Install Varnish Cache on AlmaLinux 9

Step 1 – Install

dnf install epel-release -y
dnf install -y varnish
systemctl enable --now varnish

Step 2 – Basic /etc/varnish/default.vcl

vcl 4.1;

backend default {
    .host = "127.0.0.1";
    .port = "8080";
    .connect_timeout = 5s;
    .first_byte_timeout = 90s;
}

sub vcl_recv {
    if (req.url ~ "\.(css|js|png|jpg|gif|ico|woff2?)$") {
        unset req.http.cookie;
    }
}

sub vcl_backend_response {
    if (bereq.url ~ "\.(css|js|png|jpg|gif|ico|woff2?)$") {
        set beresp.ttl = 1h;
    }
}

Step 3 – Point Varnish to port 80, web server to 8080

Edit the Varnish systemd service or params file to set VARNISH_LISTEN_PORT=80, then reconfigure Nginx/Apache to listen on port 8080.

Step 4 – Reload

systemctl restart varnish 2>/dev/null || rc-service varnish restart
varnishstat