nginx: [emerg] could not build the server_names_ha

Question

I'm in the process of setting up a new server. The http-Server of my choice is NGINX. I want to add the domain audi-freunde-einbeck.de as a virtual host. I already have 2 other domains in there and it works fine, but when I try to add the above mentioned domain and start the server it gives me Job failed. See system journal and 'systemctl status' for details. I thought it was because of the dashes, so I tried just various other domains with and without hyphens, but no luck. Same error. what could be causing this? I also tried rebooting, I am really at a loss here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have played around a bit and found out, that, when I only put one domain in, it works. But when I put another domain in, it stops. Here is the output in status:

[root@netzmelone nginx]# systemctl status nginx
nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
      Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled)
      Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:38:08 +0000; 7s ago
     Process: 14239 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/nginx -g pid /run/nginx.pid; -s quit (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
     Process: 14232 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx -g pid /run/nginx.pid; daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
     Process: 14242 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t -q -g pid /run/nginx.pid; daemon on; master_process on; (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
    Main PID: 14234 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      CGroup: name=systemd:/system/nginx.service

Dec 16 11:38:08 netzmelone nginx[14242]: nginx: [emerg] could not build the server_names_hash, you should increase server_names_hash_bucket_size: 32
Dec 16 11:38:08 netzmelone nginx[14242]: nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test failed

Answer 1

This is most likely happening because of the long domain name. You can fix this by adding

server_names_hash_bucket_size  64;

at the top of your http block (probably located in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf). I quote from the nginx documentation what to do when this error appears: In this case, the directive value should be increased to the next power of two. So in your case it should become 64.

Reference: http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/server_names.html#optimization

Answer 2

This sounds perhaps a bit random, but it might help an nginx newb like myself.
I got this error when I left off a ; on the server_name line.

had:

server_name    www.mydomain.com  
access_log     /var/log/nginx/www.mydomain.com; 

fix:

server_name    www.mydomain.com;  
access_log     /var/log/nginx/www.mydomain.com; 

All directives in nginx config files must end with a ;
I often highlight ;s in my file before saving/uploading as a final check after editing.

Answer 3

• open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf with write privileges
• uncomment or add server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
• restart nginx sudo service nginx restart

If the error still persists:

• increase server_names_hash_bucket_size in steps 128, 256, 512, and so on (increasing by a power of 2 each time). eg. server_names_hash_bucket_size 128;
• restart the nginx each time until error is gone (error will always be the same no matter what value you already set)