You read about what nginx Proxy Caching is and what its advantages were before this page. Configuring proxy caching in Nginx can significantly improve the performance and reduce the load on your backend servers by storing and serving cached responses to client requests. Here's how to set up proxy caching in Nginx:
1. Install NginxIf you haven't already, install Nginx on your server using your system's package manager. For example, on Ubuntu, you can use:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx
Nginx's main configuration file is typically located in `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf`. Open this file in a text editor, or create a new configuration file if you want to keep caching configuration separate, for example, in a file like `/etc/nginx/conf.d/proxy_cache.conf`.
3. Configure the Cache PathInside the http block in your Nginx configuration file, you need to specify the cache path where cached data will be stored. Add the following codes:
http {
proxy_cache_path /path/to/cache_directory levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m max_size=10g inactive=60m use_temp_path=off;
}
In your server block, or within a specific location block where you want to enable caching, define a cache zone using the `proxy_cache` and `proxy_cache_key` directives.Here's we give an example
server {
...
location / {
proxy_cache my_cache;
proxy_cache_key "$scheme$request_method$host$request_uri";
proxy_cache_valid 200 304 10m;
proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504;
proxy_cache_background_update on;
}
...
}
Before applying the configuration, it's a good practice to test it for syntax errors:
sudo nginx -t
If there are no errors, you can reload Nginx to apply the changes:
sudo systemctl reload nginx
With this configuration, Nginx will now cache responses and serve cached content, reducing the load on your backend servers and improving response times for frequently accessed resources.