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Demystifying Nginx and PHP-FPM for

PHP Developers - Maikel González
Baile - Medium
Maikel González Baile

14-17 minutes

Introduction

Developers often have varying levels of experience and

knowledge when it comes to the server-side execution of their
code. This is attributed to the fact that developers typically focus
their time on coding new features, while tasks related to deploying
applications, setting up servers, and tuning the servers’
configuration are often handled by SREs. Regardless of your
background, gaining a deeper understanding of the standard PHP
Web Architecture involving Nginx and PHP-FPM can be beneficial.
In this blog post, we’ll explore these server-side components that
bring your applications to life and will walk through some of the key
configuration parameters that can allow you to fine-tune your
system for maximum performance.

Note: There are many more configuration options available for

both Nginx and PHP-FPM that can help you improve your

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application’s performance, which are not covered in this post.

PHP Web Architecture

Although the PHP core includes a built-in server that you can use
for development purposes while working on your local
environment, it is not suitable for production environments due to
its single-threaded nature that limits it to execute one single
request at a time, among others lacking capabilities related to
security, caching, scaling, and so on. As a result, PHP relies on an
additional component, PHP-FPM, for managing multiple processes
and ultimately on Nginx to efficiently serve web applications.

PHP-FPM: The FastCGI Process Manager

PHP-FPM, or “PHP FastCGI Process Manager,” is an advanced,

high-performance FastCGI process manager for PHP. It resolves
the concurrency issue of PHP’s built-in server by spawning
multiple workers, which can handle multiple requests
simultaneously. However, PHP-FPM cannot directly manage
incoming HTTP traffic, necessitating a web server to act as a
reverse proxy.

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Nginx: The High-Performance Web Server and

Reverse Proxy

Nginx is a powerful, open-source web server that excels in

handling incoming HTTP traffic. It functions as a reverse proxy,
forwarding client requests to PHP-FPM and returning the
processed responses back to the clients. Additionally, Nginx
provides several advantages to a web server architecture, such as
load balancing, SSL termination, and serving static files,
enhancing the overall performance and reliability of your web
applications.

In conclusion, understanding the relationship between Nginx

and PHP-FPM will enable you to make informed decisions about
your PHP application’s architecture and deployment. By leveraging
these powerful components, you can ensure your applications run
efficiently and reliably, even in demanding production
environments.

Tuning PHP-FPM

Process Manager Strategies: On-demand, Static,

and Dynamic

Before diving into each strategy, it’s essential to understand some

key concepts related to process managers, workers, and the life
cycle of a request.

The life cycle of a request starts when it arrives at the web server
(Nginx). The web server forwards the request to PHP-FPM which
assigns an available worker to handle it. The worker processes the
request, executing the PHP script, and generates a response,

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which is returned to the client through the web server. A worker

can be in different states:

• Idle: In this state, the worker is not processing any request and is
waiting for new requests to arrive. The worker is available to take
on new tasks as they come in.

• Active: In this state, the worker is executing the PHP script

associated with the request.

• Terminated: Workers can be terminated based on the process

manager strategy and configuration settings. Take a look at some
of the key directives you can set in the PHP-FPM config file to
optimize the resources usage of your server:
- process_idle_timeout: in the on-demand and dynamic
strategies, idle workers are terminated after a specified idle
timeout.
- max_requests: a worker is replaced after reaching a maximum
number of requests handled, this is key to preventing potential
memory leaks.
- request_terminate_timeout: an active worker can be terminated
by the process manager if the maximum time to process the
request is reached, this is particularly important to ensure a
responsive system that always sends a response to the client in a
timely manner.
- php_value[memory_limit]: determines the maximum amount of
memory a worker can allocate. By limiting the memory usage, you
can prevent a single worker or the entire pool from exhausting all
available system resources and affecting the overall performance
of your server.

The process manager is responsible for controlling the pool of

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workers. It determines how these workers are created, maintained,

and terminated based on the chosen strategy and configuration
settings. When multiple requests arrive simultaneously, the
process manager distributes these requests to the available
workers, improving the server’s capacity to handle incoming traffic.

