Developers and DevOps engineers

How to Deploy an Nginx Site on a VM

Install Nginx, publish a static site, and configure a production-ready server block.

12 min read · Updated 2026-03-19

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu VM created and reachable over SSH
• Security group allows TCP 22 and TCP 80
• Domain name optional but recommended

1. Install Nginx

Install the latest stable Nginx package from Ubuntu repositories and start the service.

Install and enable Nginx (bash)

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install nginx
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Check service status (bash)

systemctl status nginx --no-pager

2. Upload site files

Place static assets in a dedicated application directory and keep ownership with a non-root deploy user.

Create site directory (bash)

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/marketing-site/current
sudo chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /var/www/marketing-site

Sync local files (bash)

rsync -avz ./site/ ubuntu@<floating-ip>:/var/www/marketing-site/current/

3. Configure server block

Create a site-specific Nginx config instead of editing the default config directly.

Nginx site config (nginx)

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com www.example.com;

  root /var/www/marketing-site/current;
  index index.html;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
  }

  location ~ /\. {
    deny all;
  }
}

Enable config and test (bash)

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/marketing /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/marketing
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

4. Harden and add TLS

Use HTTPS for all external-facing services. Certbot offers quick certificate provisioning for Lets Encrypt.

Install and request certificate (bash)

sudo apt -y install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Operator tips

• Enable HTTP to HTTPS redirect in production.
• Track certificate renewals with systemd timers.