How to Use memcached in nginx

Getting to Know How to Work with the memcached Module in nginx

The ngx_http_memcached_module module gives us the ability to send requests to memcached servers to utilize cached data. In simple terms, memcached is a caching system that helps reduce the time and increase the performance of web applications. However, one of the important points you need to pay attention to is that the configuration of this module must be done correctly, especially the memcached_bind option.

The memcached_bind option essentially gives us the ability to specify which IP address our connection should be made to. This becomes especially important in situations where memcached servers are located on different networks or when several network interfaces are accessible, leading to greater importance.

In general, the memcached_bind option gives you the ability to specify an exact IP address for connecting to the memcached server. This setup helps enhance the security and efficiency of your system.

For example, if you want to ensure that your requests to the memcached server are sent over a specific network, you can specify that network's IP address in the nginx configuration. This means all requests will be executed from a defined address.

Now that we have become more familiar with the concept and importance of memcached_bind, let's look at a sample code demonstrating how to use this option in the nginx configuration file.

server {
    location /memcached {
        default_type application/json;
        memcached_pass 127.0.0.1:11211;
        memcached_bind 192.168.1.10;
    }
}

Line-by-Line Explanation of the Code

In the code above, we have defined an nginx server:

This line indicates that we are defining a server block.

Here, we're specifying that we will handle requests arriving at the address /memcached.

This specifies the default response type as application/json.

This line specifies the IP address and port of the memcached server to which data will be sent.

This line defines the IP address we want to use for connecting to the memcached server, specifying it.

This line indicates the closure of the location block.

Finally, this line indicates the closure of the server block.