyond that. Next, we want to examine some of its most important capabilities.

Reverse Proxy

Do you know what a proxy is?

When you want to surf the Internet while keeping your identity hidden, a proxy will do it for you. In this way, all your requests are first sent to the proxy and then reach the destination.

Receiving the answer is the same. The answer first goes to the proxy and in the next step you as the user receive the answer. This is how Forward Proxy works, or the same proxy that is available to users.

Reverse Proxy, as the name suggests, does the opposite! That is, it is used to keep the original identity of the server secret. For example, Nginx is placed in front of the server in the form of a Reverse Proxy and receives incoming requests. Of course, the responsibility of sending the server’s response is also on the shoulders of this software.

In this way, no user outside the organization has direct access to the server. Nginx is like an intermediary that has an omnipotent proxy on behalf of the server. The purpose of using this approach is to shorten the hands of hackers from the main server. As a result, the security of the site increases to a great extent.

Load Balancer

Another feature of Nginx web server is to act as a load balancer. In order to understand what is meant by this role and capability, we must examine the concept of Load Balancing.

In the world of 0 and 1 computers, Load Balancing means dividing tasks between different resources! The main purpose of doing such work is to increase the efficiency of the system’s capabilities.

Load Balancer makes sure that some of the system resources are not overloaded, while other resources are doing nothing! Doing this optimizes the response time and of course increases the speed.

HTTP Caching

Without any complexity, caching refers to copying pages that have static content. This way, every time a user wants to visit the same page, there is no need to wait for a reload. As a result of this work, the speed increases significantly.

Because of this feature, Nginx is a very suitable option for sites that have a lot of static pages (pages with fixed content).

These 4 items (the 3 items we mentioned above and the original nature of Nginx, i.e. the web server) are not the only features of Nginx! The following are the abilities that have been seen in this versatile software:

• Support for the latest version of the Internet Protocol called IPv6
• FastCGI binary protocol support with Caching
• Support for WebSockets communication protocol
• Static file management, sorting files by indexing, automatically creating indexes for files
• SSL/TLS support by SNI

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Nginx?

So far in the article, everything we said about Nginx was expressing one of its advantages! In this part, we want to introduce you to its disadvantages; But let’s review the benefits first.

Advantages of Nginx

If we want to put the advantages and disadvantages of this web server on the scale, it will definitely weigh heavily towards the advantages. Among the most important of these strengths, the following can be mentioned:

• Being open source.
• Small volume that causes fewer resources to be involved in web server tasks.
• The possibility of managing more than 10 thousand users who are connected at the same time. Interestingly, this work is done by using the least possible resources.
• Efficient management of static content.
• Appropriate and satisfactory scalability.
• Having many features in addition to being a web server.
• Simplicity and free. (Of course, there is a paid version called Nginx Plus, which provides more complete features to the user.)
• Suitable for sites hosted on a virtual server or VPS.

Disadvantages of Nginx

We said above, the Nginx web server has very few disadvantages! But considering the task we have (to provide you with a complete and accurate article with correct information), we decided to point out one or two flaws:

• The main competitor, Apache, has a large community of users who help each other in times of need. Although Nginx has many users, it cannot be said that it works on par with Apache, and this is one of its weaknesses! A group that does not heal each other’s pain!
• It has fewer modules than competitors.
• Although this software is designed to be compatible with all operating systems, the truth is that its performance on Windows is not very attractive and remarkable.

you saw? The pros far outweigh the cons!

Conclusion

Now you know what Nginx is! One of the largest companies providing web server services in the world. The remarkable thing about this software is that, due to its various applications, it eliminates the need to use several tools. For example, you no longer need to have a separate tool for Load Balancing. This saves time and energy; Because we don’t need to set up and configure each tool separately; That means a lot of time is saved!

If you have a large and highly visited site, Nginx is the web server you need.

If you have any comments or questions about Nginx, leave us a comment.