# Nginx - Hello World!

As part of my DevOps Stage 0 task, I was assigned to set up and configure NGINX on a fresh Ubuntu server hosted on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This task was designed to test my ability to work with basic web server configurations and deliver a functional web server. Here’s a breakdown of my experience, challenges, and learnings.

### Approach

1. **Setting up the GCP instance**
    
    I started by creating a new virtual machine (VM) instance on GCP. I chose Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as the operating system and configured the instance with the necessary resources (1 vCPU and 3.75 GB RAM). After launching the instance, I connected to it via SSH using the GCP console.
    
2. **Installing NGINX**
    
    Once connected to the VM, I updated the package list using `sudo apt update`. Then, I installed NGINX using the command `sudo apt install nginx`. After the installation, I ensured that NGINX was running by using `sudo systemctl status nginx`. This confirmed that the service was active
    
    ```bash
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install nginx
    sudo systemctl start nginx
    sudo systemctl status nginx
    ```
    
3. **Configuring the nginx default page**
    
    Next, I replaced the default NGINX landing page with a custom HTML page. I edited the file located at `/var/www/html/index.html` and added the following message:
    
    ```plaintext
    Welcome to DevOps Stage 0 - [Your Name]/[SlackName]
    ```
    
    I replaced `[Your Name]` with my actual name and `[SlackName]` with my Slack username.
    
4. **Configuring firewall rules**
    
    To allow HTTP traffic to the VM, I configured the firewall rules in the GCP console. I added a new rule to allow ingress traffic on port 80 (HTTP) for all IP addresses (`0.0.0.0/0`). This is to ensure that the webpage is accessible from any browser.
    

### Challenges

1. **Firewall Configuration on GCP**  
    Initially, I couldn’t access the server’s IP address in my browser. After some troubleshooting, I realized that the default firewall rules on GCP were blocking HTTP traffic. To resolve this, I added a new firewall rule to allow traffic on port 80, as described above.
    
2. **File Permissions**  
    When editing the `index.html` file, I encountered permission issues. I resolved this by using `sudo` to gain the necessary privileges to modify the file.
    

### Contribution to learning goals

The task provided me with an hands-on experience on creating a simple web server on a remote virtual machine. It was a fun learning experience, despite the little challenges I encountered.

### Further Reading

If you are a beginner devOps engineer like me, you might be interested in these engineering roles. Do well to check them out: [DevOps Engineers](https://hng.tech/hire/devops-engineers) , [Cloud Engineers](https://hng.tech/hire/cloud-engineers)

Thanks for reading.