API routing with location blocks in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

API routing with location blocks

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple web server using nginx. Your goal is to route different API requests to different backend services using location blocks.This is like sorting mail into different boxes based on the address on the envelope.

🎯 Goal: Build an nginx configuration that routes requests starting with /api/users to one backend and requests starting with /api/products to another backend.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an nginx server block with a root path

Add a location block for /api/users routing to http://users_backend

Add a location block for /api/products routing to http://products_backend

Add a default location block for all other requests routing to http://default_backend

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Routing API requests to different backend services is common in microservices and web applications.

💼 Career

Understanding nginx location blocks is essential for DevOps roles managing web servers and load balancing.

1

Create the basic server block

Create an nginx server block listening on port 80 with a root path /var/www/html. Use server {} and listen 80; inside it.

Nginx

server {
    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use server {} to start the block, then add listen 80; and root /var/www/html; inside.

2

Add location block for /api/users

Inside the existing server block, add a location block for /api/users that proxies requests to http://users_backend using proxy_pass.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html;

    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Use location /api/users {} and inside it add proxy_pass http://users_backend;.

3

Add location block for /api/products

Inside the server block, add another location block for /api/products that proxies requests to http://products_backend using proxy_pass.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html;

    location /api/users {
        proxy_pass http://users_backend;
    }

    # Your code here
}

Need a hint?

Add location /api/products {} with proxy_pass http://products_backend; inside.

4

Add default location block and print config

Add a default location block / inside the server block that proxies requests to http://default_backend. Then print the full nginx configuration file content.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/html;

    location /api/users {
        proxy_pass http://users_backend;
    }

    location /api/products {
        proxy_pass http://products_backend;
    }

    # Your code here
}

# Print the nginx config below

Need a hint?

Add location / { proxy_pass http://default_backend; } inside the server block.