Apache 2.4, PHP 5.5 with php-fpm and mod_rewrite

August 29, 2014 in Apache, Linux, PHP, Ubuntu

This guide was updated on April 28, 2016 with some missed details!
– Added timeout and flush params to the External Server command, and added missing -socket
– Added missing apache modules actions and alias

So recently I’ve had trouble with the host I had been using for years (bad support, billing broke, DDOS Attacks on their other customers constantly affecting me), so I decided to move my web infrastructure to the same datacenter I run all of our game servers out of, HiVelocity. I decided to fully build this server out fresh instead of trying to clone the old one, and do things better this time around.

First I had recently done research into the performance impact of using Apache MPM-Prefork with mod_php, in that every Apache process has PHP loaded, so even static requests have PHP loaded – eating lots of resources!

I had heard about FastCGI as I had it when I used shared hosting back in the days with SuExec, but now I found something better: PHP-FPM – A special FastCGI based pool that is designed for PHP itself.

Win! so I set up Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS, Apache 2.4 and went with the newer MPM Event module, which appears to do even better with Keep Alive requests.

So lets get Apache 2.4 with MPM-Event, PHP5 FPM and some PHP5 Modules going:

sudo apt-get install apache2-mpm-event libapache2-mod-fastcgi php5-fpm php5-cli php5-apcu php5-sqlite php5-gd php5-json php5-curl php5-mcrypt php5-mysqlnd php5-redis

By default it should be configured to use sockets, but if not, check in /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf for:

listen = /var/run/php5-fpm.sock

And change it if its using a TCP port instead. Unix Sockets are faster as it avoids the TCP protocol.

Next up add /etc/apache2/conf-available/php5-fpm.conf and paste this in:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
AddHandler php5-fcgi .php
Action php5-fcgi /php5-fcgi
Alias /php5-fcgi /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi
FastCgiExternalServer /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi -socket /var/run/php5-fpm.sock -pass-header Authorization -idle-timeout 900 -flush
<Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
Require all granted
Require env REDIRECT_STATUS
</Directory>
</IfModule>

Now to enable these things! You need Actions, Alias, FastCgI and Rewrite modules for Apache.

sudo a2enconf php5-fpm
sudo a2enmod actions alias fastcgi rewrite

now here is the part that caused me so much trouble for an entire week! If you want to have mod_rewrite work, you need to edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and find the <Directory /var/www/> stanza

By default this has AllowOverride None, and you need to change that to AllowOverride FileInfo

Without this, rewrite rules will not work.

Following this, you should pretty much be set up with a working PHP5-FPM, with mod_rewrite on Apache MPM Event, and have Apache use a lot less resources in general.

I’m sorry if anything in this is off – I went through so many things trying to get everything working, but this is to the best of my knowledge what the final results were.

Please submit any corrections!

Tags: fpm. apache, mod_rewrite, mpm event, php5