Swap Apache Prefork for Worker

By default most Apache web servers — at least prior to Apache 2.4 — run Apache’s Prefork MPM (multi-processing module). Prefork works OK and offers the greatest compatibility with existing Apache modules, but it consumes a relatively large amount of memory because it spawns many processes that each handle one connection at a time. Prefork typically uses non-thread-safe extensions like mod_php to interpret code.

Advantages of Worker Over Prefork

To reduce the memory footprint, you can adjust Apache to use an alternate method of handling incoming connections, like the Worker MPM. Since mod_php is considered incompatible with Worker’s threading, this also means installing an alternative PHP interpreter like FastCGI. To make FastCGI more useful and flexible, we’ll also install a new process manager, PHP-FPM.

To Replace Prefork With Worker

Go to /etc/apt/sources.list and uncomment the “multiverse” entries. This allows you to install the mod_fastcgi module:

$ vi /etc/apt/sources.list
$ apt-get update
$ apt-get install apache2-mpm-worker libapache2-mod-fastcgi php5-fpm php5-gd

Add php-apc here [Update 4/2016: APC is now outdated. Use the Zend OPcache instead.] if you didn’t previously install it. Installing mpm-worker using the Ubuntu package manager will also automatically remove mod_php, temporarily breaking your PHP web sites.

Enable Apache’s FastCGI and Actions modules:

$ a2enmod fastcgi actions

Tell Apache to send all PHP files to the PHP-FPM process using a Unix socket connection:

$ mkdir /var/www/fastcgi
$ chown www-data:www-data /var/www/fastcgi
$ vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Enter the following in httpd.conf:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
    Alias /php5.fastcgi /var/www/fastcgi/php5.fastcgi
    AddHandler php-script .php
    FastCGIExternalServer /var/www/fastcgi/php5.fastcgi -socket /var/run/php-fpm.sock
    Action php-script /php5.fastcgi virtual

    # Protect your FastCGI directory
    <Directory "/var/www/fastcgi">
       Order allow,deny
       <Files "php5.fastcgi">
          Order deny,allow
       </Files>
    </Directory>
</IfModule>

Edit your PHP-FPM configuration (/etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf), changing the “listen” line to match the socket you specified in httpd.conf:

listen = 127.0.0.1:9000
; change to this:
listen = /var/run/php-fpm.sock

If you want to see the PHP-FPM status page, you’ll need to create a virtual host for it. First, uncomment these lines in /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf:

pm.status_path = /status
ping.path = /ping

Then create a virtual host for it in /etc/apache2/sites-available:

<FilesMatch "^ping|status$">
    SetHandler php-script
</FilesMatch>