Self hosting guide

In this guide I tell you how to install NGINX on your Linux based machine and how to serve the entire website all locally on your own network using hardware you control (Or you can make it public but you need a domain and a SSL cert)

Requirements

• Basic Linux knowledge.
• A Linux server (Ex. Old laptop or even a RasberryPi) or Linux VM/LXC (Ex. Proxmox, VMware, or basically any Linux VPS like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS).
  • Preferably running a Debian based distribution (If your using another one some commands may be different but you should be able to figure it out)

Guide

Install NGINX

(Recommended) Debian and Ubuntu

Update the Debian repository information:

sudo apt-get update

Install the NGINX Open Source package:

sudo apt-get install nginx

Verify the installation:

sudo nginx -v

Alpine Linux

Install the prerequisites:

sudo apk add openssl curl ca-certificates

To set up the apk repository for stable NGINX packages, run the command:

printf "%s%s%s\n" \
"http://nginx.org/packages/alpine/v" \
`egrep -o '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' /etc/alpine-release` \
"/main" \
| sudo tee -a /etc/apk/repositories

Import an official NGINX signing key so apk could verify the packages authenticity. Fetch the key:

curl -o /tmp/nginx_signing.rsa.pub https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.rsa.pub

Verify that the downloaded file contains the proper key:

openssl rsa -pubin -in /tmp/nginx_signing.rsa.pub -text -noout

The output should contain the following modulus:

Public-Key: (2048 bit)
Modulus:
    00:fe:14:f6:0a:1a:b8:86:19:fe:cd:ab:02:9f:58:
    2f:37:70:15:74:d6:06:9b:81:55:90:99:96:cc:70:
    5c:de:5b:e8:4c:b2:0c:47:5b:a8:a2:98:3d:11:b1:
    f6:7d:a0:46:df:24:23:c6:d0:24:52:67:ba:69:ab:
    9a:4a:6a:66:2c:db:e1:09:f1:0d:b2:b0:e1:47:1f:
    0a:46:ac:0d:82:f3:3c:8d:02:ce:08:43:19:d9:64:
    86:c4:4e:07:12:c0:5b:43:ba:7d:17:8a:a3:f0:3d:
    98:32:b9:75:66:f4:f0:1b:2d:94:5b:7c:1c:e6:f3:
    04:7f:dd:25:b2:82:a6:41:04:b7:50:93:94:c4:7c:
    34:7e:12:7c:bf:33:54:55:47:8c:42:94:40:8e:34:
    5f:54:04:1d:9e:8c:57:48:d4:b0:f8:e4:03:db:3f:
    68:6c:37:fa:62:14:1c:94:d6:de:f2:2b:68:29:17:
    24:6d:f7:b5:b3:18:79:fd:31:5e:7f:4c:be:c0:99:
    13:cc:e2:97:2b:dc:96:9c:9a:d0:a7:c5:77:82:67:
    c9:cb:a9:e7:68:4a:e1:c5:ba:1c:32:0e:79:40:6e:
    ef:08:d7:a3:b9:5d:1a:df:ce:1a:c7:44:91:4c:d4:
    99:c8:88:69:b3:66:2e:b3:06:f1:f4:22:d7:f2:5f:
    ab:6d
Exponent: 65537 (0x10001)

Move the key to apk trusted keys storage:

sudo mv /tmp/nginx_signing.rsa.pub /etc/apk/keys/

To install NGINX, run the command:

sudo apk add nginx

RHEL, CentOS, Oracle Linux, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux

Install the EPEL repository:

sudo yum install epel-release

Update the repository:

sudo yum update

Install NGINX Open Source:

sudo yum install nginx

Verify the installation:

sudo nginx -v

SUSE

Install the prerequisites:

sudo zypper install curl ca-certificates gpg2

To set up the zypper repository for stable NGINX packages, run the following command:

sudo zypper addrepo --gpgcheck --type yum --refresh --check \
   'http://nginx.org/packages/sles/$releasever_major' nginx-stable

