You can reload the NGINX configuration without any downtime, and without interrupting any current connections. A soft reconfiguration spawns a new set of NGINX worker processes, and the old ones continue to work until completion (but do not accept new requests – all new requests are accepted by the new set of worker processes). Live binary upgrades work in a similar fashion. If the upgrade is successful the old NGINX worker processes are signaled to terminate, and the new set takes over. For more information please see: Controlling NGINX