How To Run Multiple Websites With Different PHP Versions in Nginx

2/1/2021 How to Run Multiple Websites with Different PHP Versions in Nginx
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How to Run Multiple Websites with Different PHP

Versions in Nginx
Aaron Kili Last Updated: January 22, 2019 Nginx 21 Comments
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Sometimes PHP developers want to build and run different websites/applications using
different versions of PHP on the same web server. As a Linux system administrator, you
are required to setup a environment where you can run multiple websites using different
PHP version on a single web server i.e. Nginx.
In this tutorial, we will explain you how to install multiple versions of PHP and con gure
the web server Nginx to work with them via the server blocks (virtual hosts in Apache) in
CentOS/RHEL 7 distributions using LEMP stack. 
https://www.tecmint.com/run-multiple-websites-with-different-php-versions-in-nginx/ 1/36
Read Also: Pyenv – Install Multiple Python Versions for Speci c Project
Nginx uses PHP-FPM (stands for FastCGI Process Manager), which is an alternative
PHP FastCGI implementation with some extra, useful features for heavily loaded
websites.
Testing Environment Setup
A CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 server with minimal installation.

Nginx HTTP Server.
PHP 7.1 (to be used as default version) and 5.6.
MariaDB Database Server.
Server IP address: 192.168.56.10.
Websites: example1.com and example2.com.
Step 1: Installing and Enabling EPEL and Remi

Repository
1. First start by installing and enabling the EPEL and Remi repository, which offers the
latest versions of the PHP stack on CentOS/RHEL 7 distributions.
# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest

# yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm
2. Next install the yum-utils package, which extends yum’s native functionalities and
provides yum-con g-manager command, which is used to enable or disable Yum
repositories on the system.

# yum install yum-utils
Note: On RHEL 7 you can enable the optional channel for some dependencies using the
following command.
# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
Step 2: Installing Nginx Web Server

3. To install latest version of Nginx, we need to add the of cial Nginx repository, create a
le named /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo.
# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo
Add the following lines to le as per your distribution.
--------------- On CentOS 7 ---------------

[nginx]
name=nginx repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1
--------------- On RHEL 7 ---------------

[nginx]
name=nginx repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/rhel/7.x/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1
4. Once nginx repo has been added, you can install Nginx using yum package manager
tool as shown.
# yum install nginx
Step 3: Installing MariaDB Database Server

5. To install latest version of MariaDB, we need to add the of cial MariaDB repository,
create a le named /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo.
# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mariadb.repo
Add the following lines to le as per your distribution.
--------------- On CentOS 7 ---------------

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.2/centos7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
--------------- On RHEL 7 ---------------

[mariadb]
name = MariaDB
baseurl = http://yum.mariadb.org/10.2/rhel7-amd64
gpgkey=https://yum.mariadb.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-MariaDB
gpgcheck=1
6. Once MariaDB repo has been added, you can install MariaDB using yum package 
manager tool as shown.
# yum install MariaDB-client MariaDB-server
7. Afterwards, secure the database server installation using the script below. Set a root
password and answer y and press [Enter] for the rest of the subsequent questions to
disable remote root user login, remove anonymous-user accounts and test database
which by default can be accessed by all users, even anonymous users.
# mysql_secure_installation
Read Also: 12 MySQL/MariaDB Security Best Practices for Linux
Step 4: Installing Multiple Versions of PHP

8. To install different versions of PHP for your projects, use yum-con g-manager
command to install multiple versions of PHP along with most required modules as
shown.
Install PHP 7.1 Version
# yum-config-manager --enable remi-php71 [Default]

# yum install php php-common php-fpm
# yum install php-mysql php-pecl-memcache php-pecl-memcached php-gd php
Install PHP 5.6 Version
# yum install php56 php56-php-common php56-php-fpm

# yum install php56-php-mysql php56-php-pecl-memcache php56-php-pecl-me

9. Once installed PHP, you can use following command to check the default version of
PHP used on your server.
# php -v
Check Default PHP Version
Step 5: Con guring PHP-FPM and PHP56-PHP-

