TIL: Using NGINX as a content cache

Configuring an NGINX reverse proxy or load balancer to cache requests is straightforward. To enable a cache, you simply use the proxy_cache_path directive in the http {} block. There are two required parameters: the local path to store cached content and the keys_zone parameter that sets up storage for cache metadata in RAM. In context:

http {
    proxy_cache_path /data/nginx/cache keys_zone=one:10m;
}

This configuration line borrowed from the official NGINX documentation sets up a cache at the path /data/nginx/cache with a key zone 10 megabytes in size named ‘one’.

Then, to cache requests, include the proxy_cache directive on a per server, per protocol, or per location basis:

http {
    proxy_cache_path /data/nginx/cache keys_zone=one:10m;
    server {
        location / {
            proxy_cache rootcache;
            proxy_pass http://root.server.tld:8080; 
        }
    }
}

With default settings, all GET and HEAD requests are cached. Some directives exist to limit which requests are cached, as well as to expand the HTTP request types cached. More documentation here, as referenced above.

Tags: til nginx