I have the same issue here running Rails 2 apps virtual hosts on Debian Squeeze. In my case I, the error occur when I perform update with the PUT method. That's solve my problem: location / { error_page 405 = $uri; try_files $uri @unicorn_app; } Thank you! Posted at Nginx Forum: http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,2414,220771#msg-220771