{"id":52321,"date":"2019-04-18T11:51:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cpanel.com\/?p=52321"},"modified":"2019-04-18T11:51:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:51:18","slug":"brace-yourselves-nginx-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devel.www.cpanel.net\/blog\/products\/brace-yourselves-nginx-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Brace Yourselves, NGINX is Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arguably, one of the most requested and popular feature requests<\/a> submitted for cPanel & WHM has been the addition of the NGINX web server as an alternative to Apache. We have good news for those of you that have been asking: NGINX is coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note<\/strong><\/em>: as NGINX support on cPanel & WHM servers is still experimental, it will not be available in the WHM graphic user interface right away. Be advised that this is a representation of how the interface may appear in later versions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering NGINX as an Apache alternative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

cPanel has considered offering NGINX as an alternative to Apache for quite a long time. However, given the state of cPanel & WHM’s reliance on Apache at its very core, we determined that the process was too difficult to undertake at the time. We have spent significant time working toward de-coupling the product from relying on Apache. While our work is not yet complete, we have gotten far enough along that we were able to make some first steps toward integrating a different webserver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGINX for WordPress on cPanel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our research showed that the primary use case for people requesting NGINX support was WordPress sites, so that is where we focused this minimum viable product. We chose PHP-FPM as the PHP handler, as it is the handler that WordPress recommends and is already supported by cPanel & WHM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To take advantage of NGINX, you will need to enable PHP-FPM on all domains that serve PHP content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGINX is a free cPanel Release Experiment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NGINX does not completely replace Apache in this experimental release. cPanel & WHM still requires Apache for certain features (i.e., Mailman) to function correctly. In this iteration, Apache is moved to an alternate port as part of the installation of NGINX, and moved back to its previous state when NGINX is uninstalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please also be forewarned, this is an EXPERIMENTAL<\/a> <\/strong>release. As is the case with all EDGE and Experimental builds, we do not <\/strong>recommend running NGINX in a production environment unless the server administrator is very experienced, and has a rollback plan in place. There are going to be things that just don’t work within the product, which we expect. We will be looking for your feedback on anything that doesn’t seem to be working properly, and we’ll gladly iterate as time allows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this time we can say for sure that mod_security rules will not work with NGINX, and .htaccess rewrite rules and restrictions will no longer apply. Meaning such rewrites as password protected directories<\/a> will no longer work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Good News!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Instead of focusing on the portions of cPanel & WHM that won’t currently work with NGINX, here are the portions that we’ve tested and have shown that work normally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n