mod_fastcgi Installation on Apache 2.2

What is mod_fastcgi?

mod_fastcgi is an Apache module for interfacing with CGI programs allowing a server to handle more requests at  one time.  It does this by keeping an instance of php running in the background. When apache receives the request it forwards it to FasctCGI. It can increase performance and reduce memory useage over mod_php. If you have not already done so, you will need to setup php-fpm for this to work. Please the following guide on how to do so Install PHP-FPM

Install mod_fastcgi

First get the required the required packages

wget -O /usr/src/mod_fastcgi-2.4.6.tar.gz https://github.com/txduncan/mod_fastcgi/blob/master/mod_fastcgi-2.4.6.tar.gz

Change to the download directory:

cd /usr/src

Uncompress the package:

tar xfvz mod_fastcgi-2.4.6.tar.gz

Copy the make file:

cp /usr/src/mod_fastcgi-2.4.6/Makefile.AP2 /usr/src/mod_fastcgi-2.4.6/Makefile

Make and install the package

make top_dir=/usr/lib64/httpd

 make top_dir=/usr/lib64/httpd install

If the build directory differs from the standard apache build you will need to update top_dir to the parent directory of the build directory

Configure Apache to use mod_fastcgi

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and add

LoadModule fastcgi_module lib/apache/mod_fastcgi.so

To make the entire Apache server to use php-fpm with mod_fastcgi:

Comment out any additional references to php in httpd.conf

# LoadModule php5_module        modules/libphp5.so
# AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and add the following

LoadModule fastcgi_module modules/mod_fastcgi.so

Edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf and add the following

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c> 
 FastCGIExternalServer /usr/sbin/php-fpm -host 127.0.0.1:9000
 AddHandler php-fastcgi .php 
  Action php-fastcgi /usr/sbin/php-fpm.fcgi 
 ScriptAlias /usr/sbin/php-fpm.fcgi /usr/sbin/php-fpm 
 <Directory /usr/sbin> 
 Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks 
 SetHandler fastcgi-script 
 Order allow,deny 
 Allow from all 
 </Directory> 
 </IfModule>

Be sure to update the path to the php-fpm binary in the above configuration, to find it do:

which php-fpm

Add a include in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Include /etc/httpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf

Restart Apache to load the new configuration:

service httpd restart

Once you have done that go ahead and create a test file in a Apache document root:

<?php
 phpinfo();
 ?>

Visiting that page should show the PHP variables from the newly configured mod_fastcgi.