The Nginx is a free, open-source, lightweight and high-performance web server designed for high-traffic use cases. It is also acting as a popular Web server behind the Apache Web server and Microsoft’s IIS. Nginx is more resource-friendly than Apache. It can be served in front of other web servers as a reverse proxy.
All Nginx configuration files are stored in the /etc/nginx/ directory and /etc/nginx/nginx.conf is the primary configuration file.
The default server root directory in CentOS is /usr/share/nginx/html and in Ubuntu and Debian it is /var/www/html.
Also, any additional server block (virtual hosts in Apache2) for a website can be added in the location /etc/nginx/conf.d.
See the instructions for installing, configuring and testing the Nginx server on CentOS, Debian and Ubuntu below.

CentOS 7 & 8
1. Run the following commands to install Nginx:

yum install epel-release
yum install nginx

2. Nginx does not start automatically even after the installation is completed. Run the following command to start the Nginx process.

systemctl start nginx

3. Run the following command to make sure the service is running.

systemctl status nginx

4. Run the following command to restart Nginx.

systemctl restart nginx

CentOS 6
1. Run the following commands to install Nginx:

yum install epel-release
yum install nginx

2. Nginx does not start automatically even after the installation is completed. Run the following command to start the Nginx process.

service nginx start

3. Run the following command to make sure the service is running:

service nginx status

4. Run the following command to restart Nginx.

service nginx restart

Ubuntu / Debian
1. Run the following command to install Nginx.

apt update
apt install nginx

2. Nginx does not start automatically even after the installation is completed. Run the following command to start the Nginx process.

# /etc/init.d/nginx start

3. Run the following command to make sure the service is running.

# /etc/init.d/nginx status

4. Run the following command to restart Nginx:

# /etc/init.d/nginx restart

5. After installation is completed, you can check whether the Nginx is installed or not by entering a server IP address into your browser’s address bar:

http://your_server_ip

You can see the default Nginx web page as shown below if it is successfully installed.

To Configure Nginx
The default Nginx configuration files are kept in /etc/nginx/sites-available and it is symbolically linked with /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/. Commonly needs to create a separate file in the sites-available directory for each domain/subdomain and set up a symlink in the sites-enabled directory.
1. Remove the symlink in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ to disable the default configuration file.

# unlink /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

2. Create a new directory and the configuration file for the website and add the below configurations in the configuration file and save. Also, create a basic index file in /var/www/varidata.com.

# vi /var/www/varidata.com/index.html
# mkdir /var/www/varidata.com
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/varidata.com
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name varidata.com;
root /var/www/varidata.com
index index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}

3. Create a new symlink to the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ directory for enabling the configuration.

# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/varidata.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

To Test Nginx
1. The below command is used to test the configuration for errors.

# nginx -t

2. Reload the configuration using the below command.

# nginx -s reload

NOTE: Replace the website name varidata.com with the original website name
3. Now load the website name/ IP address in a browser and the index page will load.