GNet Solutions » FreeBSD Administration

Here is a procedure to install a FAMP, FreeBSD with Apache, MariaDB and PHP, server. The following setup runs Apache 2.2, MariaDB 5.5, and PHP 5 on FreeBSD 9.2. If any version of the packages needs to be changed, replace the versions in the commands accordingly.

Pre-Installation Tasks¶

• Before installation of the components, make sure the ports tree and packages are up to date using the following command:
  

  pkg update && pkg upgrade && portsnap fetch extract
  

Apache 2.2 & PHP – Installation and Configuration¶

• Install Apache 2.2 with mod_php5
  

  pkg install apache22 php5 mod_php5 php5-xml php5-dom libgpg-error php5-xmlreader php5-simplexml php5-ctype php5-fileinfo php5-openssl php5-hash php5-filter openldap-client xproto xextproto libXau libXdmcp libpthread-stubs kbproto libICE freetype2 png jpeg printproto php5-exif curl php5-json php5-sqlite3 php5-pdo php5-mysql php5-mysqli php5-pdo_mysql oniguruma4 php5-iconv mp3info php5-zlib php5-zip php5-bz2 php5-session libgcrypt php5-wddx php5-ldap libxcb libSM php5-curl php5-pdo_sqlite php5-mbstring libxslt libX11 libXt php5-xsl libXext libXp libXmu libXpm libXaw t1lib php5-gd
  

NOTE: This installs a few PHP extensions, add or remove as needed.

• Edit the apache configuration file, i.e. /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf, and make the following changes:
  

  ServerRoot "/usr/local" 
  ServerAdmin you@your.address
  ServerName www.example.com:80
  DocumentRoot "/usr/local/www" 
  Listen :80
  NameVirtualHost *:80
  ...
  <Directory "/usr/local/www">
      Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  
      AllowOverride None
  
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
  </Directory>
  ...
  <IfModule dir_module>
      DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
  </IfModule>
  
  <FilesMatch "\.php$">
      SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
  </FilesMatch>
  <FilesMatch "\.phps$">
      SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
  </FilesMatch>
  ...
  Include etc/apache22/Includes/*.conf
  

Now create a vhost website in /usr/local/etc/apache22/Includes/www.example.com.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin root@example.com
    DocumentRoot "/usr/local/www/www.example.com" 
    ServerName www.example.com
    ErrorLog "/var/log/www.example.com-error_log" 
    CustomLog "/var/log/www.example.com-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>

• Edit the /etc/hosts file and add the following line:

<ip-address> <hostname>.<domain>

• eg:

192.168.1.1 www.example.com

• (Optional) Create a file named /boot/loader.conf or edit it if it is already present and add the following line:

accf_http_load="YES"

• Add the following line to /etc/rc.conf:

echo 'apache22_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

• Test the apache server installation using the following command:
  

  /usr/local/sbin/apachectl start
  

MariaDB – Installation and Configuration¶

Install MariaDB 5.5

cd /usr/ports/databases/mariadb55-server/
make install
make clean

• Add the following line to the file /etc/rc.conf:
  

  echo 'mysql_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
  

• Start MariaDB
  

  service mysql-server start
  

• Set password for mysql using the following command
  

  rehash
  mysqladmin -uroot password
  

Configure MariaDB¶

• Use the following command:
  

  cp /usr/local/share/mysql/my-small.cnf /etc/my.cnf
  

Restart mysql using the following commands:

service mysql-server restart

PHP – Installation and Configuration¶

• Install PHP5 and other supporting packages:
  

  cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
  make config
  make install clean
  

NOTE: I decided compile the FPM module into PHP to replace the old FastCGI method. Make sure to do the same while running make config.

• Copy the PHP configuration file using the following command
  

  cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini
  

• Configure the mysql module for PHP:
  

  cd /usr/ports/databases/php5-mysql
  make config
  

NOTE: Make sure to enable the mysql extension

• Install the mysql module for PHP:
  

  make install
  make clean
  

• Install the php5-session package
  

  cd /usr/ports/www/php5-session
  make install clean
  

• Configure the php5-extensions package
  

  cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
  make config
  

  
  NOTE: Enable all the modules that will apply to your PHP needs.

• Install the php5-extensions package
  

  make install clean
  

• Install and configuring apache module for PHP:
  

  cd /usr/ports/www/mod_php5
  make install
  make clean
  

• Edit /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf file and add the following lines:
  

  LoadModule php5_module        libexec/apache22/libphp5.so
  
  AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
  AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
  

• You should also search for the line that reads:

DirectoryIndex index.html

1. and change it to read:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

• Once completed, a simple call to the apachectl command for a graceful restart is needed to load the PHP module:
  

  apachectl graceful
  

For future upgrades of PHP, the make config command will not be required; the selected OPTIONS are saved automatically by the FreeBSD Ports framework.

The PHP support in FreeBSD is extremely modular so the base install is very limited. It is very easy to add support using the lang/php5-extensions port. This port provides a menu driven interface to PHP extension installation. Alternatively, individual extensions can be installed using the appropriate port.

• Now restart the apache server by using the following command:
  

  /usr/local/sbin/apachectl restart
  

Apache 2.2 Modules – Installation and Configuration¶

There are many modules that apache can use, the following are just a few that I use in my web server baseline. For more modules, consult the FreeBSD handbook.

