Install NGINX on Arch Linux

2020-02-04

Fast and easy tutorial for installing a NGINX web server with HTTP/2 and TLS certificates from Let’s Encrypt on Arch Linux.

Installation

pacman -S nginx-mainline certbot certbot-nginx

The default page served at http://127.0.0.1 is located at /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html.

Configuration

DigitalOcean has provided a tool for configuring your web server over at nginxconfig.io, use it and follow the instructions to create a site. Then proceed with the instructions below.

Disable the default site

If you want to disable the default site and create a new one, instead of adding your site to the default webroot, you can disable it by removing the symlink.

rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Automatically renew the certificates

Create a systemd service

[Unit]
Description=Let’s Encrypt renewal

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/certbot renew —quiet —agree-tos —deploy-hook “systemctl reload nginx.service”

Create a timer

Make it run twice a day at random times to help reduce load on Let’s Encrypt servers

[Unit]
Description=Twice daily renewal of Let’s Encrypt’s certificates

[Timer]
OnCalendar=0/12:00:00
RandomizedDelaySec=1h
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Start and enable the service

systemctl start certbot.timer
systemctl enable certbot.timer

Run NGINX

systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx

Live

Your website should now be live at https://yourdomain.com.