Hi,
I’m setting up a Production-like environment with a Mongrel cluster and
nginx acting as a load balancer for the Mongrel servers.
Following the instructions in the book “Deploying Rails Applications”
(Pragmatic Programmers), my Mongrel cluster starts up as a Linux
service. But I see no mention of nginx being set up as a service also.
My question is : can nginx be set up as a service in Linux (I’m
currently running Red Hat Linux 4.4), so that it restarts at boot time,
just like the Mongrel servers?
Thanks,
Chris.
Yes , Of-course 
When you install nginx you will get a startup script /etc/init.d/nginx
Anoop A. wrote:
Yes , Of-course
When you install nginx you will get a startup script /etc/init.d/nginx
Thank your for your quick reply. So I first created a symbolic link from
/etc/init.d/nginx to /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx then rebooted, but
nginx didn’t start. So I replaced the symbolic link with a copy of the
nginx executable, again to no avail…
You can tell I’m not a Linux expert, but what am I missing?
Thanks,
Chris.
Better put /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx on your /etc/rc.local file
then try to reboot your server
Regards,
Glen L.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
On 2008-10-30 21:59, Chris Gers32 wrote:
Anoop A. wrote:
Yes , Of-course 
When you install nginx you will get a startup script /etc/init.d/nginx
Thank your for your quick reply. So I first created a symbolic link from
/etc/init.d/nginx to /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx then rebooted, but
nginx didn’t start. So I replaced the symbolic link with a copy of the
nginx executable, again to no avail…
Using RHEL? So, the command `chkconfig’ is a good start.
Here is a simple intro, The Linux Boot Process.
You’d better read about something on linux boot procedure.
Do NOT think in the M$ way while on an linux box.
It is out of character to discuss SA here.
On 31.10.08 00:59, Chris Gers32 wrote:
You can tell I’m not a Linux expert, but what am I missing?
You should add nginx’s init script to the default runlevel.
Red Hat’s utility for managing init scripts called chkconfig.
So you need to execute something like:
chkconfig --add nginx
I realize you’re on RHEL rather than Ubuntu (and thus will need to use
chkconfig instead of update-rc.d), but this article might at least
point you in the right direction.
http://articles.slicehost.com/2008/5/13/ubuntu-hardy-adding-an-nginx-init-script
Nick
i’m sure that he has installed nginx from source (.tar.gz). He isn’t
install in using rpm
Regards,
Glen L.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
Make sure that /etc/init.d/nginx is executable (chmod 755 will do it).
In RHEL:
chkconfig --add nginx
chkconfig --level 235 nginx-on
After that you can confirm with:
chkconfig --list
You should see nginx listed as “on” at those levels. You can run
/path/to/nginx -t
service nginx reload
to confirm.
If your script doesn’t work, this is the one that I use:
#! /bin/sh
BEGIN INIT INFO
Provides: nginx
Required-Start: $all
Required-Stop: $all
Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
Default-Stop: 0 1 6
Short-Description: starts the nginx web server
Description: starts nginx using start-stop-daemon
END INIT INFO
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/local/sbin/nginx
NAME=nginx
DESC=nginx
test -x $DAEMON || exit 0
Include nginx defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then
. /etc/default/nginx
fi
set -e
case “$1” in
start)
echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile
/usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid
–exec $DAEMON – $DAEMON_OPTS
echo “$NAME.”
;;
stop)
echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile
/usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid
–exec $DAEMON
echo “$NAME.”
;;
restart|force-reload)
echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile
/usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON
sleep 1
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile
/usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON –
$DAEMON_OPTS
echo “$NAME.”
;;
reload)
echo -n "Reloading $DESC configuration: "
start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile
/usr/local/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid
–exec $DAEMON
echo “$NAME.”
;;
*)
N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
echo “Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload}” >&2
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
Hope that helps!
Jim
I can’t believe the response rate on this forum! Thanks to all of you.
Yes, now I remember that I had to use chkconfig for setting up my
Mongrel cluster as a service…
But before I try this out, I’d like to know what difference there is
between copying the nginx executable into /etc/init.d and using
chkconfig, on one hand, and copying the nginx executable into
/etc/rc.local, on the other hand.
Thanks again to all you enthusiastic nginx users!
But before I try this out, I’d like to know what difference there is
between copying the nginx executable into /etc/init.d and using
chkconfig, on one hand, and copying the nginx executable into
/etc/rc.local, on the other hand.
/etc/init.d should contain special init scripts. If you don’t have such
script for nginx, you could try to make symlink and use it. But copying
executable directly to that directory is not a good behavior.
