On live sites

/home/<user>/auth/.htpasswd

To create a new .htpasswd file
htpasswd -c /home/<user>/auth/.htpasswd

To add a new user/change the password
htpasswd .htpasswd <user> 

`location /status {
        auth_basic   "filename";
        auth_basic_user_file   /home/<user>/auth/.htpasswd;
        allow <ip>;
        deny all;
        satisfy any;
	...
}`

The above settings are the same style as .htaccess with the auth_basic_user_file pointing to the .htpasswd file in the first step.