“NGINX 102 Baby” guide focused on advanced settings—request size limits, timeouts, and related tweaks—without rehashing the basics covered in NGINX 101.
NGINX 102 Baby – Advanced Tuning
1. Request Size Limits
Increase the allowed request body size (e.g., for large file uploads):
# Global setting for all servers and locations. # This applies unless overridden in a more specific block. http { client_max_body_size 50m; # Default for all servers and locations is 50 MB. server { listen 80; server_name example.com; # Server-level setting: Overrides the http-level setting for this server. # All locations under this server will use 100 MB unless further overridden. client_max_body_size 100m; # Now, for this server, maximum body size is 100 MB. location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:3000; # Inherits the server-level setting (100 MB) by default. # Uncomment the next line to override it for this location only. # client_max_body_size 10m; # For this location, maximum body size would be 10 MB. } } } 2. Timeout Settings
Client-Side Timeouts
Set timeouts to avoid hanging connections:
server { client_body_timeout 60s; client_header_timeout 60s; keepalive_timeout 65s; send_timeout 60s; # other settings... } Upstream/Proxy Timeouts
Ensure long-running backend responses are handled properly:
location /api/ { proxy_pass http://backend_server; proxy_connect_timeout 600s; proxy_send_timeout 600s; proxy_read_timeout 600s; } Note: Suffix s makes units explicit (seconds).
3. Additional Performance Tweaks
Proxy Buffering
For handling large responses efficiently:
location /data/ { proxy_pass http://backend_server; proxy_buffer_size 128k; proxy_buffers 4 256k; proxy_busy_buffers_size 256k; } Gzip Compression
Reduce bandwidth with simple gzip settings:
http { gzip on; gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript; } Connection & Rate Limiting
Prevent abuse with simple limits:
http { # Define a memory zone named "addr" (10MB) for connection limiting, keyed by client IP. limit_conn_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=addr:10m; # Define a memory zone named "one" (10MB) for rate limiting, with a limit of 5 requests per second per client. limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=one:10m rate=5r/s; server { location / { # Limit each client to a maximum of 10 simultaneous connections. limit_conn addr 10; } location /api/ { # Limit clients to 5 requests per second, allow bursts up to 10, processing bursts without delay. limit_req zone=one burst=10 nodelay; } } } 4. Testing & Reloading
Always verify your configuration before reloading:
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx 
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