NGINX Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Preface

The NGINX Cookbook aims to provide easy-to-follow examples of real-world problems in application delivery. Throughout this book, you will explore the many features of NGINX and how to use them. This guide is fairly comprehensive, and touches on most of the main capabilities of NGINX.

Throughout this book, there will be references to both the free and open source NGINX software, as well as the commercial products from NGINX Inc.: NGINX Plus and NGINX Controller. Features and directives that are only available as part of the paid subscription to NGINX Plus will be denoted as such. Because NGINX Plus is an application delivery controller (ADC), and provides many advanced features, it’s important to highlight these features to gain a full view of the possibilities of the platform.

The book will begin by explaining the installation process of NGINX and NGINX Plus, as well as some basic getting-started steps for readers new to NGINX. From there, the sections will progress to load balancing in all forms, accompanied by chapters about traffic management, caching, and automation. Chapter 6, “Authentication”, covers a lot of ground but is important, because NGINX is often the first point of entry for web traffic to your application, and the first line of application-layer defense against web attacks and vulnerabilities. There are a number of chapters that cover cutting-edge topics such as HTTP/2, media streaming, cloud, service mesh, and container environments—wrapping up with more ...