Rate limiting config block

Limit to 10 req/s per IP with burst of 20 (add to http/server block)

limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=api:10m rate=10r/s;
limit_req zone=api burst=20 nodelay;

More nginx commands

Upstream health proxy pass

upstream backend { server 10.0.0.1:8080; server 10.0.0.2:8080 backup; keepalive 32; }

Round-robin upstream with backup and keepalive connections
Enable gzip compression

gzip on; gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript; gzip_min_length 1024; gzip_comp_level 6;

Compress text responses ≥1KB at level 6
Return JSON error response

error_page 429 /429.json; location = /429.json { default_type application/json; return 429 '{"error":"rate_limited"}'; }

Custom JSON body for rate-limit or error responses
Force HTTPS redirect

server { listen 80; return 301 https://$host$request_uri; }

Permanent redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS
Show active connections

curl -s http://localhost/stub_status

Built-in nginx status page: active, reading, writing, waiting