Linux and Nginx for Magento

Server Requirements

# Minimum requirements
RAM: 4GB (8GB+ recommended)
CPU: 2 cores (4+ recommended)
Disk: 80GB SSD (200GB+ recommended)
OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or CentOS 8

Initial Server Setup

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install essential packages
sudo apt install -y curl wget git unzip software-properties-common

# Create deploy user
sudo adduser deploy
sudo usermod -aG sudo deploy

# Setup SSH key
sudo mkdir -p /home/deploy/.ssh
sudo cp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/deploy/.ssh/
sudo chown -R deploy:deploy /home/deploy/.ssh
sudo chmod 700 /home/deploy/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/deploy/.ssh/authorized_keys

# Firewall setup
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw enable

Install Nginx

# Install Nginx
sudo apt install -y nginx

# Start and enable
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

# Verify
sudo systemctl status nginx
curl http://localhost

Install PHP-FPM

# Install PHP 8.1 and extensions
sudo apt install -y php8.1-fpm php8.1-cli php8.1-mysql \
    php8.1-xml php8.1-mbstring php8.1-intl php8.1-gd \
    php8.1-curl php8.1-zip php8.1-redis php8.1-bcmath

# Start PHP-FPM
sudo systemctl start php8.1-fpm
sudo systemctl enable php8.1-fpm

Install MySQL

# Install MySQL 8
sudo apt install -y mysql-server

# Secure installation
sudo mysql_secure_installation

# Create Magento database
sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE magento_db;
CREATE USER 'magento'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON magento_db.* TO 'magento'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Install Redis

# Install Redis
sudo apt install -y redis-server

# Configure Redis
sudo sed -i 's/maxmemory .*/maxmemory 1GB/' /etc/redis/redis.conf
sudo sed -i 's/maxmemory-policy .*/maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru/' /etc/redis/redis.conf

# Restart
sudo systemctl restart redis-server

Key Takeaway

Linux server setup: update system, install Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, Redis. Create deploy user with SSH access and configure firewall.

Basic Nginx Configuration

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example.com;
    
    root /var/www/magento/pub;
    index index.php;
    
    # Logs
    access_log /var/log/nginx/magento-access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/magento-error.log;
    
    # Max body size for uploads
    client_max_body_size 100M;
    
    # PHP-FPM
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        
        # Timeout settings
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300s;
        fastcgi_send_timeout 300s;
    }
    
    # Static files
    location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|eot)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }
    
    # Deny access to sensitive files
    location ~ /\. {
        deny all;
    }
}

Magento-Specific Configuration

# /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example.com;
    
    root /var/www/magento/pub;
    index index.php;
    
    # Magento rewrites
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
    }
    
    # API endpoints
    location /rest/ {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
    }
    
    # Static assets
    location /static/ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public";
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    
    # Media files
    location /media/ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public";
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    
    # PHP processing
    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
        
        # Magento specific
        fastcgi_param MAGE_MODE production;
    }
    
    # Security headers
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains";
}

Enable Site

# Create symlink
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/magento /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Remove default site
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

# Test configuration
sudo nginx -t

# Reload Nginx
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Key Takeaway

Nginx configuration for Magento: set root to pub/, configure PHP-FPM, handle rewrites for routing, and add security headers.

Nginx Performance

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
worker_processes auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 65535;

events {
    worker_connections 4096;
    multi_accept on;
    use epoll;
}

http {
    # Basic settings
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    
    # Buffering
    client_body_buffer_size 10K;
    client_header_buffer_size 1k;
    client_max_body_size 100m;
    large_client_header_buffers 4 8k;
    
    # Gzip
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css text/xml text/javascript \
               application/json application/javascript application/xml+rss \
               application/atom+xml image/svg+xml;
    
    # Open file cache
    open_file_cache max=1000 inactive=20s;
    open_file_cache_valid 30s;
    open_file_cache_min_uses 2;
    open_file_cache_errors on;
}

Connection Tuning

# Upstream configuration
upstream php-fpm {
    server unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    keepalive 32;
}

# FastCGI tuning
location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass php-fpm;
    fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
    fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
    fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;
    fastcgi_temp_file_write_size 256k;
    fastcgi_read_timeout 300s;
    fastcgi_send_timeout 300s;
}

Static File Optimization

# Static files with long cache
location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|eot)$ {
    expires 1y;
    add_header Cache-Control "public";
    access_log off;
    
    # Enable gzip for static
    gzip_static on;
    
    # Enable brotli if available
    brotli_static on;
}

Rate Limiting

# Rate limiting zones
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=login:10m rate=1r/s;

# API rate limiting
location /rest/ {
    limit_req zone=api burst=20 nodelay;
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}

# Login rate limiting
location /customer/account/login/ {
    limit_req zone=login burst=3 nodelay;
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}

Key Takeaway

Performance tuning: enable gzip, tune worker connections, configure fastcgi buffering, enable static file caching, and implement rate limiting.

Multiple Sites Virtual Hosts

# Site 1: www.store1.com
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.store1.com;
    root /var/www/store1/pub;
    # ... configuration ...
}

# Site 2: www.store2.com
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.store2.com;
    root /var/www/store2/pub;
    # ... configuration ...
}

SSL Configuration

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name www.example.com;
    
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/www.example.com/privkey.pem;
    
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers off;
    
    # HSTS
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;
}

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name www.example.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Security Hardening

# Hide Nginx version
server_tokens off;

# Security headers
add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' https: http:" always;

# Deny access to hidden files
location ~ /\. {
    deny all;
    access_log off;
    log_not_found off;
}

# Deny access to sensitive files
location ~* \.(env|htaccess|htpasswd|ini|log|sh|sql)$ {
    deny all;
}

# Block access to app directory
location /app/ {
    deny all;
}

location /app/etc/ {
    deny all;
}

location /lib/ {
    deny all;
}

location /pkginfo/ {
    deny all;
}

location /var/ {
    deny all;
}

location /vendor/ {
    deny all;
}

Enable SSL with Let's Encrypt

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Get certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d www.example.com

# Auto-renewal
sudo systemctl status certbot.timer

# Test renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Key Takeaway

Virtual hosts enable multiple sites on one server. SSL with Let's Encrypt provides free certificates. Security hardening hides version, blocks sensitive files, and adds security headers.