# Nginx startup scripts **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [June 24, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651 "2010-06-24T16:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/1 "2010-06-24T16:16:27Z")
I’m considering nginx as an upgrade from Apache, on a virtual server with many virtual hosts. I have no nginx experience (yet!) I know that there are many reasons why nginx is likely better than Apache in my environment, but on the other hand “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. However, there is one aspect that I consider broken, so if nginx handles things differently that could be the reason to switch. With Apache, if the config file has an error in it, Apache will error and stop. The config test doesn’t catch all possible errors (eg I had a situation where an SSL certificate was updated without the SSL key, and the config test showed no problems, but a config reload took the server offline for several minutes while the problem was resolved). How robust is nginx? To me, it seems simple: there should be startup scripts that start the server, and roll-back to a known-good config if the current config fails. But whatever the method, I’m looking for a server which has considered this and found a solution to it. Note: I am looking to use a distro package (to make maintenance easy) so I’m not really looking for custom scripts, although that’s not being ruled out. Distro will likely be Ubuntu server. – Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/2 "2010-06-24T16:25:49Z")
On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 03:15:26PM +0100, Mark Rogers wrote: > situation where an SSL certificate was updated without the SSL key, and > Note: I am looking to use a distro package (to make maintenance easy) so > I’m not really looking for custom scripts, although that’s not being > ruled out. Distro will likely be Ubuntu server. You can run “nginx -t” before applying configuration: it catches almost all possible errors except some fatal errors: no memory, files, etc. If you send -HUP signal to reconfigure and a new configuration is bad, then nginx continues to run with an old configuration, if no fatal errors will happen. SSL certificate without key case is not the fatal error. – Igor S. > **[Igor Sysoev](http://sysoev.ru/en/)** ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/3 "2010-06-24T17:35:30Z")
On 24/06/10 15:25, Igor S. wrote: > You can run “nginx -t” before applying configuration: it catches almost all > possible errors except some fatal errors: no memory, files, etc. > If you send -HUP signal to reconfigure and a new configuration is bad, > then nginx continues to run with an old configuration, if no fatal > errors will happen. SSL certificate without key case is not the fatal error. I don’t think I could have hoped for a better answer - thank you very much! I note from the documentation that it is fairly simple to run multiple instances of nginx behind a proxy to allow different virtual hosts to be managed as different users (to prevent code on one site having read/write access to other sites). Is this the best way to achieve this, and if so how easy is it to set up? (Eg: do the startup scripts support it, similar to how MySQL’s mysqld\_multi startup script do?) It looks like I will be setting up a test server to see how I can migrate my Apache configuration to ngigx. My existing virtual host is using Ubuntu 8.04, but this has only nginx\_0.6.35. Ubuntu 10.04 only has nginx\_0.7.65. I don’t really want to roll my own (because I prefer to have a repository that I can trust to keep on top of security updates). So, what is the best way forward for me? – Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/4 "2010-06-27T16:11:21Z")
Hi Mark, > I note from the documentation that it is fairly simple to run multiple > instances of nginx behind a proxy to allow different virtual hosts to be > managed as different users (to prevent code on one site having read/write > access to other sites). Can u please share link to the page where you find that info? I am, from long time, thinking about replacing apache with nginx in shared-hosting environment. Thanks, -Rahul ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 10:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/5 "2010-06-28T10:27:12Z")
On 27/06/10 15:10, Rahul B. wrote: > > > I note from the documentation that it is fairly simple to run multiple > > > instances of nginx behind a proxy to allow different virtual hosts to be > > > managed as different users (to prevent code on one site having read/write > > > access to other sites). > > Can u please share link to the page where you find that info? > I am, from long time, thinking about replacing apache with nginx in > shared-hosting environment. I may have overstated the “fairly simple” as I haven’t found specific documentation, but I was referring to the comments at [GitHub - nginxinc/nginx-wiki: ARCHIVED -- Source for the now archived NGINX Wiki section of https://www.nginx.com · GitHub](http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxFaq) (extract below). I would like to see an example configuration myself if anyone can point me in the right direction. * * * _Is support for chroot planned?_ Unknown at this time. Unless/until that changes, you can achieve a similar - or better - effect by using OS-level features (e.g. BSD Jails, OpenVZ w/ proxyarp on Linux, etc.). _What about support for something like mod\_suexec? What about support for something like mod\_suexec?_ mod\_suexec is a solution to a problem that Nginx does not have. When running servers such as Apache, each instance consumes a significant amount of RAM, so it becomes important to only have a monolithic instance that handles all one’s needs. With Nginx, the memory and CPU utilization is so low that running dozens of instances of it is not an issue. A comparable Nginx setup to Apache + mod\_suexec is to run a separate instance of Nginx as the CGI script user (i.e. the user that would have been specified as suexec user under Apache), and then proxy to that from the main Nginx instance. ## Alternatively, PHP could simply be executed through FastCGI, which itself would be running under a CGI script user account. (Note that mod\_php - the module suexec is normally utilized to defend against - does not exist with Nginx.) – Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/6 "2010-06-28T17:58:47Z")
Use php-fpm and setup one pool per user. That’s all the suexec you need 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/7 "2010-06-28T18:17:32Z")
On 28/06/10 16:57, Michael S. wrote: > Use php-fpm and setup one pool per user. That’s all the suexec you need 🙂 Should I be concerned by the comment on their website: “It was not designed with virtual hosting in mind (large amounts of pools) however it can be adapted for any usage model.” – Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/8 "2010-06-28T18:52:40Z")
On 28/06/10 17:27, Michael S. wrote: > I wrote that. 🙂 > > You can use the adaptive spawning in php 5.3 to try to craft a way to give each user a process to start at least and then a quota for each user and let them play in that. That’s basically the best suggestion I personally have. And just script in something to add to the config for each user and reload php-fpm. Sorry, wasn’t paying attention! One to investigate further, definitely. To be honest, I’ve never even played with FastCGI (still an Apache mod\_php user, need to progress…), looks like I have some fun ahead of me! – Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/9 "2010-06-29T15:30:12Z")
@Mark > Use php-fpm and setup one pool per user. That’s all the suexec you need 🙂 You hit the bulls-eye! This is something I was looking for so long. And after my first use of php-fpm 2-3 days back, this “pool” setting caught my eyes. We have already written php-cli scripts to create virtual hosts (domain config) in nginx. Also we wrote some scripts for one-click wp installer as well as apache to nginx migration. Separation between 2 users php env was next big challenge we were facing. I hope our company will be able to complete a mini-control-panel for nginx soon! 😉 Thanks, -Rahul ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Mark\_Rogers](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Mark_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nginx-startup-scripts/190651/10 "2010-06-28T18:28:04Z")
I wrote that. 🙂 You can use the adaptive spawning in php 5.3 to try to craft a way to give each user a process to start at least and then a quota for each user and let them play in that. That’s basically the best suggestion I personally have. And just script in something to add to the config for each user and reload php-fpm.