Version 3 end of life
This version of Silverstripe CMS will not recieve any additional bug fixes or documentation updates. Go to documentation for the most recent stable version.

Nginx

These instructions are also covered on the Nginx Wiki.

The prerequisite is that you have already installed Nginx and you are able to run PHP files via the FastCGI-wrapper from Nginx.

Now you need to set up a virtual host in Nginx with configuration settings that are similar to those shown below.

[notice] If you don't fully understand the configuration presented here, consult the nginx documentation.

Especially be aware of accidental php-execution when extending the configuration. [/notice]

But enough of the disclaimer, on to the actual configuration — typically in nginx.conf:

server {
  include mime.types;
  default_type  application/octet-stream;
  client_max_body_size 0; # Manage this in php.ini
  listen 80;
  root /path/to/ss/folder;
  server_name example.com www.example.com;

  # Defend against SS-2015-013 -- http://www.silverstripe.org/software/download/security-releases/ss-2015-013
  if ($http_x_forwarded_host) {
    return 400;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri /framework/main.php?url=$uri&$query_string;
  }

  error_page 404 /assets/error-404.html;
  error_page 500 /assets/error-500.html;

  location ^~ /assets/ {
    sendfile on;
    try_files $uri =404;
  }

  location ~ /framework/.*(main|rpc|tiny_mce_gzip)\.php$ {
    fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
    fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 64k;
    fastcgi_buffers 4 32k;
    fastcgi_keep_conn on;
    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index  index.php;
    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include        fastcgi_params;
  }

  # Denials
  location ~ /\.. {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~ \.ss$ {
    satisfy any;
    allow 127.0.0.1;
    deny all;
  }
  location ~ web\.config$ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~ \.ya?ml$ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~* README.*$ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ^~ /vendor/ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~* /silverstripe-cache/ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~* composer\.(json|lock)$ {
    deny all;
  }
  location ~* /(cms|framework)/silverstripe_version$ {
    deny all;
  }
}

The above configuration sets up a virtual host example.com with rewrite rules suited for SilverStripe. The location block for framework php files passes all the php scripts to the FastCGI-wrapper via a TCP socket.

Now you can proceed with the SilverStripe installation normally.