Nginx to serve php files from a different server

Question

I am trying to configure nginx to serve PHP from another server.

The files can be located within a directory under /sample on the other server

Fast CGI is running on port 9000 on the other server

Here is what I have tried, which is not working at the moment.

location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
                proxy_pass      http://192.168.x.xx;
                proxy_redirect http://192.168.x.xx /sample;
                fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
                if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name)
                {
                        return 404;
                }
                # Mitigate https://httpoxy.org/ vulnerabilities
                fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
                fastcgi_read_timeout 150;
                fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
                fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
                fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;
                fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
                fastcgi_index index.php;
                include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        }

I also need to configure nginx to serve static files from the same server

What do you mean by same server? Same server as in other server or same server as in the above configuration file? — Richard Smith, Jun 22 '17 at 21:48
Another server that can be accessed from the one nginx is running on — Anon, Jun 23 '17 at 02:56
You should run a web server (e.g. nginx or Apache) on the other server and just reverse proxy from this server. — Richard Smith, Jun 23 '17 at 08:38

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 08:33

The following configuration does exactly what you need:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    root {STATIC-FILES-LOCATION};

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass {PHP-FPM-SERVER}:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

All you have to do is replace {STATIC-FILES-LOCATION} with the location of your static files on the Nginx server and {PHP-FPM-SERVER} with the IP of the PHP-FPM server.

This way you will serve all files without the PHP extension statically from the Nginx server and all the PHP files will be interpreted with the PHP-FPM server.

Here's a working example of a dockerised version of what you are trying to achieve - https://github.com/mikechernev/dockerised-php/. It serves the static files from Nginx and interprets the PHP files via the PHP-FPM container. In the accompanying blog post (http://geekyplatypus.com/dockerise-your-php-application-with-nginx-and-php7-fpm/) I go in lengths about the whole connection between Nginx and PHP-FPM.

EDIT: One important thing to keep in mind is that the paths in both the Nginx and PHP-FPM servers should match. So you will have to put your php files in the same directory on the PHP-FPM server as your static files on the Nginx one ({STATIC-FILES-LOCATION}).

An example would be to have /var/www/ on Nginx holding your static files and /var/www on PHP-FPM to hold your php files.

Hope this helps :)

Is it possible to clean `nginx` server from any php files? To make system more secure, I don't want to keep php files in both servers. — MTM, Jun 25 '22 at 11:01
It is. You just put the static content in the NGINX container and the PHP files in the FPM one. This can work very well with single page applications where the web app with all the assets is served by NGNIX and the API (given that it's written in PHP) is served by the FPM server. However, if you are using a framework like Laravel, that contains both the API and the static assets it's easier to just share the code between the containers. I hope this helps :) — Mike Chernev, Jun 28 '22 at 11:54

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 03 '17 at 07:15

You don't have to use proxy_ directives, because they work with HTTP protocol, but in this case FastCGI protocol is used. Also, as it was said in comments, no need for if statement, because Nginx server cannot determine if the file on a remote server exists.

You could try this configuration:

location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
    # Mitigate https://httpoxy.org/ vulnerabilities
    fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";
    fastcgi_read_timeout 150;
    fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
    fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
    fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;
    fastcgi_pass 192.168.x.xx:9000;  #not 127.0.0.1, because we must send request to remote PHP-FPM server
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/site/root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

You will need to replace /path/to/site/root with a real path on the PHP-FPM server. For example, if the request http://example.com/some/file.php must be handled by /var/www/some/file.php, then set it like this:

fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www$fastcgi_script_name;

Also, to make PHP-FPM server be able to receive requests from outside, edit your FPM pool configuration (on Debian it usually located in /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf, on Centos - /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf):

Replace

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

with:

listen = 9000

or:

listen = 192.168.x.xx:9000 # FPM server IP

Probably you will also need to edit allowed_clients directive:

listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1,192.168.y.yy # Nginx server IP

I also need to configure nginx to serve static files from the same server

If I understand correctly, and you want to serve static files from the server, Nginx is working on, then you may just add another location to your Nginx configuration.

regilero · Answer 3 · 2017-07-03T07:25:35.237

You should not use proxy_* directives. using Nginx as a proxy would be done only if a distant server has rendered the page (and you would request it with HTTP protocol).

Here the thing you want to proxy is a fastcgi server, not an HTTP server.

So the key is:

fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

Where you currently say you want to reach a fastcgi server on IP 127.0.0.1 port 900, which seems quite wrong.

Use instead:

fastcgi_pass 192.168.x.xx:9000;

And remove proxy_* stuff.

Edit: also, as stated in comments by @Bart, you should not use an if testing that a local file in the document root, matching the php script name does exists. The php files are not on this server. So remove this file. If you want to apply some security check, you would, later, alter your very generic location [^/]\.php(/|$) to something more specific, like location=/index\.php, or some others variations.

I'm getting a 404 response from nginx. The file isn't being served by the browser. — Anon, Jun 30 '17 at 07:23
The `if` statement in the question's configuration makes no sense there and could trigger the response you're receiving. — Bart, Jul 02 '17 at 22:39

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 05 '17 at 06:21

No need to give /sample path

location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.*)$;
if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
    return 404;
}

# Mitigate https://httpoxy.org/ vulnerabilities
fastcgi_param HTTP_PROXY "";

fastcgi_pass IP:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
}

For static files from nginx server you need to use try_files for that.

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_index index.php;

    // other CGI parameters
}

Make sure you're aware of common pitfalls.

If you want to access static files from another server you need to run a webserver there and just proxy pass from Nginx

Nginx to serve php files from a different server

4 Answers4

Linked