CentOS / Redhat: Install nginx As Reverse Proxy Load Balancer

To install nginx as a reverse proxy and load balancer on a CentOS or Red Hat Linux system, you can use the yum package manager and the install subcommand.

First, add the nginx repository to your system by creating the /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo file with the following content:

[nginx]
name=nginx repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/centos/$releasever/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

Next, use the yum command to install nginx:

sudo yum install nginx

This will install nginx and all the necessary dependencies.

Once nginx is installed, you can configure it as a reverse proxy and load balancer by editing the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file. For example, to set up nginx as a reverse proxy for a backend server, you can add the following configuration to the http block in the nginx.conf file:

server {
  listen 80;
  location / {
    proxy_pass http://backend;
  }
}

upstream backend {
  server backend1.example.com;
  server backend2.example.com;
}

This will configure nginx to listen on port 80 and proxy incoming requests to the backend servers specified in the backend upstream block.

To start the nginx service and enable it to start at boot, use the following commands:

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

This will start nginx and configure it to load balance incoming requests between the backend servers.