Configure NGINX to log HTTP POST request's body

build.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo "Building NGINX along with Echo module"

# install prerequisites
yum -y install gcc gcc-c++ make zlib-devel pcre-devel openssl-devel

# download the Echo module
curl -L -O 'https://github.com/openresty/echo-nginx-module/archive/v0.58.tar.gz'
tar -xzvf v0.58.tar.gz && rm v0.58.tar.gz
mv echo-nginx-module-0.58 /tmp/echo-nginx-module

# download NGINX source code
curl -O 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.9.7.tar.gz'
tar -xzvf nginx-1.9.7.tar.gz && rm nginx-1.9.7.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.9.7/

# create user NGINX
groupadd nginx
useradd -G nginx nginx

# install NGINX from source with the Echo module
./configure \
  --user=nginx                          \
  --group=nginx                         \
  --prefix=/etc/nginx                   \
  --sbin-path=/usr/sbin/nginx           \
  --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf     \
  --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid         \
  --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock       \
  --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log \
  --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log \
  --with-http_gzip_static_module        \
  --with-http_stub_status_module        \
  --with-http_ssl_module                \
  --with-pcre                           \
  --with-file-aio                       \
  --with-http_realip_module             \
  --add-module=/tmp/echo-nginx-module

make -j2
make install

# cleanup
cd ..
rm -rf nginx-1.9.7/
rm -rf /tmp/echo-nginx-module

configure.sh

#!/bin/bash
echo "Configuring machine to run nginx and support high traffic"

# increase open files limit
echo "fs.file-max = 1073741824" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "nginx       soft    nofile   40960" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "nginx       hard    nofile   81920" >> /etc/security/limits.conf

# reload system config
sysctl -p

# edit the index.html file
rm /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html
echo "0" >> /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html

# edit error files (do not fail if files doesn't exist)
rm /usr/share/nginx/html/404.html || true
echo "404" >> /usr/share/nginx/html/404.html
rm /usr/share/nginx/html/50x.html || true
echo "50x" >> /usr/share/nginx/html/50x.html
rm /usr/share/nginx/html/poweredby.png || true
rm /usr/share/nginx/html/nginx-logo.png || true

nginx.conf

user  nginx;
worker_processes  2;

pid        /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections  8192;
}

http {
    server_tokens off;
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    log_format custom '$request_body';

    sendfile        on;

    keepalive_timeout  65;

    gzip  on;

    map $request_body $loggable {
        ''      0;
        '-'     0;
        default 1;
    }
    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  localhost;

        access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  custom if=$loggable;

        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index index.html index.htm;

        location / {
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
        location /events {
            # read request body
            echo_read_request_body;
            root   html;
            index  index.html index.htm;
        }
        #error_page  404              /404.html;
        error_page  405     =200 $uri;

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   html;
        }
    }
}
worker_rlimit_nofile 65536;