how to setup a web server using a basic static site served using Nginx. You should also have a basic understanding of how to use rsync to deploy your changes to the server.
What you’ll build
A remote Linux VM (Ubuntu is easiest)
Nginx serving a static site from /var/www/static-site
A local project folder (HTML/CSS/images)
A deploy.sh script that uses rsync to publish changes
(Optional) Domain → server IP + Nginx server_name
- Create the remote Linux server
Pick AWS EC2 / DigitalOcean / any provider.
Recommended server specs
Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 LTS
1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM is enough
Open these inbound ports (Firewall / Security Group)
22/tcp (SSH)
80/tcp (HTTP)
(Optional) 443/tcp (HTTPS later)
- SSH into the server
From your laptop:
ssh -i /path/to/key.pem ubuntu@<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>
AWS Ubuntu: ubuntu
AWS Amazon Linux: ec2-user
Debian: admin or debian
- Update packages + install Nginx
On the server:
sudo apt update sudo apt -y upgrade sudo apt -y install nginx
Enable and start:
sudo systemctl enable nginx sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl status nginx --no-pager
Test from your browser:
http://<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP> You should see the default Nginx page.
- Create a folder for your static site
On the server:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/static-site sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/static-site
(We’ll use rsync to push files into this folder.)
- Configure Nginx to serve your site
Create a new Nginx site config:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/static-site
Paste this (replace domain if you have one; otherwise keep _):
server { listen 80; listen [::]:80;
server_name _;
root /var/www/static-site;
index index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
# Optional: cache static assets
location ~* \.(css|js|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg|ico|webp)$ {
expires 7d;
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=604800";
try_files $uri =404;
}
}
Enable the site and disable default:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/static-site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/static-site sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
Check config and reload:
sudo nginx -t sudo systemctl reload nginx
Now Nginx will serve whatever is in /var/www/static-site.
- Create a simple static website locally
On your local machine, create a folder:
mkdir -p static-site/{assets,css} cd static-site
Create index.html:
<!doctype html>
<title>My Static Nginx Site</title>This site is served from a Linux server.
Last updated:
<script> document.getElementById("ts").textContent = new Date().toLocaleString(); </script>Create css/styles.css:
body { font-family: system-ui, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 0; background: #0b1020; color: #e8e8e8; }
.container { max-width: 900px; margin: 60px auto; padding: 24px; background: rgba(255,255,255,0.06); border-radius: 16px; }
.logo { max-width: 180px; display: block; margin: 20px 0; }
.footer { opacity: 0.8; margin-top: 30px; }
Add an image file:
Put any small PNG into static-site/assets/logo.png
(You can use your own image.)
- Deploy using rsync (manual command first)
From your local machine, run:
rsync -avz --delete -e "ssh -i /path/to/key.pem" ./ ubuntu@<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:/var/www/static-site/
What this does:
-a archive (preserves structure)
-v verbose
-z compress transfer
--delete removes files on server that you deleted locally (keeps exact sync)
Now visit:
http://<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP> You should see your custom page.
- Create deploy.sh script (recommended)
In your local static-site/ folder:
nano deploy.sh
Paste (edit values):
#!/usr/bin/env bash set -euo pipefail
SERVER_IP="<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>" SSH_USER="ubuntu" SSH_KEY="/path/to/key.pem" REMOTE_DIR="/var/www/static-site"
rsync -avz --delete
-e "ssh -i ${SSH_KEY}"
./ "${SSH_USER}@${SERVER_IP}:${REMOTE_DIR}/"
echo "✅ Deployed to ${SERVER_IP}:${REMOTE_DIR}"
Make executable:
chmod +x deploy.sh
Deploy:
./deploy.sh
- (Optional) Point a domain name to your server
In your DNS provider:
Create an A record:
@ → <SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>
(Optional) www → <SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>
Then update Nginx server_name:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/static-site
Change:
server_name example.com www.example.com;
Reload:
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx
Quick troubleshooting checklist
Can’t SSH? Check port 22 open + correct username + correct key permissions (chmod 400 key.pem)
Nginx page not showing? Check firewall/security group allows port 80
403/404 errors? ls -la /var/www/static-site
Ensure Nginx root matches: root /var/www/static-site;
Nginx config broken? Always run: sudo nginx -t