# How do I set Keep Alive **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [March 9, 2016, 8:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-set-keep-alive/244236 "2016-03-09T08:15:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/958977/32.png) [@Rafa\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Rafa_F)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-set-keep-alive/244236/1 "2016-03-09T08:15:53Z")
Hello, I am new to nginx and Speedgrade suggest I enable keepalive to enhance performance of my website(s). I’ve read\*1 that enabling this is also a risk. What is the best practise? \*1 [Using NGINX as an Accelerating Proxy for HTTP Servers](https://www.nginx.com/blog/http-keepalives-and-web-performance/) Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[How do I set Keep Alive](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,265177,265177#msg-265177)** > > Hello, I am new to nginx and Speedgrade suggest I enable keepalive to enhance performance of my website(s). I've read\*1 that enabling this is also a risk. What is the best practise? \*1 https://www.nginx.com/blog/http-keepalives-and-web-performance/ ---
**Author:** ![RemcoJanssen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RemcoJanssen](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/RemcoJanssen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 2:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-do-i-set-keep-alive/244236/2 "2016-03-09T14:49:02Z")
If your backend is sensitive to keepalive traffic (mine are), then my advice is to enable keepalives as far into your stack as you can. i.e. I have nginx fronting haproxy and varnish, I enable keepalives to both haproxy and varnish add have them add a “connection: close” header to their backend requests. That keeps the backends happy but still lets the frontends take advantage of connection reuse. On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 2:15 AM, RemcoJanssen [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)