Category: Nginx

Apache vs Nginx: A Tale of Two Web Servers

December 3, 2025

Apache and Nginx power a huge share of the modern web, but they were born in very different eras to solve very different problems. This article traces their histories from NCSA HTTPd and the C10k problem through to today’s hosting stacks, then compares their architectures, strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases.

How to Add a Redirect in Nginx on a Plesk Server

November 25, 2025

Learn how to set up fast, server-level redirects on a Plesk server using Nginx “Additional nginx directives,” including full-domain redirects to acme.com, single-URL redirects, and common gotchas to avoid.

Fixing “400 Bad Request – Request Header Or Cookie Too Large” on WordPress Sites (Plesk + Nginx)

November 24, 2025

Seeing “400 Bad Request – Request Header Or Cookie Too Large” on your WordPress site running on Plesk with Nginx? This guide explains what the error really means, how oversized cookies trigger it, how to fix the root cause in WordPress, and when it makes sense to adjust Nginx header limits.

How to Add a Custom HTTP Header to All Sites on a Plesk Server

July 16, 2025

Adding custom headers is a useful way to identify, trace, or control web traffic across a hosted environment. This guide walks through the process of adding the HTTP header X-Hosted-By: ExampleHost to all websites running on a Plesk server, across both nginx and Apache layers. Why Add a Custom Header? Custom HTTP headers can: Identify the infrastructure powering your site (e.g., for branding or tracing) Assist in diagnostics or security logging Be used for custom caching or CDN logic Step-by-Step: Add Header in nginx Step 1: Copy the nginx Template First, copy the default Plesk template into a custom directory:

cd /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates
mkdir -p custom/domain
cp default/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php custom/domain/

cd /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/templates

mkdir -p custom/domain

cp default/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php custom/domain/

Step 2: Edit the Template Open the copied file:

vi custom/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php

1 2	vi custom/domain/nginxDomainVirtualHost.php

Locate the block that outputs header directives, such as:

<?php foreach ((array)$VAR->domain->physicalHosting->headers as list($name, $value)): ?>
    add_header <?=$VAR->quote([$name, $value])?>;
<?php endforeach ?>
<?php if ($VAR->server->xPoweredByHeader) : ?>
    add_header X-Powered-By PleskLin;
<?php endif ?>

<?php foreach ((array)$VAR->domain->physicalHosting->headers as list($name, $value)): ?>

add_header <?=$VAR->quote([$name, $value])?>;

<?php endforeach ?>

<?php if ($VAR->server->xPoweredByHeader) : ?>

add_header X-Powered-By PleskLin;

<?php endif ?>

Insert your custom header right after:

<?php /* CUSTOM HEADER START */ ?>
    add_header X-Hosted-By "ExampleHost" always;
<?php /* CUSTOM HEADER END */ ?>

<?php /* CUSTOM HEADER START */ ?>

add_header X-Hosted-By "ExampleHost" always;

<?php /* CUSTOM HEADER END */ ?>

Step 3: Rebuild nginx Configurations

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all

1 2	/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all

Step 4: Restart nginx

systemctl restart nginx

1 2	systemctl restart nginx

Step-by-Step: Add Header in Apache Step 1: Copy the Apache Template

Plesk / Nginx Open Files Limit

January 25, 2022

Was trying to increase open files limit for nginx on a Plesk server following instructions here: MariaDB on CentOS 7 – “Error in accept: Too many open files” But the limit was not changing. After digging around I found that Plesk was overriding with a config file here: /usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service.d/limit_nofile.conf As described here: https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213938485-nginx-fails-to-start-reload-on-a-Plesk-server-Too-many-open-files the easy way to fix open file limit on Plesk is to use: /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrv_ulimits –set 100000 –no-restart