The process manager strategy impacts the potential usage of

server resources such as CPU, memory, and network bandwidth.
It’s essential to choose a strategy that optimally utilizes available
resources while maintaining a balance between responsiveness
and efficiency.

Let’s now dive into each of the different available strategies:

On-demand Strategy

Definition

The on-demand strategy starts with an empty pool of workers and

creates worker processes only when needed. After the request is
processed, idle workers terminate.

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Configuration

• pm: Set this parameter to ondemand to activate the ondemand

strategy.

• pm.max_children: Defines the maximum number of worker

processes that can be created. PHP-FPM will not spawn more
workers than this limit.

• pm.process_idle_timeout: Specifies the duration in seconds after

which idle workers will be terminated.

Considerations

While the on-demand strategy is resource-efficient, it can cause

additional latency due to the time required for creating and
terminating worker processes.

Static Strategy

Definition

The static strategy starts and maintains a fixed number of worker

processes, ensuring a constant pool of workers always ready to
handle incoming requests.

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Configuration

• pm: Set this parameter to static to activate the static strategy.

• pm.max_children: Determines the fixed number of worker

processes that will be maintained.

Considerations

The static strategy provides consistent performance and

predictable resource allocation. The waste of resources is
marginal, as idle processes consume very low resources in
terms of memory and CPU. The performance of the server is
more stable and predictable in both high and low-traffic scenarios
due to a fixed number of workers always ready.

The max_requests directive is essential in the static strategy

to make sure that worker processes are restarted regularly and
therefore prevent potential memory leaks.

Dynamic Strategy

Definition

The dynamic strategy provides a balance between the on-demand

and static strategies. It sets a minimum number of idle workers
and adjusts the pool size based on demand. It offers a
compromise between resource usage and responsiveness.

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Configuration

• pm: Set this parameter to dynamic to activate the dynamic

strategy.

• pm.start_servers: Determines the initial number of worker

processes to be created at startup.

• pm.max_children: Defines the maximum number of worker

processes that can be created.

• pm.min_spare_servers: Sets the minimum number of idle worker

processes that should be always maintained. If the number of idle
workers falls below this value, PHP-FPM will create additional
processes.

• pm.max_spare_servers: Specifies the maximum number of idle

worker processes allowed. If the number of idle workers exceeds
this value, PHP-FPM will terminate excess processes.

• pm.process_idle_timeout: Indicates the duration after which idle

worker processes will be terminated. This helps maintain an
optimal number of idle processes, balancing resource usage and
responsiveness.

Considerations

The dynamic strategy is adaptable and can be suitable for a wide

range of scenarios. However, fine-tuning the configuration

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parameters is crucial for optimal performance, and can be

error-prone. Balancing the number of idle workers against system
resources and traffic levels is essential, but you can face adverse
situations during traffic peaks due to a wrong or non-optimal
configuration. In such cases, the static strategy might be a more
appropriate choice, as it provides more stable and predictable
performance.

Tuning Nginx

Understanding how Nginx handles HTTP requests and manages

workers and connections is key for optimizing your web server’s
performance.

Nginx handles incoming HTTP requests from clients, forwards

these requests to PHP-FPM, and returns the appropriate
responses back to the client. To efficiently manage these requests,
Nginx utilizes workers and connections.

A worker in Nginx is a separate process responsible for handling

incoming client connections and processing requests. Each worker
process can manage multiple connections, allowing Nginx to
handle many simultaneous requests with a relatively small number
of worker processes.

A connection in Nginx refers to an individual client connection to

the server. Each connection represents a single client making a
request to your web application. Nginx is designed to handle a
large number of connections efficiently, thanks to its event-driven
architecture.

Worker Processes

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The worker_processes directive specifies the number of Nginx

worker processes that will be spawned to handle a pool of
connections. Generally, it is recommended to set this value equal
to the number of CPU cores available on your server. This setting
ensures optimal performance by maximizing the utilization of
available CPU resources. Setting the value to auto allows Nginx
to automatically detect and use the optimal number of worker
processes based on the number of available CPU cores.

