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Nginx can receive a client request, forward it to one or more application servers, regulate how responses are delivered, and serve reusable responses from its own cache. The key directives are proxy_pass for reverse proxying, an upstream block for load balancing, proxy_buffering and its buffer-size directives for response flow, and proxy_cache_path/proxy_cache for caching. Each solves a different bottleneck, and combining them safely requires explicit failure, freshness, and resource policies.
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What nginx is doing between the client and your application
A browser or game client normally connects to nginx rather than directly to an application process. Nginx accepts the client connection, evaluates the request, and either serves a cached representation or opens a connection to an upstream server. It then relays the upstream response back to the client. This arrangement hides private application addresses, gives you one place for TLS and request policy, and lets several backend instances appear as one service.
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proxy_pass is the forwarding switch
Inside a location, proxy_pass sends the request to an upstream URL. The URI form matters. For example:
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server {
listen 80;
server_name example.test;
location / {
proxy_pass http://app_backend;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
}
}
upstream app_backend {
server 127.0.0.1:8080;
}With an upstream group name, nginx chooses a member according to the group’s balancing method. Forwarded headers preserve the original host, client address, and scheme for applications that need correct redirects, logging, rate limits, or URL generation. Your application should be configured to trust these headers only from the nginx layer; blindly trusting client-supplied forwarding headers can make logs and access controls unreliable.
How nginx load balancing chooses an upstream
When no method is specified, HTTP upstreams use round-robin. Nginx sends successive requests across available servers in turn, subject to each server’s weight. Other methods change the selection rule to match connection load, response time, or session-persistence requirements.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Round-robin (default) | Distributes requests across the available servers in sequence; weights alter each server’s share. | Backends with broadly similar capacity and request cost. | It does not account for a server that is currently slower or has more active work. |
least_conn |
Chooses the server with the fewest active connections; weights still influence distribution. | Long-lived requests or uneven request durations. | A connection count is only a proxy for actual CPU, queue, or downstream pressure. |
least_time |
Considers measured response timing when selecting a server. | Backends with materially different latency or changing performance. | Availability depends on the nginx edition and configuration support; verify the feature in your deployment. |
ip_hash |
Maps a client IP to a server to provide affinity across requests. | Legacy applications that keep session state locally. | Many users behind one NAT can concentrate on one backend, and clients whose addresses change can move between servers. |
| Weights | A server with a larger numeric weight receives a proportionally larger share under methods that honor weights. | Mixed hardware, staged capacity, or a canary with a deliberately small share. | Weights distribute traffic; they do not by themselves measure health or guarantee a fixed percentage under every failure pattern. |
Example upstream groups
upstream game_api {
least_conn;
server 10.0.0.11:9000 weight=3;
server 10.0.0.12:9000 weight=1;
server 10.0.0.13:9000 backup;
}
server {
listen 80;
location /api/ {
proxy_pass http://game_api;
}
}Here the first server is intended to carry roughly three times the normal share of the second while both are eligible. The backup member is selected only when the primary members are unavailable. Test the resulting behavior with your real request mix; a weighted plan that is sensible for short API calls may be poor for streaming or websocket-like long connections.
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Failure handling and health checks
Open-source nginx performs passive health checking. It observes communication failures while serving real requests and temporarily avoids an upstream that is failing. This is different from an application probe that asks a health endpoint before sending traffic. Nginx Plus adds active application health checks, activity monitoring, and dynamic upstream reconfiguration; those capabilities are not equivalent to the passive behavior in the open-source edition.
The proxy_next_upstream directive controls when nginx may retry a request on another member, such as after an error, timeout, or selected HTTP status. Retrying is safest for idempotent operations such as GET. Replaying a request that creates an order, spends currency, or mutates a save file can duplicate the action unless the application uses an idempotency key. Set retry conditions deliberately and log the original failure so a successful retry does not hide an unhealthy backend.
- Use connection and read timeouts that reflect the endpoint’s expected duration; a short timeout can turn a slow but healthy operation into a retry storm.
- Define an explicit policy for 500-level responses. A response generated by the application is not automatically safe to retry.
- Drain or remove a server during planned maintenance rather than abruptly terminating active requests.
- Monitor upstream response codes, connect time, response time, and active connections; a server that accepts connections but returns errors is not healthy from the user’s perspective.
Response buffering: what proxy_buffering changes
proxy_buffering is enabled by default. With buffering on, nginx reads the upstream response as quickly as it can, stores it in memory buffers, and sends data to the client while continuing to read from the application. If the configured memory buffers cannot hold the response, nginx can write part of it to a temporary file.
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Buffering decouples a fast application from a slow client. The upstream connection can be released sooner instead of remaining occupied while a user downloads over a congested connection. The trade-off is memory use and possible disk I/O, plus additional latency for workloads that need every upstream byte forwarded immediately.
The three buffer-size controls
proxy_buffer_sizecontrols the buffer used for the initial portion of the response, normally the response headers. Headers that exceed this space can produce upstream-header errors.proxy_bufferssets the number and size of additional buffers used for the response body. For example,proxy_buffers 8 16k;allocates eight buffers of 16 KiB each per proxied request, subject to the platform’s memory behavior.proxy_busy_buffers_sizelimits how much buffered data can be in the process of being sent to the client while nginx continues reading from the upstream. It must be compatible with the other buffer settings.
Temporary-file behavior is governed by related proxy temporary-path and file-size directives. Keep the temporary directory on storage with sufficient capacity and monitor it; a configuration that fits in memory during normal traffic can fill a filesystem during a response burst.
When to disable buffering
Set proxy_buffering off; for endpoints where streaming latency matters more than upstream connection efficiency, such as server-sent events or a response that must be forwarded as it is generated. Confirm that the application sends appropriate flush-friendly output and that intermediary timeouts allow the stream to remain open. Disabling buffering globally is usually a mistake: ordinary API and page responses often benefit from the protection it provides.
