Installing Nginx with PHP5 on Ubuntu 10

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There are a number of guide across the internet that break down how to install this setup. I had to use a couple different ones just to get it to work. Here’s how I did it. Note: you should run this from the terminal – and as root (sudo -s)

Step 1 – Install Ubuntu

I installed it on a VM but it really doesn’t matter. For the sake of this guide I downloaded Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS version.

Step 2 Install PHP FastCGI

From the terminal

sudo apt-get install php5-cgi

Step 3 Install Nginx – latest stable

The build in repo for Ubuntu is running version 7 – as of right now the latest stable is 8.54 so we need to update the repo and get the latest version.

add-apt-repository ppa:nginx/stable
apt-get update
apt-get install nginx

Step 4 Configure The Server

Create PHP 5 FastCGI start-up script:

nano /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Inside, put:

#!/bin/bash
BIND=127.0.0.1:9000
USER=www-data
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=15
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000

PHP_CGI=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PHP_CGI_NAME=`basename $PHP_CGI`
PHP_CGI_ARGS="- USER=$USER PATH=/usr/bin PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=$PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=$PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS $PHP_CGI -b $BIND"
RETVAL=0

start() {
      echo -n "Starting PHP FastCGI: "
      start-stop-daemon --quiet --start --background --chuid "$USER" --exec /usr/bin/env -- $PHP_CGI_ARGS
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}
stop() {
      echo -n "Stopping PHP FastCGI: "
      killall -q -w -u $USER $PHP_CGI
      RETVAL=$?
      echo "$PHP_CGI_NAME."
}

case "$1" in
    start)
      start
  ;;
    stop)
      stop
  ;;
    restart)
      stop
      start
  ;;
    *)
      echo "Usage: php-fastcgi {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
  ;;
esac
exit $RETVAL

Make start-up script executable:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/php-fastcgi

Step 5 Enable PHP5 in Conf

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

uncomment out the following lines:

# 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;                
include fastcgi_params;        
}

Step 6 Create a Test Script

cd /usr/share/nginx/www
nano test.php

in the test.php code put:

<?php phpinfo();

Save the file.

Step 7 Launch Server and Enjoy!

Restart Nginx

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Launch PHP:

/etc/init.d/php-fastcgi start

Open an browser and visit http://127.0.0.1/test.php
Launch at start-up:

update-rc.d php-fastcgi defaults

Special thanks to Dave Winter for getting me started http://davidwinter.me/