HTTP/2 was published almost 7 years ago, HTTP/3 being an internet draft standard since October 2020, and yet here we are, most of us still using HTTP/1.1. Considering how things quickly change in the IT world, I’ll give it av few (5-7) more years for the full migration to take place. Therefore, I’m going to show you how easily you could enable HTTP/2 on Nginx.
Prerequisites
- Nginx
- sudo privileges
Solution
Step 1. Open your virtual host file usually found under /etc/nginx/conf.d/ dir, find and edit listen 443 line.
listen 443 ssl http2;
Note(s): Notice the http2 parameter.
Step 2. Check the Nginx configuration syntax.
nginx -t
Step 3. Restart Nginx service.
systemctl restart nginx
Step 4. Verify that HTTP/2 is enabled.
curl -Iks https://devcoops.com
Expected output:
HTTP/2 200
Conclusion
Few key points to consider before transitioning from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/2:
- HTTP/2 works over HTTPS only.
- TLS 1.2 or later is required.
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