Worker Connections

The worker_connections directive determines the maximum

number of simultaneous connections that can be handled by each
worker process. This value directly affects the total number of
clients your server can serve simultaneously. To adjust the value,
consider your server’s capacity and the expected number of
concurrent connections.

By understanding the roles of workers and connections in Nginx

and fine-tuning the worker_processes and worker_connections
directives, you can optimize your web server’s performance. Keep
in mind that Nginx has many other capabilities for enhancing
performance and system behavior, which are not covered in this
post but are crucial for web applications — learn more about Nginx
optimization techniques in this talk.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

To maintain the performance and stability of your PHP

applications, it’s crucial to monitor and troubleshoot issues that
may arise in your server environment.

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Monitoring PHP-FPM

PHP-FPM provides a built-in status page that can help you monitor
the performance and health of your PHP-FPM pools. By enabling
the status page in your PHP-FPM configuration, you can access
real-time information about your PHP-FPM pools, such as the
number of active processes, idle processes, and requests in the
queue.

Monitoring Nginx

Nginx also includes a built-in status module that can help you
monitor the performance and health of your Nginx server. By
enabling the status module in your Nginx configuration, you can
access real-time information about your Nginx server, such as the
number of active connections, accepted connections, and handled
requests.

Troubleshooting

When issues arise, it’s essential to know where to look for relevant
information. Both PHP-FPM and Nginx generate log files that can
help you identify and resolve problems.

PHP-FPM Log Files

PHP-FPM log files contain valuable information about errors and

warnings related to your PHP applications. By default, PHP-FPM
logs can be found in the /var/log/php-fpm directory or specified in
your PHP-FPM configuration file. Analyzing these logs can help
you identify issues with your PHP code or configuration settings.

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Nginx Log Files

Nginx log files, including access and error logs, can be found in
the /var/log/nginx directory or specified in your Nginx configuration
file. Access logs record all incoming requests, while error logs
contain information about issues related to the Nginx server.
Analyzing these logs can help you identify issues with your server
configuration, resource usage, or performance bottlenecks.

By monitoring and troubleshooting your PHP-FPM and Nginx

configurations, you can ensure the smooth operation of your PHP
applications and maintain a high-performance server environment.

Conclusion

As a developer, building a certain level of awareness about how

your code is executed and the challenges that arise in concurrent
production environments is crucial. Understanding the roles of
Nginx and PHP-FPM, along with their configurations and
management strategies, can help you optimize your web
applications and ensure their stability, responsiveness, and
efficiency.

By diving deeper into the server-side components and learning

how to fine-tune various settings, you can create a better
experience for your users and maintain a high-performance server
environment. This knowledge not only allows you to address
potential issues more effectively but also fosters better
collaboration between Product and SRE teams, ultimately leading
to more robust and scalable applications.

Interactive Playground

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To help you better understand and experiment with the concepts

discussed in this post, I have created an interactive playground on
GitHub. This repository allows you to easily set up the Nginx and
PHP-FPM architecture and provides sample configurations that
you can modify and test.

The playground includes a docker-compose setup, making it

simple to get started and experiment with different settings for both
Nginx and PHP-FPM. Additionally, I’ve included a README file
containing instructions for setting up the environment and
exploring various testing scenarios to help you gain hands-on
experience with the configurations.

Feel free to try out different configuration values and observe their
impact on your server’s performance and resource usage. This
hands-on approach will further strengthen your understanding of
Nginx and PHP-FPM and enable you to better optimize your PHP
applications.

You can access the interactive playground by visiting the following

GitHub repository:

https://github.com/mgonzalezbaile/ngingx-phpfm-playground

Don’t hesitate to share your feedback, insights, or any issues you

encounter while using the playground. I’ll be glad to hear from you
and learn from your experiences. Happy experimenting!

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