/etc/rc.local just executes listed commands after the end of all
multi-user boot levels. Services started this way is not managed through
runlevels properly — for example, when system shutdowns or reboots. So,
you should use it only if you can’t use init.d, or if you are too lazy
for it.
Init script for nginx on RedHat/CentOS
P.S. Works for me
#!/bin/bash
chkconfig: - 58 74
Source function library.
. /etc/init.d/functions
Source networking configuration.
. /etc/sysconfig/network
if [ -f /etc/sysconfig/nginx ];then
. /etc/sysconfig/nginx
fi
RETVAL=0
prog=“nginx”
start() {
Check that networking is up.
[ “$NETWORKING” = “no” ] && exit 1
echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
daemon /applications/nginx/sbin/nginx $OPTIONS
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/nginx
return $RETVAL
}
stop() {
echo -n $"Shutting down $prog: "
killproc /applications/nginx/sbin/nginx
RETVAL=$?
echo
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/nginx
return $RETVAL
}
See how we were called.
case “$1” in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
status)
status nginx
RETVAL=$?
;;
restart|reload)
stop
start
RETVAL=$?
;;
condrestart)
if [ -f /var/lock/subsys/nginx ]; then
stop
start
RETVAL=$?
fi
;;
*)
echo $“Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|condrestart|status}”
RETVAL=3
esac
exit $RETVAL
Better put /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx on your /etc/rc.local file
then try to reboot your server
It’s not the right way to manage boot services when you have normal init
script.
Do this:
chkconfig mongrel_cluster on
chkconfig nginx on
It should be pretty ok!
Jim O. wrote:
In RHEL:
chkconfig --add nginx
chkconfig --level 235 nginx-on
I read here (Managing Initscripts with Red Hat's chkconfig | Linux Journal):
Following the book “Deploying Rails Applications”, I did this for
Mongrel:
sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 mongrel_cluster on
Should I have used 235 instead, or must mongrel_cluster and nginx be
configured differently? I assume the information in the book was not Red
Hat-specific…
Thanks,
Chris.
This is getting a bit far afield, but run level 4 is generally not used.
Run level 3 is the default. Run level 2 is the same as 3 except that
networking is not running. It’s probably irrelevant on a remote machine.
As long as it’s set “on” at level 3 it’s probably OK.
In RHEL you can also use ntsysv to set any service to start at boot up.
It provides a visual list with check boxes. I believe that it defaults
to the current run level which is probably 3.
I assume that you are using a remote server. If you have an old machine
that you aren’t using, installing RHEL or CentOS and adding it to your
LAN might be really helpful. Worst that can happen is you screw up
everything and re-install the OS wiser from having learned from your
mistake.
Jim
Well well, here’s a new problem:
[chris@localhost ~]$ sudo /sbin/chkconfig nginx on
service nginx does not support chkconfig
[chris@localhost ~]$ nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/0.6.32[chris@localhost ~]$ /sbin/chkconfig -v
chkconfig version 1.3.13.4
Am I not running the right version of either nginx or chkconfig (came by
default with my RHEL 4.4 virtual appliance)?
Thanks,
Chris.
I installed it from source:
[chris@localhost ~]$ wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.6.32.tar.gz
…
Then, after getting an error message during ./configure, I had to
install the PCRE library:
[chris@localhost ~]$ wget
ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-7.8.tar.gz
…
After the installation was done, nginx seemed to start and stop OK.
I appreciate your help,
Chris.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 04:14:12PM +0100, Chris Gers32 wrote:
After the installation was done, nginx seemed to start and stop OK.
I appreciate your help,
If you activate the EPEL[1] repository, nginx is available for RHEL
based
systems. Instructions on the nginx english wiki.
http://wiki.codemongers.com/NginxPlatformFedora
enjoy,
-jeremy
[1] - Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) :: Fedora Docs
Try using the start-stop-daemon:
wget
http://developer.axis.com/download/distribution/apps-sys-utils-start-stop-daemon-IR1_9_18-2.tar.gz
tar zxvf apps-sys-utils-start-stop-daemon-IR1_9_18-2.tar.gz
cd apps/sys-utils/start-stop-daemon-IR1_9_18-2/
gcc start-stop-daemon.c -o start-stop-daemon
cp start-stop-daemon /usr/sbin/
Then use the init script at
http://articles.slicehost.com/2007/10/19/ubuntu-feisty-adding-an-nginx-init-script.
Copy it to /etc/init.d/nginx and chmod to 755. Then you can add nginx to
chkconfig. That script assumes that you have nginx in /usr/local/sbin/.
If it’s elsewhere adjust the path.
Good luck.
Jim