Installing NGINX Plus LTS

Since May 13, 2026, NGINX Plus is published in two release types: Long-Term Support (LTS) and Continuous Release (CR).

The NGINX Plus LTS release model is designed for mission-critical production environments. Each LTS release is supported for three years and receives security fixes and CVE mitigations without introducing new features. New features are delivered in Continuous Releases (CR) during the same annual LTS cycle.

• Cadence: one LTS per year
• Patching model: security/CVE fixes only, no feature changes
• Support window: up to 3 years for each LTS release
• Concurrency: up to 3 LTS versions supported at the same time
• Version format: an LTS release has 0 as the second numeric component, for example: PLS.37.0.0.1. LTS updates increment the third component, for example: PLS.37.0.1.1.

NGINX Plus Continuous Releases (CR) are published several times within an annual LTS cycle. Each CR contains the latest features and performance improvements. The CR cycle ends when a new LTS is released.

Repository configuration options

By default, NGINX Plus repositories are configured to receive Continuous Releases. To use LTS, update your repository configuration to point to the LTS package URL, replacing the default URL. You can choose one of the options during installation:

• Pin to current LTS only: receive only security updates for this LTS, no CRs, no automatic update to next LTS; supported up to three years
• Pin to LTS track: automatically upgrade to the newest LTS when it is released annually, no CRs.
• Default: receive Continuous Releases within the current LTS release. No actions needed.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• MyF5 Customer Portal access, credentials are provided in the email from F5, Inc.
• An active NGINX Plus subscription. Details can be verified on the MyF5 Customer Portal.
• A supported operating system and architecture.
• Administrative privileges: root access or sudo, or see Unprivileged installation.
• Internet access, or see Offline installation.

Preparation steps for all operating systems

1. Check if your operating system and architecture are supported. For a complete list of supported platforms and architectures, see the Technical Specifications.

2. Back up your NGINX Plus configuration and log files if you have an older NGINX Plus package installed. For more information, see Upgrading NGINX Plus.

3. Download the SSL certificate, private key, and the JWT license file associated with your NGINX Plus subscription from the MyF5 Customer Portal:

   • Log in to MyF5.
   • Go to My Products & Plans > Subscriptions to see your active subscriptions.
   • Find your NGINX products or services subscription, and select the Subscription ID for details.
   • Download the <nginx-repo>.crt and <nginx-repo>.key from the subscription page.
   • Download the JSON Web Token (JWT) from the subscription page. See About Subscription Licenses for details.

4. Create the /etc/ssl/nginx directory:

   Copy

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/ssl/nginx

5. Copy the downloaded .crt and .key files to the /etc/ssl/nginx/ directory and make sure they are named nginx-repo.crt and nginx-repo.key:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.crt /etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.crt
   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.key /etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.key

6. Follow the installation instructions for your operating system: Amazon Linux 2023, Amazon Linux 2, RHEL-based, Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, SLES, Alpine.

Amazon Linux 2023 LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the ca-certificates dependency:

   Copy

   sudo dnf update && \
   sudo dnf install ca-certificates

3. Add the NGINX Plus repository to your Amazon Linux 2023 instance. Download the plus-amazonlinux2023.repo file to /etc/yum.repos.d:

   Copy

   sudo wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/plus-amazonlinux2023.repo

4. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/plus-amazonlinux2023.repo file and update the baseurl to the appropriate value for your target version.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/amzn/2023/$basearch

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/amzn/2023/$basearch

5. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   sudo dnf install nginx-plus

6. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

7. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

8. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

9. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

Amazon Linux 2 LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the ca-certificates dependency:

   Copy

   sudo yum update && \
   sudo yum install ca-certificates

3. Add the NGINX Plus repository to your Amazon Linux 2 instance. Download the nginx-plus-amazon2.repo file to /etc/yum.repos.d:

   Copy

   sudo wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/nginx-plus-amazon2.repo

4. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx-plus-amazon2 file and update the baseurl to the appropriate value for your target version.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/amzn2/$releasever/$basearch

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/amzn2/$releasever/$basearch

5. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   sudo yum install nginx-plus

6. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

7. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

8. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

9. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

RHEL-based systems LTS packages

Supported RHEL-based operating systems include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux for versions 8.1+, 9.7+, and 10+.

1. Make sure you meet the prerequisites and have completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the ca-certificates dependency:

   Copy

   sudo dnf update && \
   sudo dnf install ca-certificates

3. Add the NGINX Plus repository by downloading nginx-plus-.repo file that matches your OS major version to /etc/yum.repos.d.

