Install nginx with PHP-FPM and mysql server 5.5

November 4, 2013 Servers, Tutorials

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Install nginx with PHP-FPM and mysql server 5.5

In my earlier tutorials I showed you how to install PHP-FPM with fastcgi and apache web server on ubuntu or debian operating system. This time I thought of doing a tutorial in a similar manner, but a different web server, with Nginx. As all of you know, Nginx is one of the fastest and scalable web server used on the internet at the moment. Look at Cloudflare’s network how well scaled and big it is, all by using nginx. So yeah, lets just get straight to the point and show you how to install Nginx with PHP-FPM step by step.

Preparing repositories

With PHP-FPM you need to install some repositories, first for PHP extensions and then also for PHP-FPM. I currently use the Doteb repository for Debian and Ubuntu, I’m going to use them this time also, so add the below lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all

1 2	deb http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all

Don’t forget the Doteb key for using this repository:

wget http://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg
apt-key add dotdeb.gpg

1 2	wget http://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg apt-key add dotdeb.gpg

Next don’t forget to update the package list, it is necessary on Debian / Ubuntu:

apt-get update

1	apt-get update

Install Mysql server 5.5

Mysql server 5.5 is currently the one I’m recommending the most, has been giving good results with my current server configurations. To install mysql server 5.5 run the below command:

apt-get install mysql-server-5.5 mysql-client-5.5

1	apt-get install mysql-server-5.5 mysql-client-5.5

You will be asked to enter a root password twice, once completed, you should have mysql server up and running.

Install PHP, PHP extensions and FPM

This is actually what we are interested in, to install PHP and the PHP extensions, run the below commands:

apt-get install php5 php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-json

1	apt-get install php5 php5-mysql php5-curl php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl php5-json

Once we finished to install PHP and all the PHP extensions needed, we can start installing PHP-FPM

apt-get install php5-fpm

1	apt-get install php5-fpm

Once we’ve completed this step, we proceed with installing the Nginx web server.

Install nginx with php-fpm on Ubuntu / Debian server

I did wrote another article before about how to install nginx web server, so you can either read that article which contains virtual host configuration and more detail explanation, or proceed further with this tutorial:

apt-get install nginx

1	apt-get install nginx

At this point you should have nginx installed, if you load your IP in your browser, you should see a similar page:

nignx default index

Heads up! Just in case you installed apache web server before or was installed by default, either remove the apache package or stop the service for nginx to use port 80, else you will have port conflict.

Configuring PHP-FPM

This is actually the hard part, I thought of getting the vhost set from scratch, but I saw that nginx by default provide us with one example that’s almost similar to what we need. Anyway, I’ve highlighted the parts you specifically need to make sure are there, the rest are normal Nginx vhost configuration.

Also first you will need to change php-fpm to listen on a TCP ip and port, as I’ve said in my other articles, that’s my default setup, although some of you will use a unix socket instead of this to avoid using too many tcp sockets, but I’ve not yet seen an issue with my setup and have been using it for some time now.

Anyway, open the file:

/etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

1	/etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

and edit the part with:

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

1	listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

instead of the unix socket. Next will be the Nginx vhost configuration, a default template is below and important parts are highlighted:

[...]
    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  _;

        #charset koi8-r;

        #access_log  /var/log/nginx/host.access.log  main;

        location / {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
            index  index.php index.html index.htm;
        }

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /40x.html
        #
        error_page  404              /404.html;
        location = /40x.html {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        }

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        }

        # proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
        #
        #location ~ .php$ {
        #    proxy_pass   http://127.0.0.1;
        #}

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        #
        location ~ .php$ {
             root           /usr/share/nginx/html;
             fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;
             fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
             fastcgi_index  index.php;
             include        fastcgi_params;
        }

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        location ~ /.ht {
            deny  all;
        }
    }
[...]

[...]

server {

listen 80;

server_name _;

#charset koi8-r;

#access_log /var/log/nginx/host.access.log main;

location / {

root /usr/share/nginx/html;

index index.php index.html index.htm;

}

# redirect server error pages to the static page /40x.html

error_page 404 /404.html;

location = /40x.html {

root /usr/share/nginx/html;

}

# redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html

error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;

location = /50x.html {

root /usr/share/nginx/html;

}

# proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80

#location ~ .php$ {

# proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1;

# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000

location ~ .php$ {

root /usr/share/nginx/html;

fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;

fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

fastcgi_index index.php;

include fastcgi_params;

}

# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root

# concurs with nginx's one

location ~ /.ht {

deny all;

}

[...]

If you create a phpinfo() you should see:

PHP Version 5.4.20-1~dotdeb.1

System	Linux debian 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.51-1 i686
Build Date	Sep 21 2013 22:37:00
Server API	FPM/FastCGI
Virtual Directory Support	disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path	/etc/php5/fpm
Loaded Configuration File	/etc/php5/fpm/php.ini
Scan this dir for additional .ini files	/etc/php5/fpm/conf.d
Additional .ini files parsed	/etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/10-pdo.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-curl.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-gd.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-imagick.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-imap.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-intl.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-mcrypt.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-memcache.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-mysql.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-mysqli.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-pdo_mysql.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-pdo_sqlite.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-pspell.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-recode.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-snmp.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-sqlite3.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-tidy.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-xmlrpc.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/20-xsl.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/ming.ini, /etc/php5/fpm/conf.d/ps.ini
PHP API	20100412