Nginx, PHP-FPM and MySQL setup on OpenBSD 5.6

OpenBSD is mostly used in firewall implementations, however, many people around the world are using OpenBSD as a web server. This includes programmers and sysadmins. We assume a knowledge of OpenBSD, Nginx, and Unix in general.

Nginx (engine x) is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. For a long time, it has been running on many heavily loaded Russian sites. (from their website)

PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) is an alternative PHP FastCGI implementation with some additional features useful for sites of any size, especially busier sites. (from their website)

Requirements:

• OpenBSD 5.6 installed on your vultr.com VPS.
• The following PKG_PATH set.

   PKG_PATH = ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/5.6/packages//`arch -s/`

• Super user access.

Install Nginx

$ sudo pkg_add -v nginx
Ambiguous: choose package for nginx
a     0: <None>
      1: nginx-1.4.7p0
      2: nginx-1.4.7p0-lua
      3: nginx-1.4.7p0-naxsi
      4: nginx-1.4.7p0-passenger
      5: nginx-1.5.7p3
      6: nginx-1.5.7p3-lua
      7: nginx-1.5.7p3-naxsi
      8: nginx-1.5.7p3-passenger
  Your choice:

For the purposes of this document, we install the “5” option.

Install PHP-FPM

$ sudo pkg_add -v php-fpm-5.5.14.tgz

The /etc/rc.conf.local must contain the following:

nginx_flags=""

And /etc/rc.conf must contain the following for these services to start automatically after each reboot.

# rc.d(8) packages scripts
# started in the specified order and stopped in reverse order
pkg_scripts=nginx

Edit nginx.conf

Basic requirements for /etc/nginx/nginx.conf in the server section.

location ~ /.php$ {
            try_files $uri =404;
            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+/.php)(/.+)$;
            fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            include fastcgi_params;
    }

Edit php-fpm.conf

Update the following in /etc/php-fpm.conf:

; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's 
; group will be used.
user = www
group = www


; The address on which to accept FastCGI requests.
; Valid syntaxes are:
; 'ip.add.re.ss:port'    - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific address on
;                            a specific port;
;   'port'                 - to listen on a TCP socket to all addresses on a
;                            specific port;
;   '/path/to/unix/socket' - to listen on a unix socket.
; Note: This value is mandatory.

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

Install MySQL

$ sudo pkg_add -v mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0.tgz

Update candidates: quirks-2.9 -> quirks-2.9 (ok)
quirks-2.9 signed on 2014-07-31T22:37:55Z
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-Net-Daemon-0.48: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-PlRPC-0.2018p1: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-Clone-0.36p0: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-Params-Util-1.07p0: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-SQL-Statement-1.405: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-FreezeThaw-0.5001: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-MLDBM-2.05: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-DBI-1.631p0: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:mysql-client-5.1.73v0: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0:p5-DBD-mysql-4.027: ok
mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0: ok
The following new rcscripts were installed: /etc/rc.d/mysqld
See rc.d(8) for details.
Look in /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes for extra documentation.
Extracted 39040357 from 39044890

Initial setup

Create the initial database:

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/mysql_install_db

You can run the /usr/local/bin/mysql_secure_installation script to optimize your MySQL installation. Otherwise, set the root password directly.

$ sudo /usr/local/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'password'

To access MySQL for administrative tasks – like creating databases and users, you can use the following command:

$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or /g.
Your MySQL connection id is 47
Server version: 5.1.73-log OpenBSD port: mysql-server-5.1.73p0v0

Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '/h' for help. Type '/c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

Add MySQL support for PHP

$ sudo pkg_add -v php-pdo_mysql-5.5.14.tgz

Start Daemons

$ sudo /etc/rc.d/nginx start
$ sudo /etc/rc.d/php-fpm start
$ sudo /etc/rc.d/mysqld start

Test your installation by writing a basic info.php file into a document root, /var/www/htdocs/example.com.

<?php
    phpinfo();
?>

Upon success, you will be able to view the PHP information web page.

Logs

Basic log files are found in the /var/log/nginx directory.

Enjoy.