The architecture of Nginx is designed to achieve high performance, stability, and scalability. Below is a detailed description of the key components of the Nginx architecture:
Master Process
This is the main process of Nginx, also known as the parent process. Its responsibility is to manage worker processes and other common management tasks. The master process reads and processes the configuration, then creates worker processes to handle requests from clients.
Worker Process
Once created by the master process, the worker processes become child processes of Nginx. The number of worker processes can be configured to meet performance and resource requirements of the system. Each worker process operates independently, does not share memory, and does not communicate directly with each other, which enhances the stability of Nginx.
Event-driven Architecture
Nginx uses an event-driven architecture to handle requests. Instead of using separate threads for each request, Nginx uses asynchronous functions to handle events. This allows a single worker process to handle multiple requests concurrently, optimizing system resources and ensuring high performance.
Event Modules
Nginx supports various event modules to work with the operating system and network infrastructure. These modules help Nginx interact with the kernel and avoid unnecessary blocking and waiting, reducing the load on the system.
Worker Connections
This is the number of connections that each worker process can handle concurrently. This configuration allows customization of the number of connections to ensure optimal performance based on system resources and client request traffic.
Proxy and Load Balancing
Nginx can act as a proxy server, allowing it to route requests from clients to backend application servers within the system. This enables the deployment of distributed applications and load balancing across multiple servers, enhancing performance and reliability.
Thanks to its flexible and high-performance architecture, Nginx has become one of the most popular web servers and proxies widely used across the globe, meeting the increasing demands of processing requests and data on the internet.