nginx from https://launchpad.net/~hda-me/+archive/ubuntu/nginx-stable and php7.1

@stephgiguere

Generally this section:

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
    }

… would look something like:

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
    }

The difference being we’re swapping snippets/fastcgi-php.conf with fastcgi_params.

Not all NGINX repositories have a snippets directory that contains blocks of code. Even if they do, not all of them contain everything that’s needed (at least, that has been my experience).

…

If you don’t mind trying something different, and you have a few extra minutes, I wrote and installer for NGINX that handles a source installation hands-free.

It includes HTTP2, Brotli, a few modules, and multiple example configurations with it.

If you run:

cd /opt

Then:

git clone https://github.com/serveradminsh/installers.git

Followed by:

cd installers/nginx

chmod +x installer.sh

And finally:

./installer.sh

You’ll have a fully configured and optimized NGINX setup with a working PHP configuration that you can copy from the ./installers/nginx/examples directory.

Within this directory there’s a php directory which contains a php.conf file. That’s the one you need and to set it up, all you’d do is:

cp installers/nginx/examples/php/php.conf /etc/nginx/sites/yourdomain.conf

Then:

nano /etc/nginx/sites/yourdomain.conf

… and configure it to your liking. There’s also examples on how to setup SSL, Load Balancing, Proxy, and others.

The installer will take about 20-30 minutes as this is a source compile, not a stock repo package. It’s detailed and sets up everything you’d have to do a source compile to setup. A systemd service is also included, so NGINX is controlled using:

systemctl start nginx
systemctl restart nginx
systemctl stop nginx

The only thing I’d recommend doing is:

1). Run the installer on a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 droplet, or; 2). Run:

apt-get -y remove nginx

apt-get -y purge nginx

rm -rf /etc/nginx

This wipes your current NGINX installation, so if you need to backup anything, do it before the above commands. That said, the installer has all the examples you need to get things working and I will be more than happy to help should you have any questions.

As for the examples directory, most are setup so that you only need to change the server_name directive. The only other thing you may need to modify is the fastcgi_pass directive since you’re using sockets instead of TCP, or you can modify:

/etc/php/7.1/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

and change listen to use 127.0.0.1:9000 and restart php-fpm and the example I provided will work without any changes other than those for your domain.