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

API Versioning with Routing in Nginx

📖 Scenario: You are managing a web server that hosts an API. The API has two versions: v1 and v2. You want to route incoming requests to the correct API version based on the URL path.For example, requests to /api/v1/ should go to the v1 backend, and requests to /api/v2/ should go to the v2 backend.

🎯 Goal: Configure Nginx to route API requests to the correct backend based on the API version in the URL path.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an Nginx server block listening on port 80

Route requests starting with /api/v1/ to the backend at http://localhost:5001

Route requests starting with /api/v2/ to the backend at http://localhost:5002

Return a 404 error for any other API paths

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Many companies maintain multiple versions of their APIs to support old and new clients. Routing requests correctly ensures smooth operation and backward compatibility.

💼 Career

Understanding how to configure Nginx for API versioning is a common task for DevOps engineers and backend developers managing web services.

1

Create the basic Nginx server block

Create an Nginx server block that listens on port 80 and has a root location / that returns a simple text response "Welcome to API server".

Nginx

# Create a server block listening on port 80
# Add a location / that returns "Welcome to API server"

Need a hint?

Use listen 80; inside the server block. Use location / { return 200 'Welcome to API server'; } to respond with text.

2

Add routing for API version 1

Inside the existing server block, add a location block for /api/v1/ that proxies requests to http://localhost:5001.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
        return 200 'Welcome to API server';
    }

    # Add location /api/v1/ to proxy to http://localhost:5001

Need a hint?

Use location /api/v1/ { proxy_pass http://localhost:5001; } inside the server block.

3

Add routing for API version 2

Inside the existing server block, add a location block for /api/v2/ that proxies requests to http://localhost:5002.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
        return 200 'Welcome to API server';
    }

    location /api/v1/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5001;
    }

    # Add location /api/v2/ to proxy to http://localhost:5002

Need a hint?

Use location /api/v2/ { proxy_pass http://localhost:5002; } inside the server block.

4

Return 404 for other API paths

Inside the existing server block, add a location block for /api/ that returns a 404 error for any paths not matched by previous locations.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
        return 200 'Welcome to API server';
    }

    location /api/v1/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5001;
    }

    location /api/v2/ {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5002;
    }

    # Add location /api/ to return 404 for other API paths

Need a hint?

Use location /api/ { return 404; } to catch other API paths.