Install and Configure Nginx with php-fpm on Cent OS 7.

Install Epel repository

#yum install epel-release -y

Install nginx and php

#yum install php php-fpm php-gd nginx -y

#systemctl start nginx.service

#systemctl start php-fpm.service

At this point we should be able to get test page for Nginx server when accessed in the browser. http://localhost

The default document root for nginx is /usr/share/nginx/html/

Now lets create a php info file in /usr/share/nginx/html

#vim phpinfo.php
------------------
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
------------------

Now try to open the file in the browser. http://localhost/phpinfo.php

The file will get downloaded instead of getting executed. To fix this we need to include the following configuration in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf. This will pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000 for execution.

-----------------------------------------------
location ~ \.php$ {
        root           /usr/share/nginx/html;
        fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME   $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
}
-----------------------------------------------


Restart nginx and php-fpm service

#systemctl start nginx.service

#systemctl start php-fpm.service

Now we should be able to open http://localhost/phpinfo.php


Now Lets create another server block with a document root of /var/www/html

Create example.conf  in /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.conf

Include the following config in the example.conf

----------------------------------------------------------------
server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  example.com;
        root         /var/www/html;
        index index.php;

location ~ \.php$ {
        root           /var/www/html;
        fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME   $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
}

}
-----------------------------------------------------------------

#mkdir -p /var/www/html

#vim /var/www/html/index.php
-----------------------
<? phpinfo(); ?>
------------------------

Save the file and restart nginx service and you should be have the example.com site up and running.