FPM 
10. This is the most interesting part of this tutorial, it explains how you can actually run
multiple PHP versions on your server. Here, you will con gure the different versions of
php-fpm that Nginx will work with. You should de ne the user/group of the FastCGI
processes as well as the ports they will listen on.
These are the following two con guration les that you will going to edit.
php-fpm (default 7.1) – /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

php56-php-fpm – /opt/remi/php56/root/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
Open the les above, set the user/group of FastCGI processes.
# vi /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf [PHP 7.1]

# vi /opt/remi/php56/root/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf [PHP 5.6]
The default values should be apache, change them to nginx as shown.
user = nginx
group = nginx
11. Next, nd the listen parameters, and de ne the address:port on which FastCGI
requests will be received.
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000 [php-fpm]

listen = 127.0.0.1:9001 [php56-php-fpm]
12. Once all the above con guration done, you need to start and enable Nginx, MariaDB
and PHP-FPM to auto-start at system boot.
# systemctl enable nginx

# systemctl start nginx
# systemctl enable mariadb

# systemctl start mariadb
---------------- PHP 7.1 ----------------

# systemctl enable php-fpm
# systemctl start php-fpm
---------------- PHP 5.6 ----------------

# systemctl enable php56-php-fpm
# systemctl start php56-php-fpm
Attention: In case you get any errors while starting the second instance of PHP, php56-
php-fpm, a SELinux policy could be blocking it from starting. If SELinux is in enforcing
mode, set it to permissive mode, then try starting the service once again.
# getenforce
# setenforce 0
Step 6: Setup Websites with Permissions

13. At this point, you can now create the necessary directories for your websites under
/var/www/html/. You also need to create directories to store logs as follows:
---------------- Website 1 ----------------

# mkdir -p /var/www/html/example1.com/
# mkdir -p /var/log/nginx/example1.com/

---------------- Website 2 ----------------
# mkdir -p /var/www/html/example2.com/
# mkdir -p /var/log/nginx/example2.com/
14. Set the appropriate ownership permissions on all the directories.
---------------- Website 1 ----------------

# chown -R root:nginx /var/www/html/example1.com/
# chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/example1.com/
# chown -R root:nginx /var/log/nginx/example1.com/
# chmod -R 660 /var/log/nginx/example1.com/
---------------- Website 2 ----------------

# chown -R root:nginx /var/www/html/example2.com/
# chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/example2.com/
# chown -R root:nginx /var/log/nginx/example2.com/
# chmod -R 660 /var/log/nginx/example2.com/
Step 7: Setup Nginx Server Blocks for Websites

15. Now con gure how Nginx will process requests to your websites using the server
block con guration les which should be located in /etc/nginx/conf.d/.
Create the con guration les for your websites ending with .conf extension.
# vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/example1.com.conf
# vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/example2.com.conf
Then paste the following server block con gurations in the respective les.
Website 1

Con guration for example1.com
server {
listen 80;
server_name example1.com www.example1.com;
root /var/www/html/example1.com/;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
#charset koi8-r;
access_log /var/log/nginx/example1.com/example1_access_log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/example1.com/example1_error_log er
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:

location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; #set port for php-fpm t
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_
include fastcgi_params;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
}
}
Website 2
Con guration for example2.com


server {
listen 80;
server_name example2.com www.example2.com;
index index.php index.html index.htm;
#charset koi8-r;
access_log /var/log/nginx/example2.com/example2_access_log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/example2.com/example2_error_log err
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:

location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9001; #set port for php56-php
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_
include fastcgi_params;
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
}
}
16. Make sure that you have the following line in the closing part of the http block in
/etc/nginx/nginx.conf. It helps to include all con guration les inside the
/etc/nginx/conf.d/ directory when Nginx is running.
include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;

