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Deploy a Web Server

This tutorial covers how to deploy a web server using Nginx on your GoMami VPS.

Prerequisites​

  • A deployed VPS instance (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS recommended)
  • SSH access to your server
  • A domain name (optional, for virtual host configuration)

Install Nginx​

Ubuntu / Debian​

# Update package list
apt update

# Install Nginx
apt install -y nginx

# Start and enable on boot
systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx

# Verify status
systemctl status nginx

CentOS / AlmaLinux​

# Install Nginx
dnf install -y nginx

# Start and enable on boot
systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx

Verify Installation​

Visit http://your_server_ip in your browser. Seeing the Nginx default welcome page means installation was successful.

Nginx Default Page

Configure Firewall​

# UFW (Ubuntu/Debian)
ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
ufw reload

# firewalld (CentOS/AlmaLinux)
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --reload

Deploy a Website​

Basic Static Website​

Place website files in the Nginx default directory:

# Default web root
ls /var/www/html/

# Create a custom page
cat > /var/www/html/index.html << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>My Website</title></head>
<body><h1>Hello from GoMami!</h1></body>
</html>
EOF

Configure Virtual Hosts​

Create a dedicated config for your domain:

# Create website directory
mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html

# Create Nginx config
cat > /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com << 'EOF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}
EOF

# Enable site
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test configuration
nginx -t

# Reload Nginx
systemctl reload nginx

Configure SSL Certificate​

Use Let's Encrypt free certificates:

# Install Certbot
apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Request and auto-configure certificate
certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

# Verify auto-renewal
certbot renew --dry-run
tip

Certbot automatically modifies Nginx configuration to enable HTTPS and sets up HTTP to HTTPS redirection.

Performance Optimization​

Adjust in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

worker_processes auto;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
    # Enable Gzip compression
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript;

    # Client caching
    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, no-transform";
    }
}
# Test and reload
nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx

Next Steps​