Question

With nginx/0.7.65 I’m getting this error on line 4. Why doesn’t it recognize server?

#### CHAT_FRONT ####

server {
  listen 7000 default deferred;
  server_name example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/chat_front/current/public;

  location ^~ /assets/ {
    gzip_static on;
    expires max;
    add_header Cache-Control public;
  }

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

#### CHAT_STORE ####

server {
  listen 7002 default deferred;
  server_name store.example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/chat_store/current/public;

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

#### LOGIN ####

server {
  listen 7004 default deferred;
  server_name login.example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/login/current/public;

  location ^~ /assets/ {
    gzip_static on;
    expires max;
    add_header Cache-Control public;
  }

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

#### PERMISSIONS ####

server {
  listen 7006 default deferred;
  server_name permissions.example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/permissions/current/public;

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

#### SEARCH ####

server {
  listen 7008 default deferred;
  server_name search.example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/search/current/public;

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

#### ANALYTICS ####

server {
  listen 7010 default deferred;
  server_name analytics.example.com;
  root /home/deployer/apps/analytics/current/public;

  error_page 500 502 503 504 /500.html;
  client_max_body_size 4G;
  keepalive_timeout 10;
}

Answer 1

The server directive must be contained in the context of http module. Additionally you are missing top-level events module, which has one obligatory setting, and a bunch of stanzas which are to be in the http module of your config. While nginx documentation is not particularly helpful on creating config from scratch, there are working examples there.

Source: nginx documentation on server directive