Ansible Role: PHP

Installs PHP on RedHat/CentOS and Debian/Ubuntu servers.

Requirements

Must be running a separate web server, such as Nginx or Apache.

Role Variables

Available variables are listed below, along with default values (see defaults/main.yml):

php_packages: []

A list of the PHP packages to install (OS-specific by default). You'll likely want to install common packages like php, php-cli, php-devel and php-pdo, and you can add in whatever other packages you'd like (for example, php-gd for image manipulation, or php-ldap if you need to connect to an LDAP server for authentication).

php_enable_webserver: true

If your usage of PHP is tied to a web server (e.g. Apache or Nginx), leave this default value. If you are using PHP server-side or to run some small application, set this value to false so this role doesn't attempt to interact with a web server.

php_webserver_daemon: "httpd"

The default values for the HTTP server deamon are httpd (used by Apache) for RedHat/CentOS, or apache2 (also used by Apache) for Debian/Ubuntu. If you are running another webserver (for example, nginx), change this value to the name of the daemon under which the webserver runs.

php_enablerepo: ""

(RedHat/CentOS only) If you have enabled any additional repositories (might I suggest geerlingguy.repo-epel or geerlingguy.repo-remi), those repositories can be listed under this variable (e.g. remi,epel). This can be handy, as an example, if you want to install the latest version of PHP 5.4, which is in the Remi repository.

PHP-FPM

PHP-FPM is a simple and robust FastCGI Process Manager for PHP. It can dramatically ease scaling of PHP apps and is the normal way of running PHP-based sites and apps when using a webserver like Nginx (though it can be used with other webservers just as easily).

When using this role with PHP running as php-fpm instead of as a process inside a webserver (e.g. Apache's mod_php), you need to set the following variable to true:

php_enable_php_fpm: false

You will also need to override the default php_packages list and add php-fpm (RedHat/CentOS) or php5-fpm (Debian/Ubuntu) to the list.

This role does not manage fpm-specific www pool configuration (found in /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf on RedHat/CentOS and /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf on Debian/Ubuntu), but rather allows you to manage those files on your own. If you change that file, remember to notify the restart php-fpm handler so PHP picks up the new settings once in place. Settings like pm.max_children and other pm.* settings can have a dramatic impact on server performance, and should be tuned specifically for each application and server configuration.

Installing from Source

If you need a specific version of PHP, or would like to test the latest (e.g. master) version of PHP, there's a good chance there's no suitable package already available in your platform's package manager. In these cases, you may choose to install PHP from source by compiling it directly.

Note that source compilation takes much longer than installing from packages (PHP HEAD takes 5+ minutes to compile on a modern quad-core computer, just as a point of reference).

php_install_from_source: false

Set this to true to install PHP from source instead of installing from packages.

php_source_version: "master"

The version of PHP to install from source (a git branch, tag, or commit hash).

php_source_clone_dir: "~/php-src"
php_source_install_path: "/opt/php"

Location where source will be cloned and installed, respectively.

php_source_make_command: "make"

Set the make command to make --jobs=X where X is the number of cores present on the server where PHP is being compiled. Will speed up compilation times dramatically if you have multiple cores.

php_source_configure_command: >
  [...]

The ./configure command that will build the Makefile to be used for PHP compilation. Add in all the options you need for your particular environment. Using a folded scalar (>) allows you to define the variable over multiple lines, which is extremely helpful for legibility and source control!

A few other notes/caveats for specific configurations:

• Apache with mpm_prefork: If you're using Apache with prefork as a webserver for PHP, you will need to make sure apxs2 is available on your system (e.g. by installing apache2-prefork-dev in Ubuntu), and you will need to make sure the option --with-apxs2 is defined in php_source_configure_command. Finally, you will need to make sure the mpm_prefork module is loaded instead of mpm_worker or mpm_event, and likely add a phpX.conf (where X is the major version of PHP) configuration file to the Apache module config folder with contents like php7.conf.
• Apache with mpm_event or mpm_worker: If you're using Apache with event or worker as a webserver for PHP, you will need to compile PHP with FPM. Make sure the option --enable-fpm is defined in php_source_configure_command. You'll also need to make sure Apache's support for CGI and event is installed (e.g. by installing apache2-mpm-event and libapache2-mod-fastcgi) and the mpm_event module is loaded.
• Nginx: If you're using Nginx as a webserver for PHP, you will need to compile PHP with FPM. Make sure the option --enable-fpm is defined in php_source_configure_command.

