Nginx HTTP Server - Fourth Edition

Upgrading Nginx gracefully

There are many situations where you will need to replace the Nginx binary, for example, when you compile a new version and wish to put it in production, or simply after having enabled new modules and rebuilt the application. What most administrators would do in this situation is stop the server, copy the new binary over the old one, and start Nginx again. While this is not considered to be a problem for most websites, there may be some cases where uptime is critical and connection losses should be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately, Nginx embeds a mechanism allowing you to switch binaries with uninterrupted uptime; zero percent request loss is guaranteed if you follow these steps carefully:

1. Replace the old Nginx ...