Isolating PHP with Docker Containers

Docker is a great piece of technology. It's a nice way to setup a development environment or experiment with new software without actually clogging up your own system.

I was messing around with serving some webpages using Docker with Apache and PHP. How could I easily switch PHP versions without clogging up my local machine or creating multiple Docker images/Vagrant boxes? I'm sure lots of developers could easily find a solution, but I must admit I do have trouble conceptualising container solutions. The layers of abstraction cause a mental block, I'm sure I'm not alone with this.

It struck me that Apache/PHP doesn't fit into the Docker one process per container doctrine. PHP and Apache as so glued together that in regard to separation of concerns, it's a non starter.

I really wanted my web server container to be isolated from the programming language. Switching to NGINX and PHP-FPM offers a much cleaner separation, which allows us to switch language versions with ease. This could be handy if you have legacy sites that require different versions or you want to try out a site before upgrading.

Setup

So the plan will be that when a request is sent to the test5.com/index.php url, the Nginx container will pass the request to process index.php onto a container running PHP 5 and obviously the equivalent for test7.com/index.php and PHP 7.

First things first, add 2 entries to the /etc/hosts file:

127.0.0.1 test5.com
127.0.0.1 test7.com 

These will be the addresses we use to access the Nginx container.

Download or clone the repository from GitHub docker-php-isolation-example to a suitable place on your system. All commands will be ran from the CLI from within this folder.

The folder structure is relatively simple:

• webroot - the self explanatory folder which contains a file called index.php which contains the phpinfo() command.

• site.conf - Nginx site(s) configuration file.

• docker-compose.yml - docker setup configuration file.

The docker-compose.yml file sets up 3 containers, all based on Alpine Linux image, so the total for the containers is a tiny 120Mb.

version: '2'
services:
    web:
        image: nginx:alpine
        ports:
            - "8080:80"
        volumes:
            - ./webroot:/var/www/html
            - ./site.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/site.conf
        links:
            - php7
            - php5
    php7:
        image: php:7-fpm-alpine
        volumes:
            - ./webroot:/var/www/html
    php5:
        image: php:5-fpm-alpine
        volumes:
            - ./webroot:/var/www/html

The main container is the Nginx proxy, which is the only container with an external port (8080). This container proxy's any valid requests to the two other containers, one running php 7 php-fpm, the other php 5 php-fpm on port 9000.

the webroot folder is shared between all 3 containers, Nginx needs this to serve any non PHP files, while the PHP containers need access to the PHP files.

The site.conf file contains defines how Nginx treats requests:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php;
    server_name test7.com;
    root /var/www/html/;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php7:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php;
    server_name test5.com;
    root /var/www/html/;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass php5:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }
}

I'm sure theres a way to incorporate both of these addresses into one and use a regular expression, but lifes too short.

Running it

From the CLI, navigate into the folder where you downloaded the repository and type docker-compose up -d.

This will dowload the images if there not saved locally already and start the containers. Once finished type docker ps to make sure the 3 containers are running.

So open your browser of choice and type test5.com:8080 and you should see phpinfo() for PHP 5.

Next, type test7.com:8080 and you should see phpinfo() for, you guessed it, PHP 7!

And there you go, we can define which version of PHP to use to process the same index.php file, hours of fun...

Tidying up

Had enough excitement? To close down the running containers, type docker-compose down, this should close and remove the containers.

If you want to remove the downloaded images, type docker images and then docker rmi IMAGE ID, for example docker rmi 4fe1b7f08eb1 8b057b9de580 1b95155d2daf would remove the 3 images with IDs 4fe1b7f08eb1, 8b057b9de580 and 1b95155d2daf.

Finally

The concept of offering PHP as a kinda ‘Software as a Service’ might be a humble idea, but its something I find really cool. Being able to isolate versions of a programming language interests me greatly and might be something that I try and incorporate in future projects.

_{^{Isolating PHP with Docker Containers first appeared on my blog site on 07/10/2017.}}

Comments

[David J Eddy]

You combined two of my favorite topics; PHP and containerization :D. Nice example and interesting setup. Did you consider forgoing nginx and using PHP's built in server; since this was for dev/test/proof of concept?

any time you want to talk PHP or containers please feel free to message me :D.

[John McCracken]

Thanks for the kind words David.

No it never even occurred to me to use the PHP built in server, maybe something I should look into.

lol, you don't know what your letting yourself in for, I have lots of Docker questions bouncing about in my head!

[David J Eddy]

Hit me up. :)

[Mahmoud Zalt]

I'm using laradock.io (A full PHP development environment for Docker).

[antoroxico]

Hi, I'm new in docker and nginx. Is it possible to choose the version of php fpm by directory and not by hostname?. Could you illustrate the way or guide me in the right direction?

[Andrew Yeung]

Here is my solution on choosing php-fpm by directory.
github.com/lubu12/docker-nginx-php...

Hope it helps.

[Leonardo Lemos]

Nice article, thanks!!

For a simple development container can we merge both php and nginx container?? Is it possible? do we need to run 2 processes what is wrong by the book, but is it possible?