• Install & configure PHP-FPM and FastCGI with SuExec
  1. Start by enabling the php-fpm service
     

     echo 'php_fpm_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
     service php-fpm start
     

1. Then install FastCGI
   

   pkg install ap22-mod_fastcgi
   

1. And add the module to /usr/local/etc/httpd.conf, or module includes directory:
   

   LoadModule fastcgi_module     libexec/apache22/mod_fastcgi.so
   LoadModule suexec_module        libexec/apache22/mod_suexec.so
   

1. Next add the FastCGI global configuration to either the apache configuration like above, or in the includes directory, ie. /usr/loca/etc/apache22/Includes/php-fpm.conf:
   

   FastCgiIpcDir /tmp/
   FastCgiConfig -autoUpdate -singleThreshold 100 -killInterval 300 -idle-timeout 240 -maxClassProcesses 1 -pass-header HTTP_AUTHORIZATION
   FastCgiWrapper /usr/local/sbin/suexec
   
   <FilesMatch \.php$>
   SetHandler php5-fcgi
   </FilesMatch>
   
   Action php5-fcgi /fcgi-bin
   
   <Directory /usr/local/sbin>
   Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
   SetHandler fastcgi-script
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   </Directory>
   

1. Configure FPM
   • Now FPM needs some configuration. Create a directory to store per-vhost fpm configs:
     

     mkdir /usr/local/etc/fpm.d
     

   • Then edit the global php-fpm.conf, uncommenting:
     

     include=/usr/local/etc/fpm.d/*.conf
     

   • Switching the listen statement from a tcp port to:
     

     listen = /tmp/php-fpm.sock
     

   • and changing the pm to:
     

     pm = ondemand
     

There are a couple different types of process manager (pm). On demand will prefork zero (0) processes. They will only forked when needed. I chose this for lots of small sites. You may want a model that suits your setup better.

1. Now lets create a vhost. Given a site named “example.com” owned by user “luser”, here’s my template:
   

   <VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName        www.example.com
   DocumentRoot    /var/www/luser/example.com/htdocs
   SuexecUserGroup    wwwuser1 wwwclient1
   ServerAlias        example.com
   ErrorLog        /var/www/luser/example.com/logs/example.com.error_log
   CustomLog        /var/www/luser/example.com/logs/example.com.access_log combined
   
   <Directory /var/www/example.com/htdocs">
       Order allow,deny
       Allow from all
       Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI +Includes +MultiViews
       AllowOverride All
   </Directory>
   
   FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/fpm-example.com -socket /tmp/php-fpm-example.com.sock -user luser -group luser
   Alias /fcgi-bin /tmp/fpm-example.com
   <Location /fcgi-bin>
       Options +ExecCGI
       Order allow,deny
       Allow from all
   </Location>
   
   <LocationMatch "/(ping|fpm-status)">
       SetHandler php5-fcgi-virt
       Action php5-fcgi-virt /fcgi-bin virtual
   </LocationMatch>
   </VirtualHost>
   

1. And create a complimentary the FPM pool config in /usr/local/etc/fpm.d/example.com.conf:
   

   [example.com]
   user = luser
   group = luser
   listen = /tmp/php-fpm-example.com.sock
   chroot = /home/luser
   pm = ondemand
   pm.max_children = 50
   pm.status_path = /fpm-status
   php_admin_value[doc_root] = /example.com/htdocs
   php_admin_value[cgi.fix_pathinfo] = 0
   php_admin_value[sendmail_path] = /bin/mini_sendmail -t
   

• Install PHP FastCGI as a PHP replacement
  Install www/mod_fcgid from ports. In httpd.conf use:
  

  cd /usr/ports/www/mod_fcgid
  make install clean
  

  1. Now replace the PHP module used by Apache with the FastCGI module:
     

     LoadModule fcgid_module libexec/apache22/mod_fcgid.so
     
     <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
       AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi
     </IfModule>
     

If all went well you should be able to restart Apache and be in business. A phpinfo(); should execute and provide details. Any problems the quickest way to check PHP is to just execute php -v at a shell prompt. If it doesn't segfault it will print out a short descriptive output text.

I believe this is better than the usual script based approach you will locate on the web. It starts/spawns PHP as a long running process when Apache starts instead of starting a new CGI each time PHP script is executed. The mod_fcgid is configurable.

1. Install the Phusion Passenger module
   

   cd /usr/ports/www/rubygem-passenger
   make install clean
   passenger-install-apache2-module
   

   • Then add the module in /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf:
     

     LoadModule passenger_module /usr/ports/www/rubygem-passenger/work/passenger-4.0.41/buildout/apache2/mod_passenger.so
     <IfModule mod_passenger.c>
       PassengerRoot /usr/ports/www/rubygem-passenger/work/passenger-4.0.41
       PassengerDefaultRuby /usr/local/bin/ruby19
     </IfModule>
     

   • And now ruby web applications can be used by using the following template:
     

     <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName www.yourhost.com
        # !!! Be sure to point DocumentRoot to 'public'!
        DocumentRoot /somewhere/public    
        <Directory /somewhere/public>
           # This relaxes Apache security settings.
           AllowOverride all
           # MultiViews must be turned off.
           Options -MultiViews
        </Directory>
     </VirtualHost>
     

1. Install the Perl module
   

   cd /usr/ports/www/mod_perl2
   make install clean
   

   • Add the following to /usr/local/apache22/httpd.conf:
     

     LoadModule perl_module /usr/local/libexec/apache22/mod_perl.so
     

Resources¶

• http://harold.internal.org/tag/freebsd/
• http://fosskb.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/famp-installing-apache2-4-mariadb-php-on-freebsd-10/
• http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-apache.html
• http://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html
• http://httpd.apache.org/mod_fcgid/mod/mod_fcgid.html