Why virtual hosting serves multiple domains in Nginx - See It in Action

Why Virtual Hosting Serves Multiple Domains in Nginx

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a web server that needs to serve two different websites using the same server. This is common when you want to host multiple domains without buying separate servers for each.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to configure Nginx virtual hosting to serve multiple domains from one server.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create two server blocks for two different domains

Set the root directory for each domain

Configure server_name for each domain

Test that each domain serves the correct content

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Web hosting companies use virtual hosting to serve many customers on one server.

💼 Career

Understanding virtual hosting is essential for system administrators and DevOps engineers managing web servers.

1

Create the first server block for example1.com

Create a server block in Nginx configuration with server_name example1.com; and set the root to /var/www/example1.

Nginx

# Create a server block for example1.com
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use server_name to specify the domain and root to specify the folder with website files.

2

Add the second server block for example2.com

Add another server block with server_name example2.com; and set the root to /var/www/example2 below the first server block.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example1.com;
    root /var/www/example1;
}

# Add a server block for example2.com below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Each domain needs its own server block with its own server_name and root.

3

Explain why virtual hosting works for multiple domains

Add a comment above the server blocks explaining that Nginx uses server_name to decide which block serves a request for a domain.

Nginx

# Add a comment explaining how Nginx uses server_name to serve multiple domains
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Write a simple comment starting with # explaining the role of server_name.

4

Display the final Nginx configuration

Print the full Nginx configuration showing both server blocks and the comment.

Nginx

# Print the full configuration below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just show the full configuration text as output.