Red Hat / CentOS Install nginx PHP5 FastCGI Webserver

How do I install and configure a ngnix FastCGI php5 HTTP / web server under Red Hat / RHEL / Fedora / CentOS Linux?

Nginx (engine x) is an HTTP(S) server, reverse proxy and IMAP/POP3 proxy server written by Igor Sysoev. It is known for its high performance, stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.

Step # 1: Enable EPEL repo

ngnix is not included in the base system. Turn on EPEL repo to install nginx stable release:
# rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/$(uname -m)/epel-release-5-3.noarch.rpm

Step # 2: Install ngnix

Type the following command at a shell prompt:
# yum install nginx
Sample output:

Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror, priorities, protectbase
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * epel: archive.linux.duke.edu
 * base: ftp.linux.ncsu.edu
 * updates: centos.mirror.nac.net
 * addons: mirror.cs.vt.edu
 * extras: centos.mirror.nac.net
0 packages excluded due to repository protections
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package nginx.x86_64 0:0.6.34-1.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

==============================================================================================================================================================
 Package                             Arch                                 Version                                    Repository                          Size
==============================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 nginx                               x86_64                               0.6.34-1.el5                               epel                               319 k

Transaction Summary
==============================================================================================================================================================
Install      1 Package(s)         
Update       0 Package(s)         
Remove       0 Package(s)         

Total size: 319 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing     : nginx                                             [1/1] 

Installed: nginx.x86_64 0:0.6.34-1.el5
Complete!

nginx configuration file

• Default config file: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
• Default SSL config file: /etc/nginx/conf.d/ssl.conf
• Default virtual hosting config file: /etc/nginx/conf.d/virtual.conf
• Default documentroot: /usr/share/nginx/html

Configure PHP As FastCGI

Type the following to install php5 with other modules:
# yum install php-pear-Net-Socket php-pear php-common php-gd php-devel php php-mbstring php-pear-Mail php-cli php-imap php-snmp php-pdo php-xml php-pear-Auth-SASL php-ldap php-pear-Net-SMTP php-mysql

Install spawn-fcgi simple program for spawning FastCGI processes

Type the following command:
# yum install spawn-fcgi
Next, download spawn-fcgi init.d shell script:
# wget http://bash.cyberciti.biz/dl/419.sh.zip
# unzip 419.sh.zip
# mv 419.sh /etc/init.d/php_cgi
# chmod +x /etc/init.d/php_cgi
Start php app server, enter:
# /etc/init.d/php_cgi start
# netstat -tulpn | grep :9000
Sample output:

tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:9000              0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      14294/php-cgi

By default php server listens on 127.0.0.1:9000 port. Finally, update /etc/nginx/nginx.conf as follows:
# vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Modify / append as follows:

    location ~ \.php$ {
            root           html;
            fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
            fastcgi_index  index.php;
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /usr/share/nginx/html$fastcgi_script_name;
            include        fastcgi_params;
        }

Save and close the file. Restart nginx:
# service nginx restart
Create /usr/share/nginx/html/test.php as follows:

<?php
     phpinfo();
?>

Further readings:

• nginx project