How to install and configure Varnish 3 with Nginx 1.6 on Centos 6

backend namhuy {
    .host = "127.0.0.1";
    .port = "8080";
    .connect_timeout = 600s;
    .first_byte_timeout = 600s;
    .between_bytes_timeout = 600s;
    .max_connections = 800;
}

backend forum {
    .host = "127.0.0.1";
    .port = "8080";
    .connect_timeout = 600s;
    .first_byte_timeout = 600s;
    .between_bytes_timeout = 600s;
    .max_connections = 800;
}

sub vcl_recv {

       if (req.http.host == "namhuy.net") {
       set req.http.host = "namhuy.net";
       set req.backend = namhuy;
       # return (lookup);
       }
 
       # set standard proxied ip header for getting original remote address
       set req.http.X-Forwarded-For = client.ip;
 
       # Remove has_js and CloudFlare/Google Analytics __* cookies.
       set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "(^|;\s*)(_[_a-z]+|has_js)=[^;]*", "");
 
       # Remove a ";" prefix, if present.
       set req.http.Cookie = regsub(req.http.Cookie, "^;\s*", "");
 
       # enable gzip and deflate
       if (req.http.Accept-Encoding) {
                if (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "gzip") {
                        set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "gzip";
                } elsif (req.http.Accept-Encoding ~ "deflate") {
                        set req.http.Accept-Encoding = "deflate";
                } else {
                        # unkown algorithm
                        remove req.http.Accept-Encoding
                }
       }
 
       # logged in users must always pass
       if( req.url ~ "^/wp-(login|admin)" || req.http.Cookie ~ "wordpress_logged_in_" ){
       return (pass);
       }
 
       # accept purges from w3tc and varnish http purge
       if (req.request == "PURGE") {
       return (lookup);
       }
 
       # don't cache phpmyadmin
       if (req.url ~ "^/phpmyadmin") {
       return (pass);
       }
 
       # don't cache search results
       if( req.url ~ "\?s=" ){
       return (pass);
       }
 
       # always pass through posted requests and those with basic auth
       if ( req.request == "POST" || req.http.Authorization ) {
       return (pass);
       }
 
       # else ok to fetch a cached page
       unset req.http.Cookie;
       return (lookup);
 
       # don't cache phpbb
       if (req.http.host == "forum.namhuy.net") {
       set req.http.host = "forum.namhuy.net";
       set req.backend = forum;
       return (pass);
       }
}
 
# accept purges from w3tc and varnish http purge
sub vcl_hit {
       if (req.request == "PURGE") { purge; }
       return (deliver);
}
 
# accept purges from w3tc and varnish http purge
sub vcl_miss {
       if (req.request == "PURGE") { purge; }
       return (fetch);
}
 
sub vcl_pass {
       return (pass);
}
 
sub vcl_fetch {
 
       # don't cache phpmyadmin
       if (req.url ~ "^/phpmyadmin") {
       return (hit_for_pass);
       }
 
       # remove some headers we never want to see
       unset beresp.http.Server;
       unset beresp.http.X-Powered-By;
       unset beresp.http.Age;
 
       # only allow cookies to be set if we're in admin area - i.e. commenters stay logged out
       if( beresp.http.Set-Cookie && req.url !~ "^/wp-(login|admin)" ){
       unset beresp.http.Set-Cookie;
       set beresp.ttl = 48h;
       }
 
       # Don't cache error pages
       if (beresp.status == 404 || beresp.status == 503 || beresp.status >= 500){
       set beresp.ttl = 0s;
       }
 
       # allow phpbb
       if (req.http.host == "forum.namhuy.net") {
       set req.http.host = "forum.namhuy.net";
       set req.backend = forum;
       return (hit_for_pass);
       }
}
 
sub vcl_deliver {
 
       # add debugging headers, so we can see what's cached
       if (obj.hits > 0) {
       set resp.http.X-Cache = "HIT";
       }
 
       else {
       set resp.http.X-Cache = "MISS";
       }
 
       # remove some headers added by varnish
       unset resp.http.Via;
       unset resp.http.X-Varnish;
       unset resp.http.Age;
}
 
sub vcl_hash {
       hash_data(req.url);
       
       if (req.http.host) {
       hash_data(req.http.host);
       }
       
       else {
       hash_data(server.ip);
       }
       return (hash);
}

Configure Nginx to work with Varnish on Centos 6

We are done with Varnish part, the next thing we are going to do is to make Nginx to work with Varnish. By default nginx listens on port 80 as a web server, but in our case we have Varnish caching in front of Nginx. We have changed Varnish to listen to port 80, and use port 8080 to talk to Nginx. We have not configured Nginx to talk to Varnish yet but we are going to do it.

# nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Default default.conf file should look like

server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  localhost;

Server {
    listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
    server_name  domain.com;

# service nginx restart
# service varnish restart

# curl -I http://domain.com

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.6.0
Content-Type: text/html
Last-Modified: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 13:33:03 GMT
ETag: "5359128f-264"
Content-Length: 612
Date: Mon, 05 May 2014 03:34:51 GMT
X-Varnish: 1267017339 1267017337
Age: 5
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive