Q. How do I configure PHP as FastCGI under FreeBSD Nginx webserver?
A. You can easily configure php as FastCGI application under Nginx for performance. You need following components:
[a] spawn-fcgi binary – For spawning a FastCGI process. This binary can be installed from Lighttpd webserver project. Nginx does not automatically spawn FCGI processes. You must start them separately using spawn-fcgi. [b] start.php.sh : A shell script to stop / start / restart php fastcgi process. This script swap php process on 127.0.0.1 IP and 9000 port. Once backend is started Nginx can be configured to connect to PHP.FreeBSD Install PHP5
If php5 is not installed type the following commands (make sure you select FastCGI option):
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
# make config
# make install clean
Also installed required php extensions such as php-msyql, php-gd and so on:
# cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-recommended /usr/local/etc/php.ini
# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions/
# make install clean
Install spawn-fcgi
Grab latest spawn-fcgi from another Lighttpd installation or just install it as follows:
# pkg_add -r -v lighttpd
Sample output:
scheme: [ftp] user: [] password: [] host: [ftp.freebsd.org] port: [0] document: [/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7.0-release/Latest/lighttpd.tbz] ---> ftp.freebsd.org:21 looking up ftp.freebsd.org connecting to ftp.freebsd.org:21 >> USER anonymousNow you can use /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi to swap process. If you want you can copy /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi to /root or other directory and just delete lighttpd package by typing the following commands:
# cp /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi /root/
# pkg_delete -v lighttpd-1.4.18_1
# cp /root/spawn-fcgi /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi
Now you can start PHP Fastcgi from command line as follows:
# /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9000 -u www -g www -f /usr/local/bin/php-cgi
Where,
- -a 127.0.0.1 : PHP FastCGI bind IP address, where Nginx will connect.
- -p 9000: PHP FastCGI port number, where Nginx will connect.
- -u www : PHP FastCGI username.
- -g www : PHP FastCGI groupname.
- -f /usr/local/bin/php-cgi : Path to PHP5 fastcgi binary.
Verify that php running as FastCGI, enter:
# sockstat -4 | grep 9000
Sample Output:
www php-cgi 8998 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:* www php-cgi 8997 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:* www php-cgi 8996 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:* www php-cgi 8995 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:* www php-cgi 8994 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:* www php-cgi 8993 0 tcp4 127.0.0.1:9000 *:*
Sample Shell Script To Start / Stop PHP FastCGI process
#!/bin/sh # NGINX FastCGI php5 startup shell script # Feedback <vivek@nixcraft.com> # http://bash.cyberciti.biz/web-server/fastcgi-php-server-start-stop-script/ # Set ME # PROVIDES=php-cgi LIGHTTPD_FCGI=/usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi SERVER_IP=127.0.0.1 SERVER_PORT=9000 SERVER_USER=www SERVER_GROUP=www PHP_CGI=/usr/local/bin/php-cgi PGREP=/bin/pgrep KILLALL=/usr/bin/killall ### No editing below #### cmd=$1 pcgi_start(){ echo "Starting $PROVIDES..." $LIGHTTPD_FCGI -a $SERVER_IP -p $SERVER_PORT -u $SERVER_USER -g $SERVER_GROUP -f $PHP_CGI } pcgi_stop(){ echo "Killing $PROVIDES..." $KILLALL $PROVIDES } pcgi_restart(){ pcgi_stop pcgi_start } pcgi_status(){ $PGREP $PROVIDES > /dev/null [ $? -eq 0 ] && echo "$PROVIDES running" || echo "$PROVIDES NOT running" } pcgi_help(){ echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}" } case ${cmd} in [Ss][Tt][Aa][Rr][Tt]) pcgi_start;; [Ss][Tt][Oo][Pp]) pcgi_stop;; [Rr][Ee][Ss][Tt][Aa][Rr][Tt]) pcgi_restart;; [Ss][Tt][Aa][Tt][Uu][Ss]) pcgi_status ;; *) pcgi_help ;; esac
Install above shell script:
# cd /tmp
# fetch http://bash.cyberciti.biz/dl/251.sh.zip
# unzip 251.sh.zip
# mv 251.sh /usr/local/etc/rc.d/php.cgi.sh
# chmod +x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/php.cgi.sh
# rm 251.sh.zip
To start php FastCGI, enter:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/php.cgi.sh start
# sockstat -4 | less
To stop php FastCGI, enter:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/php.cgi.sh stop
Connect Nginx Webserver To PHP FastCGI Process
Open your ngixn.conf file, enter:
# vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Append following config directives so that Nginx can pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000:
location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /websites/example.com/http$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; }
If your website is hosted at /home/www/theos.in/http, your config should look like as follows:
server { listen 80; server_name theos.in www.theos.in; access_log /var/log/nginx/theos.in/access.log main; location / { root /home/www/theos.in/http; index index.php index.html index.htm; } error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html; location = /50x.html { root /usr/local/www/nginx-dist; } # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000 location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /home/www/theos.in/http$fastcgi_script_name; include fastcgi_params; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } }
Restart Nginx web server
# nginx -c /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf -t
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nginx restart
Test php with following sample script:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
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Worked Like a charm / thx :)
Thanks for the great tutorial. Long life for freebsd and nginx!
Maybe the port wasn’t available by writing your article, or maybe I’m confusing things… …but the step “Install spawn-fcgi”, can that be done without any lighttpd? Like:
pkg_add spawn-fcgi
?
yea. and spawn_fcgi_enable=”YES” >> /etc/rc.conf seem to do the trick
or am i missing something that would come back to haunt me sometime later
This guy does not cite your blog:
http://claudiuc.easyblog.ro/2009/04/freebsd-nginx-fastcgi-php-configuration/
Hi, thank you for useful post. Let me cite this article in my Japanese blog:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/ksil/20090627/1246093375
I set this up and it works great, but under high loads (testing with apache’s ab) the spawn-fcgi/php-cgi process dies and so my server stops being able to load PHP. I know I’m testing with an unrealistic load on my server, but I also don’t want others to be able to so easily break my server.
ab -n1000 -c200 http://websiteurl/
Does anyone else have this problem, and if so, does anyone know how to fix it?
Do you get any specific error in a log file? Also, specify your server config
my config: http://swigg.net/nginx.txt
Normally it runs fine, you can check out http://swigg.net/ if you’d like to see PHP running normally. But push the server really hard and whatever process exists after you call spawn-fcgi dies (as in it is no longer running)
[error] 24813#0: *1032 recv() failed (104: Connection reset by peer) while reading response header from upstream, client: 64.22.125.174, server: localhost, request: "GET / HTTP/1.0", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:10005", host: "swigg.net"
[error] 24813#0: *3964 connect() failed (111: Connection refused) while connecting to upstream, client: 64.22.125.174, server: localhost, request: "GET / HTTP/1.0", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:10005", host: "swigg.net"
Hi guys,
FreeBSD’s ports selection (at least 8.1’s—I’ve been using it for four hours now) has PHP 5.3.4+ now, which means PHP-FPM comes standard as long as you compile it through ports. With that, you can do away with needing spawn-fcgi, lighttpd, and the other nonsense that used to be necessary to get PHP + Nginx working.
Maybe you could post another post with that?