Import an official NGINX signing key so zypper/rpm could verify the packages authenticity. Fetch the key:

curl -o /tmp/nginx_signing.key https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key

Verify that the downloaded file contains the proper key:

gpg --with-fingerprint /tmp/nginx_signing.key

The output should contain the full fingerprints: 8540 A6F1 8833 A80E 9C16 53A4 2FD2 1310 B49F 6B46, 573B FD6B 3D8F BC64 1079 A6AB ABF5 BD82 7BD9 BF62, 9E9B E90E ACBC DE69 FE9B 204C BCDC D8A3 8D88 A2B3 as follows:

pub   rsa4096 2024-05-29 [SC]
      8540A6F18833A80E9C1653A42FD21310B49F6B46
uid                      nginx signing key <signing-key-2@nginx.com>
 
pub   rsa2048 2011-08-19 [SC] [expires: 2027-05-24]
      573BFD6B3D8FBC641079A6ABABF5BD827BD9BF62
uid                      nginx signing key <signing-key@nginx.com>
 
pub   rsa4096 2024-05-29 [SC]
      9E9BE90EACBCDE69FE9B204CBCDCD8A38D88A2B3
uid                      nginx signing key <signing-key-3@nginx.com>

If the fingerprint is different, remove the file.

Import the key to the rpm database:

sudo rpmkeys --import /tmp/nginx_signing.key

To install NGINX, run the command:

sudo zypper install nginx

Amazon Linux

Install the prerequisites:

sudo yum install yum-utils

To set up the yum repository for Amazon Linux 2, create the file named /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo with the following contents:

[nginx-stable]
name=nginx stable repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/amzn2/$releasever/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true
 
[nginx-mainline]
name=nginx mainline repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/amzn2/$releasever/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true

To set up the yum repository for Amazon Linux 2023, create the file named /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo with the following contents:

[nginx-stable]
name=nginx stable repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/amzn/2023/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true
 
[nginx-mainline]
name=nginx mainline repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/amzn/2023/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true

Install nginx:

sudo yum install nginx

When prompted to accept the GPG key, verify that the fingerprint matches: 8540 A6F1 8833 A80E 9C16 53A4 2FD2 1310 B49F 6B46, 573B FD6B 3D8F BC64 1079 A6AB ABF5 BD82 7BD9 BF62, 9E9B E90E ACBC DE69 FE9B 204C BCDC D8A3 8D88 A2B3, and if so, accept it.

Arch Linux (Not Recommended)

If your using Arch Linux on your server follow this guide the Arch Wiki has some of the best most in-depth guides I’ve seen. (Arch is amazing for a Linux desktop but not great in a server environment due to it being a rolling release distribution you will have to deal with the downtime from managing package/kernel updates daily. I would recommend Alpine Linux over Arch because its a release based distribution)

Hosting

Faq

I wrote this part assuming your using a Debian based distribution. If your using another you may need to change some commands (depending on your service manager service may be systemctl for example if your using systemd), install git, or replace /var/www with whatever folder you want.

Clone the repository containing the site backup inside of /var/www.

cd /var/www
git clone https://git.slavserver.com/DooSkagg/SlavinskyCookbook-Backup.git .

Find your nginx default config by running this command:

find / 2>/dev/null -wholename '*/nginx/sites-enabled/default'

Open it using vim or nano (or any other text editor) delete all lines inside of the default config and paste the following in:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    root /var/www;
    index index.html;
    error_page 404 /404.html;
 
    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/ =404;
    }
}

change the example.com in line 3 to either the domain your going to host it on or the local IP of your server.

Restart NGINX (May be different command depending on your Linux distro)

service nginx restart

Access your site at http://[IP_OF_SERVER]:80 For HTTPS support this guide should help you

Tip

You can also skip all of this and download the site files as a .zip and upload them to Cloudflare Pages for free hosting (I’m personally not a fan of this because I like running everything on my own hardware).