HOWTO: Using php5 with apache2-mpm-worker

The article _Installing Apache2 and PHP5 using mod_fcgid_ shows how to run php5 with apache2-mpm-worker. The advanage of apache2-mpm-worker over apache2-mpm-prefork is better overall apache2 performance.

1. Install apache2-mpm-worker and the fastcgi apache module libapache-mod-fcid

# apt-get install apache2-mpm-worker  libapache2-mod-fcgid

1. Enable the Fastcgi apache module mod_fcgid

# sudo a2enmod fcgid

1. Install php5-cgi and the command-line version php5-cli

# sudo aptitude install php5-cgi php5-cli

1. Add the following to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf or place these basic configuration settings in a file under /etc/apache2/conf.d. For example, /etc/apache2/conf.d/00-myconf ("00-" will help insure it is read first before other /etc/apache2/conf.d files, which is necessary).

<Directory /var/www>
AddHandler fcgid-script .php
FCGIWrapper /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 .php
Options +ExecCGI
</Directory>
# If you have Aliases provide php support for them (Here we provide php support for scripts in /usr/share's subdirectories)
Alias /aptitude /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en
Alias /apt /usr/share/doc/apt-doc

<Directory /usr/share>
AddHandler fcgid-script .php
FCGIWrapper /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 .php
Options ExecCGI FollowSymlinks Indexes
</Directory>

1. Then, for each virtual host configuration file you have in /etc/apache2/sites-available, add ExecCGI within a <Directoy /path-to-site> block (placed within your <VirtualHost> block). For example,

cat /etc/apache2/sites-availabe/yourdomain.com

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin youremail@yourdomain.com
ServerName yoursite.tld
ServerAlias www.yourdomain.tld *.yourdomain.tld

DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain.com

ErrorLog        /var/log/apache2/yourdomain.tld-error.log
CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/yourdomain.tld-access.log combined

<Directory /var/www/yourdomain.com>
Options +ExecCGI 

AllowOverride All
Order Allow,Deny
allow from all
</Directory>
LogLevel warn
ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>

Note: ExecCGI was turned on in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default for /var/www and its subdirectories, so it is not strictly necessary within the <VirtualHost > block shown here. Using +ExecCGI adds fastcgi support to the Options in force. Options don't merge with prior options (they replace them) unless + is used. You can specify entirely different Options, but you must at a minmum have ExecCGI, if you want php support for your virtual host.

1. For any other <Directory /some/other/path> blocks you have, say, for virtual hosts, which are not subdirectories of /var/www or /usr/share, add

<Directory /some/other/path> AddHandler fcgid-script .php FCGIWrapper /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5 .php Options +ExecCGI

add other Options you might need, but ExecCGI is required

. . .

</Directory>

1. Enable your virtual host

#sudo a2ensite yourdomain.com

1. And reload the apache configuration

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

or just restart apache2

# sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

A similar technique is shown in this _article_ from Digital Nerds.

great article!

it's normal that after viewing some pages there are 2 php5 processes still running?

alex88 said: it's normal that after viewing some pages there are 2 php5 processes still running?

That's normal. mod_fcgid will keep a few processes running ready to serve future requests faster. The number of processes will vary as it tries to be intelligent about it. It'll tend to keep at minimum 3 processes per class (ie per base executable file) by default though there are lots of tweakable settings.

MercuryStar said: That's normal. mod_fcgid will keep a few processes running ready to serve future requests faster. The number of processes will vary as it tries to be intelligent about it. It'll tend to keep at minimum 3 processes per class (ie per base executable file) by default though there are lots of tweakable settings.

thank you for the answer.. but i've passed to lighttpd..it uses less ram..and i need that on my 256mb ram vps..

I've tried to limit the number of php processes running, but with no luck. Reading the docs i've tried to add

FcgidMaxProcesses 1000

but it says

Invalid command 'FCGIdMaxProcesses', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

I've tried to insert it into the <Directory /var/www> and also in the file /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fcgid.conf..

Hello.

Sorry my bad english, i'm brasilian.

I flowed the steps to configure apache2 mpm worker on linux, like you shown.

But when I try to acess http://localhost/index.php (the file index.php is in /var/www, my default site), I get the error:

403 Forbidden You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

What can I do to fix it?

Thanks a lot.

jfb0101 said: Hello.

Sorry my bad english, i'm brasilian.

I flowed the steps to configure apache2 mpm worker on linux, like you shown.

But when I try to acess http://localhost/index.php (the file index.php is in /var/www, my default site), I get the error:

403 Forbidden You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

What can I do to fix it?

Thanks a lot.

Have a look at /var/log/apache2/error.log (or similar path) to check what's the error.

Regards

jfb0101 said: Hello.

Sorry my bad english, i'm brasilian.

I flowed the steps to configure apache2 mpm worker on linux, like you shown.

But when I try to acess http://localhost/index.php (the file index.php is in /var/www, my default site), I get the error:

403 Forbidden You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.

What can I do to fix it?

Thanks a lot.

Usually this is caused by that your fastcgi script couldn't be correctly started.

1. Check /var/log/apache2/error.log as alex88 suggested.
2. Check /var/log/apache2/suexec.log

After deploying this (above) config, I tried to install PHP opcode - eAccelerator. Installation went without problems and eAccelerator worked. But what was my surprise when I noticed that eAccelerator caches all (phpmyadmin, Sypex Dumper and another web tools) except, in fact, my blogs! Another words, all that is outside of the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/, or all that is outside <VirtualHost> container. I can not understand that I overlooked or performed incorrectly. Help please!