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location /events {
proxy_pass http://event_backend;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_read_timeout 1h;
}The long read timeout in this example is an application-specific choice, not a universal recommendation. Long-lived streams also need connection limits and observability so they cannot exhaust worker or upstream capacity.
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Proxy caching is a two-part configuration. proxy_cache_path creates a cache storage location and a shared-memory keys zone; proxy_cache selects that zone in a server or location. On a cache miss, nginx fetches the response from the upstream, stores an eligible representation, and returns it. A later request with the same cache key can be served without contacting the application.
http {
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx/game
keys_zone=game_cache:20m
max_size=2g
inactive=30m
use_temp_path=off;
server {
listen 80;
location /assets/ {
proxy_pass http://asset_backend;
proxy_cache game_cache;
proxy_cache_valid 200 10m;
proxy_cache_valid 404 1m;
proxy_cache_lock on;
}
}
}The shared-memory zone stores cache keys and metadata; the files hold response bodies. The max_size and inactive values above are illustrative policy choices, not nginx defaults. Size them from the storage available on your host and the value of retaining each object.
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Freshness comes from configuration and response headers
proxy_cache_valid assigns cache durations by response code. Upstream response headers can also control or override freshness: X-Accel-Expires is nginx-specific, while Expires and Cache-Control are standard HTTP mechanisms. Decide which layer is authoritative. Caching a personalized response without varying the cache key or bypassing the cache can expose one user’s data to another.
- Bypass requests carrying authentication or session cookies when the response is user-specific.
- Do not cache state-changing methods unless you have a narrowly defined, safe policy.
- Include relevant host, scheme, query-string, and content-negotiation dimensions in the cache key when they change the representation.
- Send an explicit cache status header during testing so operators can distinguish a hit, miss, bypass, and stale response.
Revalidation, duplicate fills, and stale service
proxy_cache_revalidate lets nginx validate an expired object with the upstream instead of downloading the entire representation when validators are available. proxy_cache_lock prevents many simultaneous misses for the same key from all filling the cache at once; other requests wait for the first fill according to the lock timeout settings.
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proxy_cache_use_stale permits serving an older cached response during selected upstream failures or update conditions. This can keep a catalog or static game asset available during an outage, but it deliberately serves data past its normal freshness. Limit stale conditions to content where that trade-off is acceptable, and make purge or versioned URLs part of your deployment process when an immediate update is required.
A practical configuration sequence
- Define the trust boundary. Put nginx on the public interface and keep application listeners private where possible. Decide which proxy headers the application trusts.
- Create and test the upstream group. Start with round-robin for comparable servers. Add weights,
least_conn,ip_hash, or another method only when a measured requirement justifies it. - Add
proxy_passand timeouts. Verify URI handling, forwarded headers, maximum request sizes, connect timeouts, and read timeouts for each endpoint class. - Choose buffering per workload. Keep the default for ordinary responses. Disable it only for streaming or strict low-latency delivery, then monitor memory, temporary files, and open connections.
- Design the cache key and bypass rules. Exclude private and mutation responses before enabling a cache on a location.
- Set freshness and failure policy. Use response headers or
proxy_cache_valid, then decide whether revalidation, cache locking, and stale serving are appropriate. - Validate before reload. Run
nginx -t, inspect the reported configuration path, and reload only after the syntax check succeeds. Exercise cache hits and misses, an oversized header, a slow client, and an intentionally stopped backend.
Common symptoms and fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to inspect |
|---|---|---|
| 502 or 504 responses | Connection refusal, upstream timeout, protocol mismatch, or all members temporarily avoided. | Nginx error log, upstream address/port, connect and read timeout values, and backend logs. |
| Responses appear to come from the wrong user | A personalized response was cached under a shared key. | Cookies, authorization bypass rules, cache key dimensions, and upstream cache-control headers; purge affected objects immediately. |
| Streaming arrives in bursts | Proxy buffering, application buffering, or an intermediary is holding data. | Location-level proxy_buffering, application flush behavior, and response headers. |
| Upstream header-too-large errors | The initial response buffer cannot hold the headers. | proxy_buffer_size, cookie size, redirect headers, and whether the application is emitting excessive metadata. |
| Disk fills during traffic spikes | Responses spill to proxy temporary files or the cache grows to its configured limit. | Temporary path, cache path, filesystem capacity, max_size, and eviction activity. |
| One backend receives nearly all traffic | ip_hash, a high weight, a backup-only setting, or a small client population. |
Upstream method and parameters, source-IP distribution, and active-member state. |
Open-source nginx versus NGINX Plus
The open-source distribution provides the documented reverse-proxy directives, HTTP load-balancing methods, passive failure avoidance, buffering, and proxy-cache controls. NGINX Plus extends that foundation with application-level active health checks, richer activity monitoring, and on-the-fly upstream reconfiguration. Choose the edition based on whether those operational features are required; they do not change the need to design safe cache keys, retries, timeouts, and resource limits.
Quick Recap
Choosing the right combination
- Use plain round-robin and default buffering as a baseline for stateless, similarly sized application servers.
- Add weights when capacity is intentionally uneven, and use
least_connwhen request duration varies substantially. - Use
ip_hashonly when the application genuinely requires client affinity; moving session state to a shared store is usually more resilient than pinning users. - Keep buffering on for normal web and API traffic; turn it off at the narrowest location that needs streaming semantics.
- Cache immutable assets and public, repeatable responses first. Add authenticated or rapidly changing content only with explicit key, bypass, purge, and privacy rules.
- Treat retries and stale serving as availability tools with correctness costs. Apply them to operations and content where duplicate actions or old data are acceptable.
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