Step 8: Testing Different PHP Versions

17. Finally, you need to test that your server is using the two versions of PHP. You can
create a very basic info.php script in the document root directories of your websites as
shown.
# echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/example1.com/info.php

# echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/example2.com/info.php
18. To apply all the changes you have made above, you need to restart Nginx, php-fpm
and php56-php-fpm. But you can rst of all check that the Nginx con guration les for
any syntax errors before doing so.
# nginx -t
# systemctl restart nginx php-fpm php56-php-fpm
Verify Nginx Con guration
19. There is one other last thing to do, especially if you are running your server locally,
you need to setup local DNS using /etc/hosts le as shown in the screen shot below.
192.168.56.10 example1.com example1

192.168.56.10 example2.com example2
Add Websites to-Hosts File
20. Finally, open a web browser and type the following addresses to verify the versions
of PHP installed on the system.
http://example1.com/index.php
http://example2.com/index.php
Check PHP 7.1 Version
Check PHP 5.6 Version
That’s It! Now you can deploy les and test websites with different PHP versions. If you
have any additions to make or questions to put forward, make use of the comment form
below.
 Nginx Tips , PHP Tips
 How to Find a Speci c String or Word ccat – Show ‘cat Command’ Output with
in Files and Directories Syntax Highlighting or Colorizing 
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21 thoughts on “How to Run Multiple Websites

with Different PHP Versions in Nginx”
Maria 
January 15, 2021 at 8:44 pm
Hello,
I wonder if you have done the post related to multiple domains in Apache
running different PHP versions on CentOS 7.
Thanks,
Reply
markonah
December 7, 2018 at 8:05 am
How to implement this to active for both PHP 5.6 and 7.2 in Apache virtual host?
please write the tutorial…
thanks in advanced
Reply
Aaron Kili
December 7, 2018 at 1:46 pm
@markonah
Okay, we will prepare a guide for running multiple websites with different PHP
versions in Apache. Thanks for the feedback.

Reply
JJ
June 26, 2019 at 9:15 pm
Yes please, I really need to know how to do this using the Apache webserver.
Reply
CTrace
November 12, 2018 at 4:31 pm
How do I switch from php7.1 to php5.6 in command?
I want php5.6 running in cli mode,
$ php -v
Should output php5.6 not php7.1, which is my now in my current system.
Reply
Aaron Kili
November 13, 2018 at 11:58 pm
@CTrace
In your case, you need to install PHP5.6 as the default version. Refer to the 
steps for installing PHP, shown above.
Reply
Aaron Smith
October 11, 2018 at 9:39 pm
Is there a known way to switch this process? I have several machines that have
PHP 5.6 running and I want to add php 7 to those machines. Let me know.
Reply
Aaron Kili
October 12, 2018 at 12:56 pm
@Aaron
Change the value of the fastcgi_pass directive in to the TCP socket or Unix
socket for the particular PHP-FPM you want.
Reply
Natka
July 23, 2018 at 10:20 pm
How to Con gure step 7 in apache 2.4
Thanks in advance. 
Reply
Aaron Kili
July 25, 2018 at 8:37 pm
@Natka
In Apache, server blocks are referred to as virtual hosts, see this guide for more
information and how to con gure them: https://www.tecmint.com/apache-ip-
based-and-name-based-virtual-hosting/
Reply
liam.wang
June 28, 2018 at 2:20 pm
good job!
point 13 need adjust the content of website1 and website2
Reply
Aaron Kili
June 29, 2018 at 11:37 am
@liam.wang

Many thanks for mentioning, we will correct the typo.
Reply
Ravi Saive
June 29, 2018 at 11:52 am
@Liam,
Thanks for pointing out, corrected in the article..
Reply
Zulmi
June 27, 2018 at 1:15 pm
Thank you very much, it really helped.
Reply
Aaron Kili
June 28, 2018 at 1:16 pm
@Zulmi
This is great, we are glad that you found this guide helpful. Thanks for the
feedback.

