Nginx is an open source reverse proxy, load balancer, web server, and HTTP cache. It supports protocols like HTTP, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP. Nginx can be installed on Ubuntu using apt-get install after adding the nginx PPA repository. Configuration files are located in /etc/nginx with the main configuration in nginx.conf. Virtual hosts are configured in files in /etc/nginx/sites-available and enabled in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled. Nginx can be upgraded on the fly using kill signals without downtime.