nginx: Install GeoIP Module For Country / City Level Geo Targeting

The GeoIP module for Nginx is a module that allows you to perform country-level or city-level Geo targeting based on the client IP address. It works by mapping IP addresses to geographic locations using a database of IP addresses and their corresponding locations.

To install the GeoIP module for Nginx, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Install the GeoIP library: The GeoIP module for Nginx requires the GeoIP library to be installed on your system. On a Debian-based system, you can use the following command to install the GeoIP library:

sudo apt-get install libgeoip-dev

2. Download and extract the Nginx source code: To build the GeoIP module as a dynamic module, you will need to download and extract the Nginx source code. You can download the latest version of Nginx from the official website: https://nginx.org/en/download.html

3. Download and extract the GeoIP module source code: Next, you will need to download and extract the GeoIP module source code. You can download the latest version of the GeoIP module from the Nginx website: https://nginx.org/en/download.html#modules

4. Build and install Nginx with the GeoIP module: Once you have downloaded and extracted both the Nginx source code and the GeoIP module source code, you can build and install Nginx with the GeoIP module by running the following commands:

./configure --add-module=path/to/ngx_http_geoip_module
make
sudo make install

Replace path/to/ngx_http_geoip_module with the path to the directory containing the GeoIP module source code.

5. Download and extract the GeoIP database: To use the GeoIP module, you will need to download and extract a GeoIP database that maps IP addresses to geographic locations. You can download a free GeoIP database from the MaxMind website: https://www.maxmind.com/en/home

6. Configure the GeoIP module in the Nginx configuration file: Once you have installed the GeoIP module and downloaded the GeoIP database, you can configure the GeoIP module in the Nginx configuration file. To do this, you will need to use the geoip_country and geoip_city directives to specify the location of the GeoIP database and the variables that will be used to store the country and city information. For example:

http {
    geoip_country /path/to/GeoIP.dat;
    geoip_city /path/to/GeoLiteCity.dat;

    map $geoip_country_code $allow_country {
        default yes;
        US no;
        CA no;
    }

    server {
        ...
        if ($allow_country = no) {
            return 403;
        }
        ...
    }
}

This configuration will use the GeoIP.dat and GeoLiteCity.dat databases to determine the country and city of the client, and will return a 403 Forbidden response if the client is from the United States or Canada.

Keep in mind that the GeoIP module for Nginx is just one of many ways to perform Geo targeting. There are also other solutions available that use different databases and techniques to map IP addresses to geographic locations.