Reply
Grace
May 29, 2018 at 11:33 am
Hi I got this message when run this command.
Loaded module fastestmirror

Repository packages-microsoft-com-prod is listed more than once in the con g
How to x that?
Reply
Hank Cape
April 4, 2018 at 3:34 pm
Just for those (others) running these on automaton, there might be a good reason
to add instructions starting database in Step 3 between 6. and 7. :) I knew it but
some others might not get it and they might get frustrated.
Reply
Hank Cape
April 4, 2018 at 4:42 pm
Also, Step 5 point 12. The second to last line is incorrect, systemctl enable
php56-fpm should be systemctl enable php56-php-fpm.
I don’t need these comments to be published, just to inform you about these
two things in otherwise excellent article.
hank
Reply
Aaron Kili
April 5, 2018 at 10:57 am
@Hank
Many thanks for the heads up. We will correct this as soon as possible.
However, the comments have to be published, because this is useful info you
have shared. Thanks once more.
Reply
Simon
January 22, 2019 at 4:16 am
This typo in step5 still hasn’t been corrected.
Reply
Ravi Saive
January 22, 2019 at 12:24 pm
@Simon,
Sorry for delay, corrected the command in the article.
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2/1/2021 How to Run Multiple Websites with Different PHP Versions in Nginx

How to Run Multiple Websites with Different PHP

Aaron Kili Last Updated: January 22, 2019 Nginx 21 Comments

Testing Environment Setup

A CentOS 7 or RHEL 7 server with minimal installation.

Step 1: Installing and Enabling EPEL and Remi

# yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest

# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms

Step 2: Installing Nginx Web Server

Add the following lines to le as per your distribution.

--------------- On CentOS 7 ---------------

--------------- On RHEL 7 ---------------

# yum install nginx

Step 3: Installing MariaDB Database Server

Add the following lines to le as per your distribution.

--------------- On CentOS 7 ---------------

--------------- On RHEL 7 ---------------

# yum install MariaDB-client MariaDB-server

Read Also: 12 MySQL/MariaDB Security Best Practices for Linux

Step 4: Installing Multiple Versions of PHP

Install PHP 7.1 Version

# yum-config-manager --enable remi-php71 [Default]

Install PHP 5.6 Version

# yum install php56 php56-php-common php56-php-fpm

Check Default PHP Version

Step 5: Con guring PHP-FPM and PHP56-PHP-

php-fpm (default 7.1) – /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Open the les above, set the user/group of FastCGI processes.

# vi /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf [PHP 7.1]

The default values should be apache, change them to nginx as shown.

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000 [php-fpm]

# systemctl enable nginx

# systemctl enable mariadb

---------------- PHP 7.1 ----------------

---------------- PHP 5.6 ----------------

Step 6: Setup Websites with Permissions

---------------- Website 1 ----------------

14. Set the appropriate ownership permissions on all the directories.

---------------- Website 1 ----------------

---------------- Website 2 ----------------

Step 7: Setup Nginx Server Blocks for Websites

Con guration for example1.com

# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:

Con guration for example2.com

# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:

Step 8: Testing Different PHP Versions

# echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/example1.com/info.php

Verify Nginx Con guration

192.168.56.10 example1.com example1

Add Websites to-Hosts File

Check PHP 7.1 Version

Check PHP 5.6 Version

 Nginx Tips , PHP Tips

If You Appreciate What We Do Here On TecMint, You

We are thankful for your never ending support.

GoAccess (A Real-Time Apache and Nginx) Web Server Log Analyzer

How to Set Up Nginx Server Blocks (Virtual Hosts) on CentOS 8

How to Set Up Nginx Server Blocks (Virtual Hosts) on Ubuntu 20.04

How to Install Nginx Web Server on Ubuntu 20.04

How to Install WordPress with Nginx in Ubuntu 20.04

21 thoughts on “How to Run Multiple Websites

please write the tutorial…

How do I switch from php7.1 to php5.6 in command?