   • For RHEL-based 8.1+, download the plus-8.repo file:

     Copy

     sudo wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/plus-8.repo

   • For RHEL-based 9.7+, download the plus-9.repo file:

     Copy

     sudo wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/plus-9.repo

   • For RHEL-based 10+, download the plus-10.repo file:

     Copy

     sudo wget -P /etc/yum.repos.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/plus-10.repo

4. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/plus-<version>.repo file and update the baseurl to the appropriate value for your target version.
   
   For RHEL-based 8.1+

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/centos/8/$basearch/

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/centos/8/$basearch/

   For RHEL-based 9.7+

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/centos/9/$basearch/

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/centos/9/$basearch/

   For RHEL-based 10+

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/centos/10/$basearch/

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     baseurl=https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/centos/10/$basearch/

   • Save the changes and exit.

   • Update the repository information:

     Copy

     sudo dnf update

5. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   sudo dnf install nginx-plus

6. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

7. To enable the NGINX service to start at boot, run the following command:

   Copy

   sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

8. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

9. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

10. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

Debian LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the prerequisites packages:

   Copy

   sudo apt update && \
   sudo apt install apt-transport-https \
                    lsb-release \
                    ca-certificates \
                    wget \
                    gnupg2 \
                    debian-archive-keyring

3. Download and add NGINX signing key:

   Copy

   wget -qO - https://cs.nginx.com/static/keys/nginx_signing.key \
       | gpg --dearmor \
       | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

4. Add the NGINX Plus repository:

   Copy

   printf "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg] \
   https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/debian `lsb_release -cs` nginx-plus\n" \
   | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx-plus.list

5. Download the nginx-plus apt configuration to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d:

   Copy

   sudo wget -P /etc/apt/apt.conf.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/90pkgs-nginx

   Pin NGINX Plus to a specific version

   To pin NGINX Plus to a specific version (for example, R33):

   1. Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx-plus.list file.

   2. Update the repository base URL to the desired version:

      • For Ubuntu:

        Copy

        https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R33/ubuntu

      • For Debian:

        Copy

        https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R33/debian

   3. Save the changes and exit.

   4. Update the repository information:

      Copy

      sudo apt update

6. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx-plus.list file and update the URL to the appropriate value for your target version.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/debian

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/debian

7. Update the repository information:

   Copy

   sudo apt update

8. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   sudo apt install -y nginx-plus

9. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

10. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

    Copy

    nginx -v

    The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

    Copy

    nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

11. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

12. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

Ubuntu LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the prerequisites packages:

   Copy

   sudo apt update && \
   sudo apt install apt-transport-https \
                    lsb-release \
                    ca-certificates \
                    wget \
                    gnupg2 \
                    ubuntu-keyring

3. Download and add NGINX signing key:

   Copy

   wget -qO - https://cs.nginx.com/static/keys/nginx_signing.key \
   | gpg --dearmor \
   | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null

4. Add the NGINX Plus repository:

   Copy

   printf "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nginx-archive-keyring.gpg] \
   https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` nginx-plus\n" \
   | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx-plus.list

5. Download the nginx-plus apt configuration to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d:

   Copy

   sudo wget -P /etc/apt/apt.conf.d https://cs.nginx.com/static/files/90pkgs-nginx

6. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx-plus.list file and update the URL to the appropriate value for your target version.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/ubuntu

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/ubuntu

7. Update the repository information:

   Copy

   sudo apt update

8. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   sudo apt install -y nginx-plus

9. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

10. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

    Copy

    nginx -v

    The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

    Copy

    nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

11. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

12. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

FreeBSD LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Install the prerequisite ca_root_nss package:

   Copy

   sudo pkg update && \
   sudo pkg install ca_root_nss

3. Copy the nginx-plus.conf file to the /etc/pkg/ directory:

   Copy

   sudo fetch -o /etc/pkg/nginx-plus.conf http://cs.nginx.com/static/files/nginx-plus.conf

4. Add the following lines to the /usr/local/etc/pkg.conf file:

   Copy

   PKG_ENV: { SSL_NO_VERIFY_PEER: "1",
   SSL_CLIENT_CERT_FILE: "/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.crt",
   SSL_CLIENT_KEY_FILE: "/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.key" }

5. Modify your NGINX Plus repository configuration to pin to the desired LTS track. To change your update channel, edit the /etc/pkg/nginx-plus.conf file and update the URL to the appropriate value for your target version.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     URL: pkg+https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/freebsd/${ABI}/latest

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     URL: pkg+https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/freebsd/${ABI}/latest

6. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced. Back up your NGINX Plus configuration and log files if you have an older NGINX Plus package installed. For more information, see Upgrading NGINX Plus.

