How to add HTTP2 support to Nginx on Linux Cloud Servers

2020-06-18 By Sam 9097 Views linux nginx http2 development

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The Nginx is an open-source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy, caching, load balancing, media streaming, and more.

The HTTP/2 is a new version of the HTTP network protocol. The main use of HTTP/2 is that to reduce the latency, minimize the protocol overhead and add support for request prioritization and make the web applications load much faster. The advantage of HTTP/2 is that it provides high transfer speed for content-rich websites.

This article will help to set up the fast and secure Nginx server with HTTP/2 in the server.

Installing Nginx service

Before proceeding with the installation of Nginx, execute the below command to update all the system packages.
```
# sudo apt-get update
or
# yum update
```
Start to install Nginx:
```
# sudo apt-get install nginx
or
# yum install nginx
```
After the Nginx installation, can check the version of Nginx by using the following command:
```
# sudo nginx -v
```

Changing the Listening Port and Enabling HTTP/2

First, change the listening port from 80 to 443. Normally the Nginx is set to listen the port 80 (standard HTTP port), now needs to modify the listening port to 443, which is used by the HTTPS protocol in the configuration file.
```
# nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
or
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default


listen 443 ssl http2 default_server;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2 default_server;
```

Changing the Server Name

Open the configuration file using the following command.
```
# nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
or
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
```
Then update the following and save the file.
```
server_name example.com;
```
NOTE: Replace the example.com with the actual domain name or server hostname.

Once the changes have been done in the Nginx configuration files, then should check the configuration for any syntax errors in it using the following command.
```
# sudo nginx -t
```

Configure Nginx to use your SSL certificate

Create a folder to store the SSL certificates inside the Nginx configuration using the following command.
```
# sudo mkdir /etc/nginx/ssl
```
Then copy the certificate and the private key to this location. Please rename the files to show which domain they are associated with.
```
# sudo cp /path/to/your/certificate.crt /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt

# sudo cp /path/to/your/private.key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key
```
Then you need to open the configuration file and update the configure SSL details.
```
# nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
or
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
```
Add the SSL configure details inside the server block, define the location of your certificates and Save the file and exit.
```
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.crt;

ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com.key;
```
NOTE: Replace the example.com with the actual domain name. Here we use self-signed SSL for the same.

Avoiding Old Cipher Suites

The HTTP/2 has a huge blacklist of old and insecure ciphers, so need to avoid them. The Cipher suites describe how the transferring data should be encrypted.

Open the following nginx configuration file:
```
# vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
or
# nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
```
Add this line after ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on:
```
ssl_ciphers EECDH+CHACHA20:EECDH+AES128:RSA+AES128:EECDH+AES256:RSA+AES256:EECDH+3DES:RSA+3DES:!MD5;
```
Once this is done, then need to check the configuration for syntax errors using the following command.
```
# sudo nginx -t
```

Setup Increasing Key Exchange Security

A secure connection can be defined that the exchange of the private keys between the server and client end. Please use the following command for it. This process normally will take some time to complete. You must wait until it is complete.
```
# sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparam.pem 2048
```
Once this is done, please add the following inside server block in the default configuration file, define the location of the custom DHE key.
```
# nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
or
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

ssl_dhparam  /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparam.pem;
```

Setup Redirection from all HTTP Request to HTTPS

Adding the following in the default configuration file.

# nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
or
# vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default


server {
listen  80;
listen  [::]:80;
server_name  example.com;
return  301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

linuxhttp2nginx11

Once it is done, need to check the configuration for syntax errors using the following command.

# sudo nginx -t

Testing whether the HTTP/2 is enabled

Please open the domain name or server IP in IE/Chrome/Firefox and press F12. Then go to Network tab and you will see protocol as HTTP/2.

How to add HTTP2 support to Nginx on Linux Cloud Servers

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