Nginx – Pulling static files from one of two locations in nginx

nginx

I have a small web app that uploads files to the server to later be displayed on the web. Currently my server HD is almost full and I'd like to add a second one. Currently the app and all existing files are on drive1 and I will be adding drive2. Is it possible using something like try_files to check multiple locations to see if the file exists?

For example, if someone requests mysite.com/images/2349879.jpg nginx would look for /drive2/images/2349879.jpg first, if it doesn't exist it would check check drive1/images/2349879.jpg and if it isn't there serve a 404?


This is my current nginx.conf

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name www.MYSITE.com _;

    ssl_certificate     /srv/apps/MYSITE-ssl/certs/MYSITE.com.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /srv/apps/MYSITE-ssl/private/MYSITE.com.key;

    ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers RC4:HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5:!kEDH;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    set $https off;
    if ( $scheme = 'https' ) { set $https on; }

    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=315360000; includeSubdomains";

    keepalive_timeout   70;

    return 301 $scheme://MYSITE.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen      80;
    listen  443 ssl;
    server_name  MYSITE.com;

    ssl_certificate     /srv/apps/MYSITE-ssl/certs/MYSITE.com.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /srv/apps/MYSITE-ssl/private/MYSITE.com.key;

    ssl_protocols SSLv3 TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers RC4:HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5:!kEDH;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    set $https off;
    if ( $scheme = 'https' ) { set $https on; }

    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=315360000; includeSubdomains";

    keepalive_timeout   70;

    root /var/www/MYSITE.com;

    charset utf-8;

    access_log  /srv/apps/logs/MYSITE.access.log  main;

    location /images {
        internal;
    }

    location /images/ {
        internal;
    }

    location ~ ^/images/(.*)$ {
        alias /srv/apps/MYSITE/i/$1;
        include /srv/apps/MYSITE.hosts;
        expires max;
        add_header Pragma "public";
        add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
        log_not_found off;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:png|jpe?g|gif|ico|bmp|xml)$ {
        include /srv/apps/MYSITE.hosts;
        expires max;
        add_header Pragma "public";
        add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
        log_not_found off;
    }

    location /i/ {
        internal;
        try_files $uri /srv/imagestorage$uri /srv/apps/MYSITE/i$uri;
    }

    location /i {
        internal;
        try_files $uri /srv/imagestorage$uri /srv/apps/MYSITE/i$uri;
    }

    location / {
        index index.php
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    error_page  404             /info.php?act=404;
    error_page  500             /info.php?act=500;

    location = /favicon.ico {
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    location = /robots.txt {
        allow all;
        log_not_found off;
        access_log off;
    }

    # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000

    location ~* \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param HTTPS $https;
        fastcgi_pass php;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:js|css)$ {
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
    # concurs with nginx's one

    location ~ /\. {
        deny  all;
    }

}

There are a few weird things happening here so I'll try to explain: the files are located in /srv/apps/MYSITE/i and the URL mysite.com/i/file.jpg will return a file from that location. A request to mysite.com/images/file.jpg will return the same file.

The code I tried is try_files $uri /srv/imagestorage$uri /srv/apps/MYSITE/i$uri; in two locations above however it doesn't seem to be working at all (I can still see files in /i but it does not check the new drive (/srv/imagestorage) at all. Maybe I am adding try_files in the wrong location?

Best Answer

You can simply do this :

server {

[...]

    root /;

    location /images {
        try_files /drive1$uri /drive2$uri;
    }

}

Then http(s)://mysite.com/images/1.png will be served using local filesystem path /drive1/images/1.png or /drive2/images/1.png if the file is missing from the first path or return a 404.

Obviously that's an exemple, you should never setup your root filesystem path in any webserver configuration.