Testing Your Static Website

Congratulations! You've successfully configured Nginx to serve your static website. Now comes the crucial step: testing to ensure everything is working as expected. This section will guide you through various methods to verify your Nginx setup and confirm that your static files are being delivered flawlessly.

The most straightforward way to test your static website is by accessing it through your web browser. Since we've configured Nginx to listen on port 80 (the default for HTTP), you can simply open your browser and navigate to your server's IP address or domain name. If you're testing on your local machine, you'll typically use localhost or 127.0.0.1.

Let's assume your Nginx server is running on a machine with the IP address 192.168.1.100. In your web browser, you would enter the following address:

If you've configured a domain name, say myawesomewebsite.com, you would use that instead:

When you visit this URL, Nginx should serve your index.html file (or whatever you've designated as your default index file) from your configured root directory. If you see your website's homepage, that's a great sign!

Beyond the visual confirmation, it's essential to check the HTTP response status codes. These codes tell you how the server responded to your browser's request. The most common successful code is 200 OK. You can view these status codes using your browser's developer tools. Typically, you can open them by pressing F12 or right-clicking on the page and selecting 'Inspect' or 'Inspect Element', then navigating to the 'Network' tab.

In the Network tab, you'll see a list of all the resources loaded by your page (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, etc.). Clicking on the main HTML document request should reveal its status code. Ensure it's 200 OK for successful requests. You should also check that other assets like CSS files and images are also returning 200 OK.

graph TD
    UserBrowser[User's Browser] -->|Request for index.html| NginxServer(Nginx Server)
    NginxServer -->|HTTP 200 OK| UserBrowser

If you encounter an error, such as 404 Not Found, it means Nginx couldn't find the requested file. This could be due to an incorrect root directive, a typo in the file name, or the file not being present in the specified directory. A 403 Forbidden error usually indicates that the file exists but Nginx doesn't have permission to serve it, or directory listing is disabled and no index file is found.

To further diagnose issues, examining Nginx's log files is indispensable. Nginx typically logs access attempts and errors separately. The default locations for these logs are usually within /var/log/nginx/. You'll want to look at access.log for details on requests and error.log for any issues Nginx encountered.

You can view the latest log entries using the tail command. For instance:

The -f flag is useful as it continuously displays new entries as they are written to the log, allowing you to see what happens in real-time as you test your website.

Finally, consider testing with different browsers and devices if possible. While Nginx itself is generally browser-agnostic, the static assets it serves might have compatibility quirks. This helps ensure a consistent experience for all your visitors.