Country-based redirection allows websites to redirect visitors to different domains based on their geographical location. This article explains how to configure country-based redirection in Nginx when the web server is behind a load balancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nginx web server should be installed and configured. The Nginx server should be behind a load balancer. GeoIP database ( If you followed our previous articles then the default configuration path will be\u00a0\/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf\u00a0<\/em>and domain configuration will be\u00a0\/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default.conf<\/em><\/p>\n Open the nginx configuration and add the below lines under\u00a0http\u00a0<\/em>section<\/p>\n Please make sure that the file \/usr\/share\/GeoIP\/GeoIP.dat exists.<\/p>\n Where,<\/p>\n The X-Forwarded-For and X-Real-IP directives in the above config will properly forward the Client IP from the Nginx server.<\/p>\n real_ip_recursive to on will return the leftmost (original) IP instead of the rightmost (most recent) IP from the X-Forwarded-For header.<\/p>\n Open the site configuration file(default config is\u00a0\/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default.conf)\u00a0<\/em>and append the below line inside the\u00a0server\u00a0<\/em> block.<\/p>\n The above line will redirect the traffic to example.in incase if the traffic is generating from India.<\/p>\n Verify the nginx syntax<\/p>\n Restart the nginx service.<\/p>\n Access the domain or IP address from India and the request will be redirected to example.in.<\/p>\n\n\n By configuring the GeoIP database and client IP forwarding in Nginx, website traffic can be redirected based on the visitor’s country. This setup helps serve country-specific domains and provides a more localized experience for users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. How does country-based redirection work in Nginx?<\/strong> 2. How does Nginx identify the original client IP behind a load balancer?<\/strong> 3. What happens if the GeoIP database is missing?<\/strong>GeoIP.dat<\/code>) should be available on the server. Root or sudo access to modify Nginx configuration files. A domain configured for country-based redirection.<\/p>\n\n\nAssumption:<\/h4>\n
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Implementation:<\/h4>\n
vi \/etc\/nginx\/nginx.conf<\/code><\/p>\nreal_ip_header X-Forwarded-For;\nset_real_ip_from 0.0.0.0\/0;\nreal_ip_recursive on;\ngeoip_country \/usr\/share\/GeoIP\/GeoIP.dat;\n<\/pre>\n
vi \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/default.conf<\/code><\/p>\nif ($geoip_country_code = IN){\nreturn 301 http:\/\/example.in;\n}\n<\/pre>\nnginx -t<\/code><\/p>\nservice nginx restart<\/code><\/p>\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
FAQs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nginx uses the GeoIP database to identify the visitor’s country based on their IP address and redirects the request accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nginx uses the X-Forwarded-For<\/code> header along with the real_ip_header<\/code> and real_ip_recursive<\/code> directives to identify the original client IP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Country detection will not work correctly. Make sure the GeoIP database file, such as \/usr\/share\/GeoIP\/GeoIP.dat<\/code>, exists and is accessible to Nginx.<\/p>\n\n\n\nRelated Articles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n