This guide has been created to help users running Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 or 18.04 server to install Nginx web server and configure PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager). Nginx is a high performance web server that’s free to use. Nginx is designed for speed and scalability with capabilities of reverse proxy and load balancing to a number of backend servers both with HTTP, TCP and UDP protocols. This website is powered by WordPress and Nginx and the performance is really good. Nginx has small memory footprint as compared to Apache, handling same number of concurrent connections.
Features of Nginx Web Server
- Content Cache – Cache static and dynamic content
- Load Balancing – HTTP, TCP, and UDP load balancing with Layer 7 request routing using URI, cookie, args, and more.
- Reverse proxy multiple protocols: HTTP, gRPC, memcached, PHPβFPM, SCGI, uwsgi
- Handle hundreds of thousands of clients simultaneously
- Stream HTTP video: FLV, HDS, HLS, MP4
- HTTP/2 gateway with HTTP/2 server push support
- Dualβstack RSA/ECC SSL/TLS offload
- Monitoring plugins: AppDynamics, Datadog, Dynatrace plugβins
Update Ubuntu
Before you begin, you should have a running Ubuntu server that has been updated and upgraded to the latest available packages.
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Install Nginx Web Server
After the system is updated, proceed to install Nginx package on Ubuntu 22.04|20.04 Linux system:
sudo apt install nginx
The service should be started automatically after installation.
$ systemctl status nginx
β nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-05-09 19:38:43 UTC; 39s ago
Docs: man:nginx(8)
Main PID: 6449 (nginx)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 2344)
Memory: 3.8M
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
ββ6449 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;
ββ6451 nginx: worker process
May 09 19:38:43 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Starting A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server...
May 09 19:38:43 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Started A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server.
Notice that you cannot run both Apache and Nginx on same port. You’ll need to disable Apache web server or change port of one of them to not http standard port.
sudo systemctl disable --now apache2
sudo systemctl restart nginx
UFW firewall can be configured to allow port 80:
sudo ufw allow proto tcp from any to any port 80,443
Install PHP-FPM
If you’re planning on using PHP with Nginx, consider installing PHP-FPM package.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install php php-cli php-fpm php-json php-mysql php-zip php-gd php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath
PHP-FPM has the service that should be running.
### Ubuntu 20.04 ###
$ systemctl status php*-fpm.service
β php7.4-fpm.service - The PHP 7.4 FastCGI Process Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/php7.4-fpm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-05-09 19:50:53 UTC; 2min 26s ago
Docs: man:php-fpm7.4(8)
Main PID: 22141 (php-fpm7.4)
Status: "Processes active: 0, idle: 2, Requests: 0, slow: 0, Traffic: 0req/sec"
Tasks: 3 (limit: 2344)
Memory: 9.3M
CGroup: /system.slice/php7.4-fpm.service
ββ22141 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php/7.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf)
ββ22142 php-fpm: pool www
ββ22143 php-fpm: pool www
May 09 19:50:53 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Starting The PHP 7.4 FastCGI Process Manager...
May 09 19:50:53 ubuntu20 systemd[1]: Started The PHP 7.4 FastCGI Process Manager.
### Ubuntu 22.04 ###
$ systemctl status php*-fpm.service
β 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 Tue 2022-11-30 22:24:44 EAT; 12s ago
Docs: man:php-fpm8.1(8)
Process: 69709 ExecStartPost=/usr/lib/php/php-fpm-socket-helper install /run/php/php-fpm.sock /etc/php/8.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf 80 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 69706 (php-fpm8.1)
Status: "Processes active: 0, idle: 2, Requests: 0, slow: 0, Traffic: 0req/sec"
Tasks: 3 (limit: 9482)
Memory: 9.1M
CPU: 41ms
CGroup: /system.slice/php8.1-fpm.service
ββ69706 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php/8.1/fpm/php-fpm.conf)
ββ69707 php-fpm: pool www
ββ69708 php-fpm: pool www
Nov 30 22:24:44 ubuntu22 systemd[1]: Starting The PHP 8.1 FastCGI Process Manager...
Nov 30 22:24:44 ubuntu22 systemd[1]: Started The PHP 8.1 FastCGI Process Manager.
PID and Socket file are located in the directory:
### Ubuntu 20.04 ###
$ ls /run/php/
php-fpm.sock php7.4-fpm.pid php7.4-fpm.sock
### Ubuntu 22.04 ###
$ ls /run/php/
php-fpm.sock php8.1-fpm.pid php8.1-fpm.sock
Configure PHP-FPM with Nginx
Edit your Application Nginx configuration file and set fastcgi_pass section to load through FPM socket. See below snippet.
$ sudo vim /etc/nginx/php_fastcgi.conf
# 404
try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
# default fastcgi_params
include fastcgi_params;
# fastcgi settings
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_buffers 8 16k;
fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
fastcgi_hide_header X-Powered-By;
fastcgi_hide_header X-CF-Powered-By;
Reload Nginx and open your application on the web to confirm it is working as expected. You have successfully installed Nginx Web server on Ubuntu 22.04|20.04 Linux machine.
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..You have successfully installed “Apache” Web server on Ubuntu 20.04 Linux machine.
Nice Try π
Haha sorry for that and thanks for the capture. We’ve updated.