   Copy

   sudo pkg install nginx-plus

7. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /usr/local/etc/nginx directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp license.jwt /usr/local/etc/nginx

8. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

9. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

10. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

SUSE Linux Enterprise LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Create a file bundle of the certificate and key:

   Copy

   cat /etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.crt /etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo.key > /etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo-bundle.crt

3. Install the required ca-certificates dependency:

   Copy

   zypper refresh
   zypper install ca-certificates

4. Add the nginx-plus repo.

   For SLES 15, pinned to current LTS version:

   Copy

   zypper addrepo -G -t yum -c \
   "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/sles/15?ssl_clientcert=/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo-bundle.crt&ssl_verify=peer" \
   nginx-plus

   For SLES 15, pinned to LTS track:

   Copy

   zypper addrepo -G -t yum -c \
   "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/sles/15?ssl_clientcert=/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo-bundle.crt&ssl_verify=peer" \
   nginx-plus

   For SLES 16, pinned to current LTS version:

   Copy

   zypper addrepo -G -t yum -c \
   "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/sles/16?ssl_clientcert=/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo-bundle.crt&ssl_verify=peer" \
   nginx-plus

   For SLES 16, pinned to LTS track:

   Copy

   zypper addrepo -G -t yum -c \
   "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/sles/16?ssl_clientcert=/etc/ssl/nginx/nginx-repo-bundle.crt&ssl_verify=peer" \
   nginx-plus

5. Install the nginx-plus package. Any older NGINX Plus package is automatically replaced.

   Copy

   zypper install nginx-plus

6. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

7. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

8. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

9. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

Alpine LTS packages

1. Make sure you have met all prerequisites and completed the common steps for all operating systems.

2. Upload nginx-repo.key to /etc/apk/cert.key and nginx-repo.crt to /etc/apk/cert.pem. Ensure these files contain only the specific key and certificate — Alpine Linux doesn’t support mixing client certificates for multiple repositories.

3. Put the NGINX signing public key in the /etc/apk/keys directory:

   Copy

   sudo wget -O /etc/apk/keys/nginx_signing.rsa.pub https://cs.nginx.com/static/keys/nginx_signing.rsa.pub

4. Add the NGINX repository to the /etc/apk/repositories file.

   • Pin to current LTS version:

     Copy

     printf "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/R37.0/alpine/v`egrep -o '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' /etc/alpine-release`/main\n" \
     | sudo tee -a /etc/apk/repositories

   • Pin to LTS track:

     Copy

     printf "https://pkgs.nginx.com/plus/LTS/alpine/v`egrep -o '^[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' /etc/alpine-release`/main\n" \
     | sudo tee -a /etc/apk/repositories

5. Remove all community-supported NGINX packages. Note that this will also remove all NGINX modules:

   Copy

   sudo apk del -r nginx

6. Install the NGINX Plus package:

   Copy

   sudo apk add nginx-plus

7. Copy the downloaded JWT file to the /etc/nginx/ directory and make sure it is named license.jwt:

   Copy

   sudo cp <downloaded-file-name>.jwt /etc/nginx/license.jwt

8. Check the nginx version to verify that NGINX Plus LTS is installed correctly:

   Copy

   nginx -v

   The command output should indicate an LTS release: the second numeric component of the Plus release version should be 0:

   Copy

   nginx version: nginx/1.29.8 (nginx-plus-r37.0.0)

9. Make sure license reporting to F5 licensing endpoint is configured. By default, no configuration is required. However, it becomes necessary when NGINX Plus is installed in a disconnected environment, uses NGINX Instance Manager for usage reporting, or uses a custom path for the license file. Configuration can be done in the mgmt {} block of the NGINX Plus configuration file (/etc/nginx/nginx.conf). For more information, see About Subscription Licenses.

10. If you are using NGINX Instance Manager in your infrastructure, install and enable NGINX Agent. See Install and Configure NGINX Agent for details.

Upgrade NGINX Plus

For general upgrade instructions, see Upgrading NGNIX Plus