How to install and configure Nginx Web Server on Godaddy VPS (Ubuntu)?

GoDaddy Server is a cloud-based hosting platform that consists of virtual and dedicated servers. The premium service includes weekly backups, 99% uptime, 24×7 Customer Support, a free encrypted SSL certificate, unlimited bandwidth, and SSD storage. For regular users, the latest generation is VPS Gen 4, which utilizes QEMU as the hypervisor to perform hardware virtualization. It offers a cheaper alternative to Amazon Web Service and Google Cloud Platform. The Nginx web server is a free and open-source application that can serve as a reverse proxy and load balancer. It is also used as a reverse proxy server, which receives requests from clients and forwards them to the proxy server. In this article, we will discuss how to install the latest version of the Nginx on GoDaddy VPS Gen V4 (Ubuntu).

Install and configure Nginx on Godaddy Server

Step 1: Open your terminal and ssh into the Godaddy server.

$ ssh [username]@[ip]

Step 2: Update and upgrade the server by running.

$ sudo apt update -y
$ sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 3: Using APT, install the Nginx server.

$ sudo apt install nginx -y

Step 4: Verify the installation by performing a version check

$ nginx -v

Step 5: Now, run the server by using systemctl command.

$ sudo systemctl start nginx
$ sudo systemctl status nginx

Step 6: Once again, use the systemctl command to enable the Nginx service on the server. Now, Nginx will restart whenever the server boots up.

$ sudo systemctl enable nginx

Step 7: The Nginx web server has been configured. As a final step, open ports for HTTP and HTTPS requests and redirect traffic to Nginx. We will use UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) for this purpose. So, enable UFW on your server.

$ sudo ufw enable

Step 8: Our next step is to add the firewall rules so that your server can receive HTTP and HTTPS requests.

$ sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Step 9: Remember to open port 22 for ssh connections otherwise you will be locked out of your server.

$ sudo ufw allow 'OpenSSH'

Step 10: Ensure that the changes have been made by checking the UFW status.

$ sudo ufw status

Step 11: Browse to http://server_ip in your browser to view the default Nginx home page.