Deploy Nginx on the Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 processors

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/nginx-on-azure/_index.md

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+---
+title: Deploy NGINX on the Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 processors 
+
+draft: true
+cascade:
+    draft: true
+
+minutes_to_complete: 30   
+
+who_is_this_for: This Learning Path introduces NGINX deployment on Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 (Arm-based) virtual machine. It is intended for system administrators and developers looking to deploy and benchmark NGINX on Arm architecture with minimal adjustments from traditional x86_64 environments.
+
+learning_objectives: 
+    - Start an Azure Arm64 virtual machine using the Azure console and Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS as the base image.
+    - Deploy the NGINX web server on the Azure Arm64 virtual machine running Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS.
+    - Configure and test a static website using NGINX on the virtual machine.
+    - Perform baseline testing and benchmarking of NGINX in the Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS Arm64 virtual machine environment.
+
+
+prerequisites:
+    - A [Microsoft Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/) account with access to Cobalt 100 based instances (Dpsv6).
+    - Familiarity with the [NGINX architecture](https://www.nginx.com/) and deployment practices on Arm64 platforms.
+    - Network settings (firewalls and security groups) should allow inbound communication on ports 22 (SSH) and 80 (HTTP).
+
+author: Jason Andrews
+
+### Tags
+skilllevels: Advanced
+subjects: Web
+cloud_service_providers: Microsoft Azure
+
+armips:
+    - Neoverse
+
+tools_software_languages:
+    - NGINX
+    - Apache Bench
+
+operatingsystems:
+    - Linux
+
+further_reading:
+  - resource:
+      title: NGINX official documentation
+      link: https://nginx.org/en/docs/
+      type: documentation
+  - resource:
+      title: Apache Bench official documentation
+      link: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/programs/ab.html
+      type: documentation
+  - resource:
+      title: NGINX on Azure
+      link: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/deployment-guides/microsoft-azure/virtual-machines-for-nginx/
+      type: documentation
+
+
+### FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY
+# ================================================================================
+weight: 1                       # _index.md always has weight of 1 to order correctly
+layout: "learningpathall"       # All files under learning paths have this same wrapper
+learning_path_main_page: "yes"  # This should be surfaced when looking for related content. Only set for _index.md of learning path content.
+---

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/nginx-on-azure/_next-steps.md

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+---
+# ================================================================================
+#       FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY THIS FILE
+# ================================================================================
+weight: 21                  # Set to always be larger than the content in this path to be at the end of the navigation.
+title: "Next Steps"         # Always the same, html page title.
+layout: "learningpathall"   # All files under learning paths have this same wrapper for Hugo processing.
+---

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/nginx-on-azure/backgroud.md

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+---
+title: "Overview"
+
+weight: 2
+
+layout: "learningpathall"
+---
+
+## Cobalt 100 Arm-based processor
+
+Azure’s Cobalt 100 is built on Microsoft's first-generation, in-house Arm-based processor: the Cobalt 100. Designed entirely by Microsoft and based on Arm’s Neoverse N2 architecture, this 64-bit CPU delivers improved performance and energy efficiency across a broad spectrum of cloud-native, scale-out Linux workloads. These include web and application servers, data analytics, open-source databases, caching systems, and more. Running at 3.4 GHz, the Cobalt 100 processor allocates a dedicated physical core for each vCPU, ensuring consistent and predictable performance. 
+
+To learn more about Cobalt 100, refer to the blog [Announcing the preview of new Azure virtual machine based on the Azure Cobalt 100 processor](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurecompute/announcing-the-preview-of-new-azure-vms-based-on-the-azure-cobalt-100-processor/4146353).
+
+## NGINX
+
+NGINX is a high-performance, open-source web server, reverse proxy, load balancer, and HTTP cache. Originally developed by Igor Sysoev, NGINX is known for its event-driven, asynchronous architecture, which enables it to handle high concurrency with low resource usage.
+
+There are three main variants of NGINX:
+- **NGINX Open Source**– Free and [open-source version available at nginx.org](https://nginx.org)
+- **NGINX Plus**- [Commercial edition of NGINX](https://www.nginx.com/products/nginx/) with features like dynamic reconfig, active health checks, and monitoring.
+- **NGINX Unit**-  A lightweight, dynamic application server that complements NGINX. [Learn more at unit.nginx.org](https://unit.nginx.org/).

content/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/nginx-on-azure/baseline.md

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+---
+title: NGINX Baseline Testing 
+weight: 5
+
+### FIXED, DO NOT MODIFY
+layout: learningpathall
+---
+
+
+### Baseline testing with a static website on NGINX
+Perform baseline testing of NGINX on an **Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS** virtual machine by deploying a custom static HTML page. This verifies that NGINX is correctly serving content on the Arm64 platform.
+
+1. Create a Static Website Directory:
+
+Prepare a folder to host your HTML content.
+```console
+mkdir -p ~/my-static-site
+```
+2. Create an HTML file and Web page:
+
+Create a HTML file `nano my-static-site/index.html` with the content below to design a visually appealing static landing page.
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+  <meta charset="UTF-8">
+  <title>Welcome to NGINX on Azure Ubuntu Pro</title>
+  <style>
+    body {
+      background: linear-gradient(to right, #4facfe, #00f2fe);
+      font-family: "Segoe UI", Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
+      display: flex;
+      justify-content: center;
+      align-items: center;
+      height: 100vh;
+      margin: 0;
+      color: white;
+      text-align: center;
+    }
+    .box {
+      background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
+      padding: 40px;
+      border-radius: 12px;
+      box-shadow: 0 0 15px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
+    }
+    h1 {
+      margin-bottom: 10px;
+      font-size: 2.5rem;
+    }
+    p {
+      font-size: 1.2rem;
+    }
+  </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+  <div class="box">
+    <h1> Welcome to NGINX on Azure Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS!</h1>
+    <p>Your static site is running beautifully on ARM64 </p>
+  </div>
+</body>
+</html>
+```
+3. Move the Website to NGINX's Accessible Directory:
+
+Since NGINX runs under the `www-data` user and may not have access to files inside `/home/ubuntu`, move the site to a directory where NGINX has permissions by default:
+
+```console
+sudo mkdir -p /var/www/my-static-site
+sudo cp -r ~/my-static-site/* /var/www/my-static-site/
+sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/my-static-site
+```
+
+4. Create NGINX Config File to Serve Static Website:
+
+Point NGINX to serve your static HTML content.
+```console
+sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/static-site.conf
+```
+Now, add the following configuration:
+
+```NGINX
+server {
+    listen 80;
+    server_name localhost;
+
+    location / {
+        root /var/www/my-static-site;
+        index index.html;
+    }
+
+    access_log /var/log/nginx/static-access.log;
+    error_log /var/log/nginx/static-error.log;
+}
+```
+Make sure `/home/ubuntu/my-static-site` is the correct path to your **index.html**.
+
+5. Test the NGINX Configuration:
+
+```console
+sudo nginx -t
+```
+You should see an output similar to:
+```output
+nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
+nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
+```
+
+6. Reload or Restart NGINX:
+
+Apply configuration changes and restart the web server.
+```console
+sudo nginx -s reload
+sudo systemctl restart nginx
+```
+
+7. Test the Static Website on browser:
+
+Access your website at your public IP on port 80.
+```console
+http://<your-vm-public-ip>/
+```
+Make sure port 80 is open in your Azure Network Security Group (NSG).
+
+8. You should see the NGINX welcome page confirming a successful deployment:
+
+![Static Website Screenshot](images/nginx-web.png)
+
+This verifies the basic functionality of NGINX installation before proceeding to the benchmarking.