centos 7, apache event MPM with php-fpm

Starting from version 2.4 apache offers 3 MPM we can choose, it’s depend in what you needs.

• prefork MPM uses multiple child processes without threading. Each process handles one connection at a time without creating separate threads for each.
• worker MPM uses several threads per child processes, where each thread handles one connection at a time.
• event MPM It is similar to the worker MPM in that it also creates multiple threads per child process but with an advantage: it causes KeepAlive or idle connections (while they remain in that state) to be handled by a single thread, thus freeing up memory that can be allocated to other threads. This MPM is not suitable for non-thread-safe modules like mod_php, to use event MPM, PHP-FPM must be used instead.

check the MPM used by your Apache:

# httpd -V
AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 202.74.43.187. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Server version: Apache/2.4.6 (CentOS)
Server built:   Nov 19 2015 21:43:13
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:24
Server loaded:  APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Compiled using: APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     prefork
  threaded:     no
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/httpd"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/sbin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/run/httpd/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="conf/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"

To change this, edit /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-mpm.conf
and uncomment the line that loads mpm_event_module

LoadModule mpm_event_module modules/mod_mpm_event.so

install php-fpm, fcgi,mod_fcgid

# yum -y install php-fpm mod_fcgid fcgi

change php handler in order to use php-fpm in /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf

<FilesMatch \.php$>
#   SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    SetHandler "proxy:fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000" 
</FilesMatch>

restart/start all services

# systemctl start php-fpm.service 
# systemctl enable php-fpm.service
# systemctl restart httpd.service

recheck the MPM used by your Apache:

# httpd -V
AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 202.74.43.187. Set the 'ServerName' directive globally to suppress this message
Server version: Apache/2.4.6 (CentOS)
Server built:   Nov 19 2015 21:43:13
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:24
Server loaded:  APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Compiled using: APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     event
  threaded:     yes (fixed thread count)
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/httpd"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/sbin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/run/httpd/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="conf/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="conf/httpd.conf"

create phpinfo if php handler using fpm/fastCGI now

$ echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' > /var/www/html/info.php

have fun 🙂