Run multiple php versions on the same server with PHP-FPM and apache2

Run multiple php versions on the same server with PHP-FPM and apache2 post

Purpose

The aim of this post is to run several php versions on the same server.

This installation has been performed on debian 9 stretch.

This post has been mainly inspired from this source

About `php-fpm`

PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) allows communication between a webserver and a PHP process based on FastCGI protocol.

In this post, PHP-FPM listen to a socket file to communicate with apache.

Add `sury` repo to get both `php-5.6` and `php7.x` packages

Since debian strech did not have php5 packages, we have to add an extra repo to our apt sources.list to get those packages (source here):

apt-get install apt-transport-https lsb-release ca-certificates
wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg --no-check-certificate
echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list
apt-get update

About the apache2 library that communicates with php fpm process

These libs are not required anymore: libapache2-mod-fastcgi, libapache2-mod-fcgid since there are now proxy_fcgi and proxy apache modules.

Apache2 modules

a2enmod actions alias proxy_fcgi

Install php fpm module for php 5.6

apt-get install php5.6-fpm

Checkout in /etc/php/5.6/fpm/pool.d/www.conf the directive that contains the socket path where php-fpm is listening:

listen = /run/php/php5.6-fpm.sock

Install php fpm module for php 7.1

apt-get install php7.1-fpm

Checkout in /etc/php/7.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf the directive that contains the socket path where php-fpm is listening:

listen = /run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock

Test

Create test apps

mkdir -p /var/www/html/php5.6 /var/www/html/php7.1
echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/php56/index.php
echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/php71/index.php

Virtual hosts

a2dissite 000-default.conf

Edit local DNS file

Edit /etc/hosts:

10.11.12.13 php56.test
10.11.12.13 php71.test

PHP 5.6 virtual host

cp 000-default.conf php56.conf 
a2ensite php56.conf

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/php56.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName php56.test
    DocumentRoot /var/www/php56
    <Directory /var/www/php56>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        # Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php5.6-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
    </FilesMatch>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php56-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php56-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Reload :

systemctl reload apache2

Check with your browser:

screenshot

PHP 7.1 virtual host

cp 000-default.conf php71.conf
a2ensite php71.conf

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/php71.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName php56.test
    DocumentRoot /var/www/php56
    <Directory /var/www/php56>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
        # Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
    </FilesMatch>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php71-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/php71-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>