How to install PHP-FPM with Apache on Ubuntu 22.04. There are two distinct options to run PHP using the web server. One is using the PHP’s CGI and the other one is FPM.
FPM is a process manager to manage the FastCGI in PHP. Apache ships with mod_php
by default and works with all major web servers. With mod_php
there is a little performance issue because it locks out the process.
You can also configure PHP-FPM pools to run as the different user that owns the website if you are hosting multiple websites on your server in a chroot environment setup.
In this guide you are learn how to setup PHP 8.1-FPM and configure it with Apache and also setup PHP 8.1-FPM pools for multiple users.
Getting Started
Make sure your Ubuntu server is having the latest packages by running the following command.
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
This will update the package index and update the installed packages to the latest version.
Install PHP 8.1 for Apache
Execute the following command to install PHP 8.1 with other necessary modules.
sudo apt install php8.1 php8.1-fpm php8.1-common php8.1-mysql php8.1-xml php8.1-xmlrpc php8.1-curl php8.1-gd php8.1-imagick php8.1-cli php8.1-dev php8.1-imap php8.1-mbstring php8.1-soap php8.1-zip php8.1-bcmath -y
Once the installation is complete verify the installation using the following command.
sudo service php8.1-fpm status
You will receive an output similar to the one below.
Output
● php8.1-fpm.service - The PHP 8.1 FastCGI Process Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/php8.1-fpm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-05-16 08:50:31 UTC; 1 day 18h ago
Docs: man:php-fpm8.1(8)
Process: 110200 ExecStartPost=/usr/lib/php/php-fpm-socket-helper install /run/php/php-fpm.sock /etc/php/8.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf 81 (code=exited, status=0/SUCC>
Main PID: 110197 (php-fpm8.1)
Status: "Processes active: 0, idle: 3, Requests: 57553, slow: 0, Traffic: 0.1req/sec"
Tasks: 4 (limit: 2353)
Memory: 484.3M
CPU: 4h 42min 14.593s
Install Apache
Once you have your PHP-FPM up and running you can install Apache web server.
sudo apt install apache2
Configure Apache with PHP-FPM
By default Apache will use mod_php
so now you can configure Apache to use PHP-FPM.
Disable the default Apache vhost configuration.
sudo a2dissite 000-default
Enable proxy_fcgi
module.
sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi
Create a new Apache vhost configuration.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cloudbooklet.conf
Paste the below configuration in the file.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName External_IP_Address
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
<Directory /var/www/html>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
<FilesMatch ".php$">
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Hit CTRL + X
followed by Y
and Enter
to save and exit the file.
Now you can enable the new Apache configuration.
sudo a2ensite cloudbooklet.conf
Restart Apache.
sudo service apache2 restart
Test PHP-FPM with Apache
Here we have configured /var/www/html
as the webroot in the Apache configuration. So now you can navigate into that directory and create a phpinfo
file to check the setup.
cd /var/www/html
sudo nano info.php
Paste the following.
<?php phpinfo;
Hit CTRL + X
followed by Y
and Enter
to save and exit the file.
Now go your browser and point it to your server IP address or domain name followed by the info.php
. So your address will look like this http://IP_Address/info.php
You will see the PHP info page and confirm PHP-FPM is used with Apache.
PHP-FPM Configuration
PHP INI: /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini
Pool config: /etc/php/8.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
Create New PHP-FPM Pool with different user
By default Nginx and Apache runs as www-data
user. PHP-FPM www.conf
is also configured to run as www-data
user. If you have multiple websites and wish to keep them isolated with chrooted setup and run them with their own user. You can create multiple PHP-FPM pools with different users.
Create a new PHP-FPM pool configuration.
sudo nano /etc/php/8.1/fpm/pool.d/user1.conf
Paste the following.
[user1] user = user1 group = group1 listen = /run/php/php8.1-fpm-user1.sock listen.owner = www-data listen.group = www-data pm = dynamic pm.max_children = 5 pm.start_servers = 2 pm.min_spare_servers = 1 pm.max_spare_servers = 3
Now create a new Apache vhost configuration file and set the handler to the new pool you have created.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/site1.conf
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName domain.com DocumentRoot /var/www/html/site1 <Directory /var/www/html/site1> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory> <FilesMatch ".php$"> SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm-user1.sock|fcgi://localhost/" </FilesMatch> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined </VirtualHost>
Enable new site.
sudo a2ensite site1.conf
Make sure the new site webroot is owned by the user specified in the pool configuration and inside the specified group.
Restart Services
Once the configuration is completed you need to restart PHP-FPM and Apache for the changes to take effect.
sudo php-fpm8.1 -t sudo service php8.1-fpm restart
sudo service apache2 restart
You can create as many pools you like using the above mentioned setup with PHP-FPM. These are the flexibility available with PHP-FPM.
Prepare yourself for a role working as an Information Technology Professional with Linux operating system
Conclusion
Now you have learned how to install PHP 8.1-FPM with Apache and configure Apache to use PHP-FPM on Ubuntu 22.04.
You have also learned to setup PHP-FPM pools for multiple users.
1 Comment
Sorry, but do you not create the new user in the system to separate site into /var/www?
And do you not chown the site folder with the new user?
I saw that if Y change the owner, in the night the system revert to www-data the user. So I’m obliged to create a cron jpb that chmod again every site directory.