This short guide is for Ubuntu but can be easily adapted to other Linux systems.

GeoIP update package

First install the geoipupdate package provided by MaxMind.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maxmind/ppa

sudo apt update
sudo apt install geoipupdate libmaxminddb0 libmaxminddb-dev mmdb-bin

You need to create an account on the MaxMind website which provides updated GeoIP (GeoLite2 Free version) databases. After registering on the site, you can manage licence keys under your MaxMind account.

In the /etc/GeoIP.conf file, replace the new AccountId and LicenseKey, for instance:

# GeoIP.conf file for `geoipupdate` program, for versions >= 3.1.1.
# Used to update GeoIP databases from https://www.maxmind.com.
# For more information about this config file, visit the docs at
# https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/updating-databases?lang=en.

# `AccountID` is from your MaxMind account.
AccountID 0000000

# `LicenseKey` is from your MaxMind account
LicenseKey 0000000000000000

# `EditionIDs` is from your MaxMind account.
EditionIDs GeoLite2-ASN GeoLite2-City GeoLite2-Country

You can also download the .conf file generated by MaxMind in the webpage, then replace the file on the server.

After that, you will be able to update the GeoIP database by running sudo geoipupdate. It’s better to add new cron job to update the database regularly.

Enable Nginx GeoIP2 module

You have the GeoIP2 database updated, now just have to install and enable the GeoIP2 module for Nginx:

sudo apt install libnginx-mod-http-geoip2

This will automatic update a 50-mod-http-geoip2.conf config file under /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/.

GeoIP2 usage in Nginx

The following example demonstrates how to restrict access to the Nginx server only from the configured contries¹.

In you /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

http {
    geoip2 /var/lib/GeoIP/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb {
       $geoip2_data_country_iso_code country iso_code;
    }

    map $geoip2_data_country_iso_code $allowed_country {
       default no;
       FR yes; # France
       BE yes; # Belgium
       DE yes; # Germany
       CH yes; # Switzerland
    }

    server {
       # Block forbidden country
       if ($allowed_country = no) {
           return 444;
       }

       [...]
    }
}

The location of the .mmdb database files can vary depends on your system, e.g. /usr/share/GeoIP/ or /var/lib/GeoIP/.