php.ini settings

php_use_managed_ini: true

By default, all the extra defaults below are applied through the php.ini included with this role. You can self-manage your php.ini file (if you need more flexility in its configuration) by setting this to false (in which case all the below variables will be ignored).

php_memory_limit: "256M"
php_max_execution_time: "60"
php_max_input_time: "60"
php_max_input_vars: "1000"
php_realpath_cache_size: "32K"
php_upload_max_filesize: "64M"
php_post_max_size: "32M"
php_date_timezone: "America/Chicago"
php_sendmail_path: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i"
php_short_open_tag: false
php_error_reporting: "E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT"
php_display_errors: "Off"
php_display_startup_errors: "On"
php_expose_php: "On"

Various defaults for PHP. Only used if php_use_managed_ini is set to true.

OpCache-related Variables

The OpCache is included in PHP starting in version 5.5, and the following variables will only take effect if the version of PHP you have installed is 5.5 or greater.

php_opcache_enabled_in_ini: false

When installing Opcache, depending on the system and whether running PHP as a webserver module or standalone via php-fpm, you might need the line extension=opcache.so in opcache.ini. If you need that line added (e.g. you're running php-fpm), set this variable to true.

php_opcache_enable: "1"
php_opcache_enable_cli: "0"
php_opcache_memory_consumption: "96"
php_opcache_interned_strings_buffer: "16"
php_opcache_max_accelerated_files: "4096"
php_opcache_max_wasted_percentage: "5"
php_opcache_validate_timestamps: "1"
php_opcache_revalidate_freq: "2"
php_opcache_max_file_size: "0"

OpCache ini directives that are often customized on a system. Make sure you have enough memory and file slots allocated in the OpCache (php_opcache_memory_consumption, in MB, and php_opcache_max_accelerated_files) to contain all the PHP code you are running. If not, you may get less-than-optimal performance!

APC-related Variables

php_enable_apc: true

Whether to enable APC. Other APC variables will be ineffective if this is set to false.

php_apc_enabled_in_ini: false

When installing APC, depending on the system and whether running PHP as a webserver module or standalone via php-fpm, you might need the line extension=apc.so in apc.ini. If you need that line added (e.g. you're running php-fpm), set this variable to true.

php_apc_cache_by_default: "1"
php_apc_shm_size: "96M"
php_apc_stat: "1"
php_apc_enable_cli: "0"

APC ini directives that are often customized on a system. Set php_apc_cache_by_default to 0 to disable APC by default (so you could just enable it for one codebase if you have a lot of code on a server). Set the php_apc_shm_size so it will hold all your application code in memory with a little overhead (fragmentation or APC running out of memory will slow down PHP dramatically).

Ensuring APC is installed

If you use APC, you will need to make sure APC is installed (it is installed by default, but if you customize the php_packages list, you need to include APC in the list):

• On RHEL/CentOS systems: Make sure php-pecl-apc is in the list of php_packages.
• On Debian/Ubuntu systems: Make sure php-apc is in the list of php_packages.

You can also install APC via pecl, but it's simpler to manage the installation with the system's package manager.

Dependencies

None.

Example Playbook

- hosts: webservers
  vars_files:
    - vars/main.yml
  roles:
    - { role: geerlingguy.php }

Inside vars/main.yml:

php_memory_limit: "128M"
php_max_execution_time: "90"
php_upload_max_filesize: "256M"
php_packages:
  - php
  - php-cli
  - php-common
  - php-devel
  - php-gd
  - php-mbstring
  - php-pdo
  - php-pecl-apc
  - php-xml
  ...

License

MIT / BSD

Author Information

This role was created in 2014 by Jeff Geerling, author of Ansible for DevOps.