Setup Apache, FastCGI and PHP on Debian/Ubuntu for hosting sites on different ports and PHP versions

Prerequisites

Update the installed packages.

apt update

Install the Ondřej PHP repository.

apt install software-properties-commonsudo
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
apt update

Check that the repositories are correctly installed.

grep ^ /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*

Step 1 - Install Apache

apt install apache2

Step 2 - Install the PHP versions

In this case, PHP 5.6 and 7.0 will be installed

# PHP 5.6
apt-get install php5.6 php5.6-bcmath php5.6-dev php5.6-cli php5.6-cgi php5.6-common php5.6-gd php5.6-json php5.6-mbstring php5.6-xml php5.6-zip
# PHP 7.0
apt-get install php7.0 php7.0-bcmath php7.0-dev php7.0-cli php7.0-cgi php7.0-common php7.0-gd php7.0-json php7.0-mbstring php7.0-xml php7.0-zip

Step 3 - Install FastCGI

# Ubuntu 16.04
apt install libapache2-mod-fastcgi
# Ubuntu 18.04
apt install libapache2-mod-fcgid

Step 4 - Setup the FastCGI handler for each PHP version

Two handlers will be created, one for each PHP version installed.

# PHP 5.6
vim /var/www/cgi-bin/php56.fastcgi
chmod +x /var/www/cgi-bin/php56.fastcgi
chown www-data:www-data /var/www/cgi-bin/php56.fastcgi
# PHP 7.0
vim /var/www/cgi-bin/php70.fastcgi
chmod +x /var/www/cgi-bin/php70.fastcgi
chown www-data:www-data /var/www/cgi-bin/php70.fastcgi

php56.fastcgi

#!/bin/bash

PHPRC="/etc/php/5.6/cgi/php.ini"
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=4
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
exec /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5.6

php70.fastcgi

#!/bin/bash

PHPRC="/etc/php/7.0/cgi/php.ini"
PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=4
PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=1000
export PHPRC
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
exec /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php7.0

Step 5 - Configure the sites

Change directory to the default web directory.

# Ubuntu 16.04
cd /var/www
# Ubuntu 18.04
cd /var/www/html

Create the folders each site.

mkdir php56-example php70-example

Create the index files for each site.

vim php56-example/index.php
vim php70-example/index.php

index.php

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Step 6 - Add the listen ports

Open the configuration file on /etc/apache2/ports.conf and add the following ports.

Listen 81
Listen 82

Step 7 - Setup the virtual hosts

Two vhosts will be created, one for each site, on ports 81 and 82 respectively.

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
vim php56-example.conf
vim php70-example.conf

php56-example.conf

<VirtualHost *:81>
    ServerName php56-example
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/php56-example
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
    <Directory "/var/www/html/php56-example">
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
        AddHandler fcgid-script .php
        FCGIWrapper /var/www/cgi-bin/php56.fastcgi .php
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from All
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

php70-example.conf

<VirtualHost *:82>
    ServerName php70-example
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/php70-example
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
    <Directory "/var/www/html/php70-example">
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
        AddHandler fcgid-script .php
        FCGIWrapper /var/www/cgi-bin/php70.fastcgi .php
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from All
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Step 8 - Configure Apache

Disable the default PHP modules.

a2dismod php*

Enable the necessary modules.

a2enmod actions alias fcgid proxy_fcgi

Disable the default site.

a2dissite 000-default

Enable the corresponding sites.

a2ensite php56-example
a2ensite php70-example

Step 9 - Restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Step 10 - Setup the firewall

sudo ufw allow 'Apache'
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 81/tcp
sudo ufw disable
sudo ufw enable

Troubleshooting

Typical log locations
- /var/log/httpd/error_log
[cgi:error] AH01215
- Description: Usually this is caused by incorrect line endings on the .fastcgi files. Change the end of line sequence from CRLF to LF or recreate the file using vim.
- References: 1

RatserX/debian-ubuntu-apache-fastcgi-php.md