nginx: [emerg] "stream" directive is not allowed here

Question

I have the latest NGINX from ppa installed on Ubuntu 16.04.

nginx version: nginx/1.12.1

From my understanding, it should support stream and UDP load balancing.

But I get this error message:

nginx: [emerg] "stream" directive is not allowed here in /etc/nginx/conf.d/load-balancer.conf:3

This is my config in /etc/nginx/conf.d/load-balancer.conf

stream {
        upstream backend {
                least_conn;
                server 172.31.9.51 fail_timeout=10s;
                server 172.31.20.140 fail_timeout=10s;
        }

        server {
                listen          500 udp;
                listen          4500 udp;
                proxy_pass      backend;
                proxy_timeout   1s;
                proxy_responses 1;
                error_log       logs/dns.log;
        }
}

Solution

stream needs to be on the same level as http block so like

http { foo }
stream { bar }

My guess is your include for /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf is located in the http {} block and not outside of it. Checkout the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf for the include and maybe you have to make a new one for the stream section

Comments

[Mike]

is that the whole file?

[Houman]

Yes Mike. This is the whole file.

[Richard Smith]

The nginx configuration file is located at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. The stream block is a top-level block. Ensure that files located in the conf.d directory are included into the top-level.

[Houman]

I've updated the question with the path of my config. /etc/nginx/conf.d/load-balancer.conf. You are right! The include is inside the http.

[Houman]

Sorry Mike, I have a follow-up issue that I don't understand. Why do I need to specify the port for upstream? nginx: [emerg] no port in upstream "172.31.9.51". Since the UDP ports are defined already under server...

[Mike]

you need to tell it what ports to send back to like server 172.31.9.51:4500 fail_timeout=10s;

[javabrett]

Interestingly, the default nginx Docker image does exactly this: "My guess is your include for /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf is located in the http {} block and not outside of it.". So in that Docker image, you cannot use /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf to add stream directives.