Use systemctl status nginx to check the Nginx service status to confirm whether it is running and powering on; 2. Master the core commands such as start, stop, restart, reload, enable, and disable, and give priority to using reload to avoid connection interruptions; 3. Use journalctl -u nginx.service to view the logs, and the -f parameter can be monitored in real time to facilitate troubleshooting startup failures; 4. Be sure to run sudo nginx -t test syntax before modifying the configuration to prevent reload failure; 5. If you need to customize the configuration, use sudo systemctl edit nginx to create a secure overwrite file instead of directly editing the service unit.
Managing Nginx with systemd
is straightforward once you understand how systemd units work — especially the service unit for Nginx ( nginx.service
). Here's what you need to know to effectively control and monitor Nginx using systemd on modern Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or RHEL.

? Check Nginx Service Status
To see if Nginx is running and whether it's enabled at boot:
systemctl status nginx
This shows:

- Whether the service is active (running)
- Recent log lines
- If it's enabled to start on boot
If it's not active, you'll see "inactive (dead)" or "failed".
?? Common systemctl Commands for Nginx
Command | Purpose |
---|---|
sudo systemctl start nginx | Start Nginx manually |
sudo systemctl stop nginx | Stop Nginx gracefully |
sudo systemctl restart nginx | Reload the entire service (useful after config changes) |
sudo systemctl reload nginx | Reload config without dropping connections (preferred over restart) |
sudo systemctl enable nginx | Enable auto-start at boot |
sudo systemctl disable nginx | Disable auto-start at boot |
?? Use
reload
instead ofrestart
when possible — it avoids downtime during config updates.
? View Logs with journalctl
Instead of digging through /var/log/nginx/error.log
, use:
journalctl -u nginx.service
Or for live logs:
journalctl -u nginx.service -f
This is especially helpful if Nginx fails to start — systemd often logs the exact error from the init process.
? Test Configuration Before Reloading
Always test your Nginx config first:
sudo nginx -t
If it passes:
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Then reload:
sudo systemctl reload nginx
If you skip this and have a syntax error, a reload
might fail silently or leave the service in a broken state.
? Pro Tips
Service file location :
Usually/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service
or/etc/systemd/system/nginx.service
— don't edit this unless you know what you're doing.Custom service overrides :
To tweak environment variables or paths without modifying the main unit, use:sudo systemctl edit nginx
This creates an override directory (
/etc/systemd/system/nginx.service.d/override.conf
) — safer than editing the original.Boot failure debugging :
If Nginx fails to start on boot, check:journalctl -b | grep nginx
This filters boot-time logs for Nginx-related issues (eg, port conflicts, missing files, permissions).
Basically, systemd makes Nginx management consistency and reliable — just stick to
systemctl
nginx -t
journalctl
and you'll handle 99% of cases smoothly.The above is the detailed content of Managing Nginx with systemd. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

The main Nginx configuration file is usually located in the conf directory under /etc/nginx/nginx.conf (Ubuntu/Debian, CentOS/RHEL), /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf (macOSHomebrew) or the source code installation path; you can view the loaded configuration path through nginx-t, ps-ef|grepnginx check the path specified by the startup parameters, or use find/-namenginx.conf and locatenginx.conf to quickly find; the configuration file structure includes global settings, events blocks and http blocks, and common site configurations are common.

When Nginx experiences a "Toomyopenfiles" error, it is usually because the system or process has reached the file descriptor limit. Solutions include: 1. Increase the soft and hard limits of Linux system, set the relevant parameters of nginx or run users in /etc/security/limits.conf; 2. Adjust the worker_connections value of Nginx to adapt to expected traffic and ensure the overloaded configuration; 3. Increase the upper limit of system-level file descriptors fs.file-max, edit /etc/sysctl.conf and apply changes; 4. Optimize log and resource usage, and reduce unnecessary file handle usage, such as using open_l

Enabling Gzip compression can effectively reduce the size of web page files and improve loading speed. 1. The Apache server needs to add configuration in the .htaccess file and ensure that the mod_deflate module is enabled; 2.Nginx needs to edit the site configuration file, set gzipon and define the compression type, minimum length and compression level; 3. After the configuration is completed, you can verify whether it takes effect through online tools or browser developer tools. Pay attention to the server module status and MIME type integrity during operation to ensure normal compression operation.

The stub_status module displays the real-time basic status information of Nginx. Specifically, it includes: 1. The number of currently active connections; 2. The total number of accepted connections, the total number of processing connections, and the total number of requests; 3. The number of connections being read, written, and waiting. To check whether it is enabled, you can check whether the --with-http_stub_status_module parameter exists through the command nginx-V. If not enabled, recompile and add the module. When enabled, you need to add location blocks to the configuration file and set access control. Finally, reload the Nginx service to access the status page through the specified path. It is recommended to use it in combination with monitoring tools, but it is only available for internal network access and cannot replace a comprehensive monitoring solution.

The "Addressalreadyinuse" error means that another program or service in the system has occupied the target port or IP address. Common reasons include: 1. The server is running repeatedly; 2. Other services occupy ports (such as Apache occupying port 80, causing Nginx to fail to start); 3. The port is not released after crash or restart. You can troubleshoot through the command line tool: use sudolsof-i:80 or sudolnetstat-tulpn|grep:80 in Linux/macOS; use netstat-ano|findstr:80 in Windows and check PID. Solutions include: 1. Stop the conflicting process (such as sudos

The main difference between NginxPlus and open source Nginx is its enhanced functionality and official support for enterprise-level applications. 1. It provides real-time monitoring of the dashboard, which can track the number of connections, request rate and server health status; 2. Supports more advanced load balancing methods, such as minimum connection allocation, hash-based consistency algorithm and weighted distribution; 3. Supports session maintenance (sticky sessions) to ensure that user requests are continuously sent to the same backend server; 4. Allow dynamic configuration updates, and adjust upstream server groups without restarting the service; 5. Provides advanced cache and content distribution functions to reduce backend pressure and improve response speed; 6. Automatic configuration updates can be achieved through APIs to adapt to Kubernetes or automatic scaling environments; 7. Includes

A/B testing can be implemented through Nginx's split_clients module, which distributes traffic proportionally to different groups based on user attribute hashing. The specific steps are as follows: 1. Use the split_clients instruction to define the grouping and proportions in the http block, such as 50%A and 50%B; 2. Use variables such as $cookie_jsessionid, $remote_addr or $arg_uid as hash keys to ensure that the same user is continuously allocated to the same group; 3. Use the corresponding backend through if conditions in the server or location block; 4. Record the grouping information through a custom log format to analyze the effect; 5. Track the performance of each group with the monitoring tool

The method to enable HSTS is to configure the Strict-Transport-Security response header in the HTTPS website. The specific operations are: 1.Nginx adds the add_header directive in the server block; 2.Apache adds the header directive in the configuration file or .htaccess; 3.IIS adds customHeaders in web.config; it is necessary to ensure that the site fully supports HTTPS, parameters include max-age (valid period), includeSubDomains (subdomains are effective), preload (preload list), and the prereload is the prerequisite for submitting to the HSTSPreload list.
