Nginx web server stores its documents in the /var/www/html directory on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10 systems by default. This is not a big deal for small websites or blogs. However, if your site or blog is huge you may run out of space because this location is on the root filesystem and may not be large enough for websites that are going rapidly.
When you website data is growing at a fast pace, you may find that the default root folder for Nginx web servers may not be adequate. You may have to move Nginx root folder to a different and larger location to accommodate your content.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to move Nginx default Root directory to a new location on Ubuntu 17.04 | 17.10.
To get started with migrating Nginx document root folder, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Copy Nginx Root content
Again, Nginx default root directory is at /var/www/html
Your goal is to change this default location to a new location with much higher free space. This is only useful if you’re running out of space at the default location..
This post assumes that you’ve already mounted or attached a large storage space to your system.. and that it’s mounted at /mnt/volume-mn1
The commands below will copy the entire html folder at /var/www/html and dump it into the new location at /mnt/volume-mn1
sudo rsync -av /var/www/html /mnt/volume-mn1
The new html folder will be at /mnt/volume-mn1/html
Step 2: Update Nginx Configuration Files
Now that you’ve copied all the content from Nginx default document root location, go and update Nginx configuration files of the new location. By default, Nginx site configuration files are stored in /etc/nginx/sites-available/ directory.
Run the commands below to open Nginx default site config file.
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
Then change the highlighted like to reflect the new root location
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /mnt/volume-mn1/html;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
......
......
Save the file
Do this for all the site configuration files in the directory..
Step 3: Check and Restart Nginx
Now that everything is setup, run the commands below to test Nginx configuration
sudo nginx -t
If you get no error message, then run the commands below to reload the new settings.
sudo systemctl reload nginx.service
That’s it! Nginx should begin using the new and larger location to retrieve its content.
Enjoy!
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