In this guide, you’ll learn how to host two distinct domains—www.example1.com www.example2.com**—on a single Nginx server. Incoming HTTP requests are routed based on the Host header, matching the server_name directive within each server block (often called virtual hosts ). By the end of this tutorial, you’ll have two separate site roots and configurations, each serving its own content.
Table of Contents
Remove the Default Site Create Site Configurations Set Up Document Roots and Index Files Enable Sites and Reload Nginx Verify Virtual Host Routing Optional: Single Combined Config Best Practices References
1. Remove the Default Site Before adding your own configurations, disable the default Nginx welcome page.
# Verify the default page curl localhost # → Welcome to nginx!
Removing the default site will cause localhost to refuse connections until you enable at least one server block.
# Disable default configuration rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default # Reload Nginx to apply changes nginx -s reload # Confirm removal curl localhost # → curl: (7) Failed to connect to localhost port 80: Connection refused
2. Create Site Configurations We’ll copy the default config twice—once for each domain—and then adjust the root and server_name.
2.1 example1.com # List available configs ls -l /etc/nginx/sites-available # Copy default to example1 cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1
Edit /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1:
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1 server { listen 80 ; server_name www.example1.com; root /var/www/example1; index index.html index.htm; location / { try_files $ uri $ uri / =404 ; } }
2.2 example2.com # Duplicate example1 for example2 cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1 /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2
Update /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2:
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2 server { listen 80 ; server_name www.example2.com; root /var/www/example2; index index.html index.htm; location / { try_files $ uri $ uri / =404 ; } }
3. Set Up Document Roots and Index Files Create directories for each site and add a simple index.html:
mkdir -p /var/www/example1 /var/www/example2 cat << 'EOF' > /var/www/example1/index.html <h1>Example 1</h1> EOF cat << 'EOF' > /var/www/example2/index.html <h1>Example 2</h1> EOF # Ensure Nginx can read the files chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example1 /var/www/example2
4. Enable Sites and Reload Nginx Create symbolic links in sites-enabled, then test and reload.
# Enable both sites ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example1 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example2 /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ # Test configuration nginx -t # Reload Nginx nginx -s reload
5. Verify Virtual Host Routing Simulate browser requests using curl with custom Host headers:
curl --header "Host: www.example1.com" localhost curl --header "Host: www.example2.com" localhost curl --header "Host: unknown.com" localhost # → <h1>Example 1</h1> (first enabled server block)
6. Optional: Single Combined Config You may merge both server blocks into one file, though we recommend keeping them separate.
# /etc/nginx/sites-available/example server { listen 80 ; server_name www.example1.com; root /var/www/example1; index index.html index.htm; location / { try_files $ uri $ uri / =404 ; } } server { listen 80 ; server_name www.example2.com; root /var/www/example2; index index.html index.htm; location / { try_files $ uri $ uri / =404 ; } }
Enable and reload:
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ nginx -t && nginx -s reload
Keeping separate files in sites-available makes it simpler to enable/disable individual domains without affecting others.
7. Best Practices Practice Benefit Separate config per domain Isolate changes and minimize risk to other sites. Use descriptive file names Quickly identify which domain each configuration serves. Regularly test configuration Run nginx -t before reloading to catch syntax errors. Limit server-wide directives Keep domain-specific settings in individual server blocks, not in global nginx.conf.
References 
