This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Nginx is usually a small set of server blocks and an event-driven worker. Apache HTTP Server is usually virtual hosts, modules, and sometimes .htaccess. Neither slogan makes one of them safer. The generators draft a config. They do not reload a server.
Pick from the site you have: rewrites in .htaccess, a reverse proxy, or static files. Write the reason. A migration is the later guide. This page stops at the choice.
example.com in a sample is documentation. Do not paste either config onto a live server during the reading. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the site.
- Write the feature you need.
- Draft nothing you would reload.
- Choose one server.
- Leave the migration to its own page.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Nginx vs Apache goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A live reload during the reading.
- A choice based on a slogan.
- Both servers half-configured.
- example.com left as the live name.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Nginx vs Apache: One site. The reason is a feature, not a slogan. No reload happened. The other server was not half-configured. And migration is a later page.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The site is named. The choice is written. The reason is one sentence. No config was reloaded. And example.com is not the live name. If one of those fails, stop.
| Question | Nginx | Apache |
|---|---|---|
| Where the site lives | A server block | A virtual host |
| Per-directory overrides | Usually not .htaccess | Often .htaccess |
| This page | Does not reload it | Does not reload it |
# A choice, not a migration.
# Do not reload during the reading.
# example.com is documentation.Before you leave the host
Nginx vs Apache ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.