multiple_website.md

Configure Nginx to Host Multiple Websites

1. Create Directory Structure
2. Upload Website Content
3. Create Virtual Configuration
4. Test Websites

Create Directory Structure

To host multiple websites is to create a separate document root directory and configuration file for each website. So, you will need to create a directory structure for all websites inside Nginx web root:

To do so, run the following command for each website:

mkdir /var/www/html/docs.thirumal.com
mkdir /var/www/html/app.thirumal.com

Upload Website Content

Upload the website content for each website

Create Virtual Configuration

Create a virtual host configuration file`` for each website that indicate how the Nginx web server will respond to various domain requests``.

First, create a virtual host configuration file for the docs.thirumal.com website:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/docs.thirumal.com.conf

Add the following lines

server {
       listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
       root /var/www/html/docs.thirumal.com;
       index index.html index.htm;
       server_name docs.thirumal.com;

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

}

Create link for site-enabled

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/docs.thirumal.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/app.thirumal.com.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Repeat the Create Virtual Configuration steps for as many as website, you need to host

Test Websites

Check Nginx for any syntax error with the following command:

nginx -t

If everything goes fine, you should get the following output:

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Finally, restart the Nginx service to apply the configuration changes:

systemctl restart nginx