Optimizing Nginx Configuration for High-Performance Website with 10,000 Concurrent Users on 4 vCPU, 6GB RAM, 1TB SSD Server

To ensure responsive website performance and a seamless user experience for 10,000 concurrent users on a server with 4 vCPUs, 6GB RAM, and 1TB SSD, a comprehensive optimization approach involving Nginx configuration is crucial. Here’s a detailed guide to optimize performance:

1. Worker Processes:

• worker_processes: Set to a value between 2 and 4, considering the limited CPU cores. A value of 2-4 should be sufficient for handling 10,000 concurrent users.

2. Connections:

• max_connections: Set a value slightly higher than the expected number of concurrent connections to ensure Nginx can handle temporary spikes in traffic. A value around 5,000 should be adequate.

3. Keepalive:

• keepalive_timeout: Set to a value between 60 and 120 seconds to keep persistent connections open for longer, reducing the overhead of establishing new connections for each request.

4. Caching:

• Enable gzip compression to reduce the size of responses sent to clients, saving bandwidth and improving page load times.
• Leverage Nginx’s caching capabilities to store static content, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files, reducing load on the web server.
• Consider using a caching proxy like Varnish or Memcached to further reduce server load and improve response times.

5. Event Module:

• Utilize the event module for handling a large number of concurrent connections efficiently. The event module is asynchronous and non-blocking, allowing Nginx to handle multiple requests without consuming excessive CPU resources.

6. Worker Connections:

• Set worker_connections to a value between 1024 and 4096 to specify the maximum number of connections each worker process can handle. Adjust this value based on server load and performance monitoring.

7. Sendfile:

• Enable sendfile to directly transfer files from the filesystem to clients without reading the entire file into memory, reducing CPU usage and improving performance.

8. TCP Keepalives:

• Set tcp_keepalive_timeout and tcp_keepalive_intvl to enable TCP keepalives, which periodically check the health of persistent connections and automatically re-establish them if necessary.

9. TCP Nodelay:

• Set tcp_nodelay to on to disable the Nagle algorithm, which delays sending small packets to improve network efficiency. Disabling Nagle can improve performance for applications with frequent small packets.

10. nginx.conf Configuration File Content:

worker_processes 2;
max_connections 5000;
keepalive_timeout 60;

gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_types text/plain text/html text/xml application/xml application/javascript application/x-javascript;

events {
    use event;
    worker_connections 2048;
}

http {
    sendfile on;
    tcp_keepalive_timeout 60;
    tcp_keepalive_intvl 60;
    tcp_nodelay on;

    server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com;

        root /var/www/example.com;

        location ~ \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|css|js|swf)$ {
            add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=31536000";
            log_not_found off;
            access_log off;
            error_log off;
        }

        location / {
            index index.html index.htm;
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }
    }
}

11. Additional Considerations:

• Monitor server performance metrics, such as CPU usage, RAM usage, and response times, to identify areas for further optimization.
• Keep Nginx updated to the latest stable version to benefit from performance enhancements, security patches, and bug fixes.
• Consider load balancing techniques like HAProxy or Nginx Plus to distribute traffic across multiple servers for even higher scalability.

By implementing these optimization strategies and carefully monitoring performance, you can effectively enhance the responsiveness of your website and ensure a smooth user experience for 10,000 concurrent users. Remember to adjust settings as needed based on real-world traffic patterns and application requirements.