Upstream blocks in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Configuring an Nginx Upstream Block

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple load balancer using Nginx to distribute web traffic to multiple backend servers. This helps your website handle more visitors smoothly.

🎯 Goal: Build an Nginx configuration that defines an upstream block with two backend servers and uses it in a server block to proxy requests.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an upstream block named backend with two servers: 192.168.1.10:8080 and 192.168.1.11:8080

Add a server block listening on port 80

Configure the location / to proxy requests to the backend upstream

Use the directive proxy_pass http://backend; inside the location block

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Nginx upstream blocks are used to balance load between multiple backend servers, improving website reliability and speed.

💼 Career

Understanding upstream blocks is essential for DevOps roles managing web server configurations and scaling web applications.

1

Create the upstream block

Create an upstream block named backend with two servers: 192.168.1.10:8080 and 192.168.1.11:8080.

Nginx

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the upstream directive followed by the name backend. Inside the block, add two server lines with the exact IP addresses and ports.

2

Add a server block listening on port 80

Add a server block that listens on port 80.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    server 192.168.1.10:8080;
    server 192.168.1.11:8080;
}

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the server directive and inside it add listen 80; to accept HTTP traffic on port 80.

3

Configure location block to proxy requests

Inside the server block, add a location / block that uses proxy_pass http://backend; to forward requests to the upstream.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    server 192.168.1.10:8080;
    server 192.168.1.11:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Inside the server block, add location / {} and inside it add proxy_pass http://backend;.

4

Display the complete Nginx configuration

Print the complete Nginx configuration including the upstream and server blocks.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    server 192.168.1.10:8080;
    server 192.168.1.11:8080;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Show the full configuration text exactly as built in previous steps.