First stop and disable apache

$ sudo systemctl stop httpd
$ sudo systemctl disable httpd

install nginx

$ sudo yum install epel-release
$ sudo yum install nginx
$ sudo systemctl start nginx
$ sudo systemctl enable nginx

http://ipaddress/  should show nginx default page
The default path root for nginx /usr/share/nginx/html

configure php settings

$ sudo vi /etc/php.ini
cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

make sure php-fpm is installed

$ sudo yum install php-fpm
$ sudo vi /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
listen = /var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock
listen.owner = nobody
listen.group = nobody
user = nginx
group = nginx
security.limit_extensions = .php .php3 .php4 .php5
$ sudo systemctl start php-fpm
$ sudo systemctl enable php-fpm

add the below script as new default config file

$ sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

server {
listen 80;
server_name ip_address;

# note that these lines are originally from the "location /" block
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
index index.php index.html index.htm;

location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
error_page 404 /404.html;
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}

location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

location /dataroot/ {
internal;
alias /var/moodledata/; # ensure the path ends with /
}

location /cachedir/ {
internal;
alias /var/moodledata/cache/; # ensure the path ends with /
}

location /localcachedir/ {
internal;
alias /var/moodledata/localcache/; # ensure the path ends with /
}

location /tempdir/ {
internal;
alias /var/moodledata/temp/; # ensure the path ends with /
}

location /filedir/ {
internal;
alias /var/moodledata/filedir/; # ensure the path ends with /
}

if moodle is still in apache server copy it under nginx

$ sudo cp -R /var/www/html/moodle/* /usr/share/nginx/html/

enable nginx settings in moodle config file

$ sudo vi /usr/share/nginx/html/config.php

//enabled by Mehmet Sen
 $CFG->xsendfile = 'X-Accel-Redirect'; // Nginx {@see http://wiki.nginx.org/XSendfile}
 // If your X-Sendfile implementation (usually Nginx) uses directory aliases specify them
 // in the following array setting:
 $CFG->xsendfilealiases = array(
 '/dataroot/' => $CFG->dataroot,
 '/cachedir/' => '/var/moodledata/cache', // for custom $CFG->cachedir locations
 '/localcachedir/' => '/var/moodledata/localcache', // for custom $CFG->localcachedir locations
 '/tempdir/' => '/var/moodledata/temp', // for custom $CFG->tempdir locations
 '/filedir' => '/var/moodledata/filedir', // for custom $CFG->filedir locations
 );

restart nginx

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx