Configure Apache php-fpm with SSL virtual Host on Centos7

Apache is a most widely used web server in Linux platforms and is one of the best stacks to host PHP applications. With the release of Apache httpd 2.4, there is a Apache proxy module (mod_proxy_fcgi.) introduced and integrated by default with Apache. Also From release 5.3.3 onward, PHP now includes the fastCGI process manager (php-fpm) in the stock source code.

So in short we can install and enable those php and Apache related packages in a Linux server and setup to run Apache with PHP-FPM. In this setup Apache will send all the PHP files for processing to PHP-FPM and PHP-FPM will return the rendered output to the browser. using this stack, a website can load faster and handle more concurrent connections while using fewer resources. Using PHP-FPM we can run each PHP application on a separate process and can assign resource limitations.

In this blog article we configure Apache with php-fpm on Centos7. After that we can run php code using only stock Apache and php binaries. No need to configure anything like suphp, mod_php or suexec. You can also refer this article if you have the newer Centos 8. So lets get started.

Install Apache

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Install php-fpm

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Create below two directories.

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Create a file Named example.conf using below command.

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Add below content in above example.conf file.

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< VirtualHost *:80 >
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias example.com

DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs
ErrorLog /var/www/vhosts/example.com/logs/error_log
CustomLog /var/www/vhosts/example.com/logs/access.log combined

< FilesMatch \.php$ >
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php5-fpm_example.com.sock|fcgi://example.com/"
< /FilesMatch >

< Proxy fcgi://example.com >
ProxySet connectiontimeout=5 timeout=240
< /Proxy >

# Directory indexes
< IfModule dir_module >
DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.shtml index.php index.phtml
< /IfModule >

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs">
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AllowOverride FileInfo All
# New directive needed in Apache 2.4.3:
Require all granted
< /Directory >

< /VirtualHost >

< VirtualHost *:443 >
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias example.com www.example.com

DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs
ErrorLog /var/www/vhosts/example.com/logs/error_log
CustomLog /var/www/vhosts/example.com/logs/access.log combined
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/chain.pem

< FilesMatch \.php$ >
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php5-fpm_example.com.sock|fcgi://example.com/"
< /FilesMatch >

< Proxy fcgi://example.com >
ProxySet connectiontimeout=5 timeout=240
< /Proxy >

# Directory indexes
< IfModule dir_module >
DirectoryIndex index.htm index.html index.shtml index.php index.phtml
< /IfModule >

< Directory "/var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs" >
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
AllowOverride FileInfo All
# New directive needed in Apache 2.4.3:
Require all granted
< /Directory >

< /VirtualHost >

Create Below Directories and files.

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Allow Apache to read the conf files from the /etc/httpd/sites-enabled folder. For that we are going to add following line at the end of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file.

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Now go the folder named /etc/php-fpm.d and create a file named example.conf and add below content.

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Add below content in example.conf file.

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Execute Below commands.

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This concludes the installation and configuration apache with php-fpm. Now if you visit the phpinfo page, we can see FPM/FastCGI in the ServerAPI field. Take a look at the below screenshot. Leave your thoughts at the comment box.