Nginx and PHP-FPM Setup

In this blog we will see how to properly configure Nginx and php-fpm in a linux (ubuntu) machine or server (These links help you to know basics and to operate Nginx).

Here are some articles and blogs and links that will help you to learn and know more about these.

https://nginx.org/en/docs/beginners_guide.html

https://nginx.org/en/docs/switches.html

https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/tutorials/config_pitfalls/

https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/depth/ifisevil/

https://easyengine.io/wordpress-nginx/why-nginx/

https://serverguy.com/comparison/apache-vs-nginx/

http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html

https://www.journaldev.com/26342/nginx-location-directive

http://nginx.org/en/docs/configure.html

Pre-Requisites:

Linux (Ubuntu) Server.

Php.

Nginx.

Considering that the linux server is already setup and running with ubuntu, lets get started with the Nginx and php fpm setup.

Installing the necessary softwares.

You can follow THIS link and install Nginx and follow THIS link and install PHP.

Basic Nginx (V 1.24) Setup for PHP-FPM (8.1)

server {
  ...
  # Add index.php nginx config
  index ... index.php ...;

  # Pass PHP scripts on Nginx to FastCGI (PHP-FPM) server
  location ~ \.php$ {
    include fastcgi_params;
    # Nginx php-fpm sock config:
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index  index.php;
    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  }

  # deny access to Apache .htaccess on Nginx with PHP, 
  # if Apache and Nginx document roots concur
  location ~ /\.ht {
    deny all;
  }
...
} # End of PHP FPM Nginx config example

This is just a example config snippet and not the whole/actual configuration.

Depending on your system’s default configuration you may need to change fastcgi_pass parameter.

It can be of the following variation

fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; # For locally passing the php files

fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock; # For using unix socket to pass the file

unix socket location may vary per system (can be /run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock /var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock). This doesnt make a difference if the locations are symlinked or mounted. If incase it is not done then this needed to be noted carefully.

Another way is to change the phpfpm pool.d/www.conf file to use local host instead of unix socket.

Finally restart the php and nginx services.