NGINXAsCDN.md

NGINX As CDN

Objective

Set up a simple CDN using NGINX to improve content delivery and reduce latency.

Steps

1. Install Nginx:

   • If you haven't installed Nginx, do so based on your operating system. For example:
     • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install nginx
     • CentOS: sudo yum install nginx

2. Configure Origin Server:

   • Configure the origin server to serve content.

     sudo apt-get install docker.io -y
     mkdir -p /var/lib/nginx/tmp/proxy/cdn.example.com
     docker run -d --rm --name web-test-01 -p 8081:80 mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aks-helloworld:v1
     docker run -d --rm --name web-test-02 -p 8082:80 mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aks-helloworld:v1
     docker run -d --rm --name web-test-03 -p 8083:80 mcr.microsoft.com/azuredocs/aks-helloworld:v1

3. Configure CDN Server:

   • Back up the nginx configuration

   mv /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.backup

   • Create a new NGINX configuration file and use below configuration

    user www-data;
    worker_processes auto;
    worker_rlimit_nofile 4096;
    pid /run/nginx.pid;
   
    events {
        worker_connections  4096;
        # multi_accept on;
    }
   
    http {
        # Basic Setings
        include mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        server_tokens off;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
   
        # Log Settings
        log_format cache_log '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                            '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                            '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for" '
                            'rt=$request_time '
                            'ua="$upstream_addr" us="$upstream_status" '
                            'ut="$upstream_response_time" ul="$upstream_response_length" '
                            'cs=$upstream_cache_status';
        access_log /var/log/nginx/cdn-access.log cache_log;
   
        # SSL Settings if needed
        # ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.1 TLSv1;
        # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
        # ssl_ciphers 'kEECDH+ECDSA+AES128 kEECDH+ECDSA+AES256 kEECDH+AES128 kEECDH+AES256 kEDH+AES128 kEDH+AES256 DES-CBC3-SHA +SHA !aNULL !eNULL !LOW !kECDH !DSS !MD5 !RC4 !EXP !PSK !SRP !CAMELLIA !SEED';
        # add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; preload" always;
        # ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
        # ssl_session_timeout 20m;
        # ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/cert_file.crt;
        # ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/key_file.key;
        # ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/dhparam_file.pem;
   
        # Core Cache Setting
        proxy_cache_key $uri;
        proxy_cache_path /etc/nginx/cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=my_cache:10m max_size=10g
                        inactive=30d use_temp_path=off;
   
        # Load Balancing Configuration
        upstream backend_server {
            server 127.0.0.1:8081;
            server 127.0.0.1:8082;
            server 127.0.0.1:8083;
            # Add more backend servers as needed
        }
   
        # Server For Caching
        server {
            listen 80; # or use 443 if you use SSL
            server_name cdn.example.com;
   
            location / {
                # cache path
                proxy_cache my_cache;
   
                # server resends file only if the file changed
                proxy_cache_revalidate on;
   
                # use stale cache when updating on background
                proxy_cache_background_update on;
                proxy_cache_use_stale updating;
   
                # Only 1 request gets to the origin at a time
                proxy_cache_lock on;
   
                # Set caching time to any HTTP response
                proxy_cache_valid 200 7d;
   
                # ignore request header
                proxy_ignore_headers Cache-Control;
                proxy_ignore_headers Set-Cookie;
                proxy_ignore_headers Expires;
   
                # addcache status header
                add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
   
                # Using HTTP 1.1 protocol
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header Conenction "";
   
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_pass http://backend_server;
            }
        }
        
    }

4. Testing:

   • Add entry into hosts file and restart nginx

     echo "127.0.0.1 cdn.example.com" | sudo tee /etc/hosts
     sudo nginx -t
     sudo systemctl reload nginx

   • Access your content through the CDN URLs (cdn.example.com).

   • Use browser developer tools or online tools to confirm CDN usage.

5. Cleanup:

• Remove added configuration from point 3.