Here is the minimal Nginx web server configuration in order to needed to run Nginx at the front of Plone open source CMS site.

This is a minimal Nginx configuration for Ubuntu/Debian Nginx to run at the front of Plone. These instructions are not for configurations where one uses buildout configuration tool to build a static Nginx server.

• Plone sites will by default served from port 8080, as set by Plone installer
• We use a VirtualHostMonster URL rewriting mechanism to pass the orignal protocol and hostname to Plone. VirtualHostMonster is a way to rewrite the request path.
• We also need to rewrite the request path, because you want to site be directly serverd from port 80 root (/), but Plone sites are nested in the Zope application server as paths /site1, /site2 etc.
• You don’t need to configure VirtualHostMonster in Plone/Zope in any way, because all the installers will automatically install one for you. Nginx configuration is all you need to touch.
• The URL passed for VirtualHostMonster is the URL Plone uses to construct links in the template (portal_url in the code, also used by content absolute_url() method). If your site loads without CSS styles usually it is a sign that VirtualHostMonster URL is incorrectly written – Plone uses the URL to link stylesheets also.
• Plone itself contains a mini web server (Medusa) which servers the requests from port 8080 – Nginx acts simple as a HTTP proxy between Medusa and outgoing port 80 traffic. Nginx does not spawn Plone process or anything like that, but Plone processes are externally controlled, usually by buildout created bin/instance and bin/plonectl commands.

Create file /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.conf with contents:

# This defines in which IP and port Plone is running.
# The default is 127.0.0.1:8080
upstream plone {
    server 127.0.0.1:8090;
}

# Redirect all www-less traffic to www.site.com domain
# (you could also do the opposite www -> non-www domain)
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yoursite.com;
    rewrite ^/(.*) http://www.yoursite.com/$1 permanent;
}

server {

    listen 80;
    server_name www.yoursite.com;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/yoursite.com.access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/yoursite.com.error.log;

    # Note that domain name spelling in VirtualHostBase URL matters
    # -> this is what Plone sees as the "real" HTTP request URL.
    # "Plone" in the URL is your site id (case sensitive)
    location / {
          proxy_pass http://plone/VirtualHostBase/http/yoursite.com:80/Plone/VirtualHostRoot/;
    }
}

Then enable the site by creating a symbolic link:

sudo -i
cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
ln -s ../sites-available/yoursite.com .

See that your Nginx configuration is valid:

/etc/init.d/nginx configtest

ok
configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
nginx.

If the config was ok then restart:

/etc/init.d/nginx restart

More info

• http://wiki.mediatemple.net/w/%28ve%29:Configure_virtual_hosts_with_Nginx_on_Ubuntu
• http://www.starzel.de/blog/securing-plone-sites-with-https-and-nginx