Nginx with PHP and MySQL on Windows 7

In the past, whenever I needed a web server on Windows, I would install the XAMPP distribution (comes with Apache, PHP, and MySQL) and call it a day. This time, I wanted to use Nginx instead of Apache as the web server. Below are the steps I took to install Nginx, PHP and MySQL separately on Windows 7.

Install Nginx

Nginx is pretty easy to install on Windows. Just do the following:

1. Download the latest Nginx for windows version. (Currently, only 32-bit versions are available.)
2. Unzip to a directory like “c:\nginx”.
3. Create two subdirectories which “nginx.exe” expects to exist:
   mkdir c:\nginx\logs
   mkdir c:\nginx\temp
4. If you want to change the document root from the default “c:\nginx\html” and/or enable directory listing, edit the “c:\nginx\conf\nginx.conf” file and adjust the global “location /” declaration like so:
           location / {
               #root   html; # comment out default root at "nginx_install_dir\html"
               root   /www;  # use new root "c:\www" (assuming nginx is install on c: drive)
               index  index.html index.htm;
               autoindex on; # Add this to enable directory listing
           }
5. To run the Nginx web server, launch the “Command Prompt” and issue these commands:
   # Go to Nginx installation directory
   c:
   cd \nginx
   
   # Start Nginx
   start nginx.exe

   Notes:

   • Running “c:\nginx\nginx.exe” without changing to the “c:\nginx” directory will fail because Nginx will look for the log and temp subdirectories, which won’t exist under another directory.
   • The “start” command will launch Nginx in a separate window; otherwise, Nginx would take control of the current “Command Prompt” window. That separate window will appear and quickly disappear.
   • It is not necessary to run the “Command Prompt” as an administrator.
6. Browse to http://localhost/ . You should see a “Welcome to nginx!” page.
7. To quit Nginx, in the “Command Prompt” window, do the following:
   # Go to Nginx installation directory
   c:
   cd \nginx
   
   # Quit Nginx
   nginx.exe -s quit

   If you have started Nginx more than once, the quit command above will only kill the last Nginx process started. To kill all Nginx processes, run the following:

   taskkill /F /IM nginx.exe

To avoid launching multiple instances of Nginx, I created the following “intelligent” Nginx start and stop batch script files.

Create a file named “start_nginx.bat” with the content below:

And create a file named “stop_nginx.bat” with this content:

Install and Configure PHP

To install PHP on Windows:

1. Browse to php.net, click on the “Windows downloads” link, and download the latest thread safe version. Either 32-bit or 64-bit versions will work.
2. Unzip to a directory, like “c:\nginx\php”.
3. Select a PHP configuration (I recommend the development version):
   copy c:\nginx\php\php.ini-development c:\nginx\php\php.ini

We will run the “c:\nginx\php\php-cgi.exe” server to allow Nginx to execute PHP scripts using the FastCGI protocol.

1. Edit “c:\nginx\conf\nginx.conf” to uncomment the FastCGI section and update the fastcgi_param entries like so:
           # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
           #
           location ~ \.php$ {
               root           html;
               fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
               fastcgi_index  index.php;
               #fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
               fastcgi_param  REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
               fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
               include        fastcgi_params;
           }

   Notes:

   • Don’t forget to update the “root” location value if you are not using the default “c:\nginx\html” directory.
   • The fastcgi_param values are recommended extra parameters passed to PHP scripts for their optional use.
2. Add the following to the bottom of the “start_nginx.bat” file:
   REM Start php-cgi
   tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq php-cgi.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "php-cgi.exe">NUL
   IF NOT "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
      REM php-cgi is NOT running, so start it
      start /min c:\nginx\php\php-cgi.exe -b localhost:9000 -c c:\nginx\php\php.ini
      ECHO php-cgi started.
   ) else (
      ECHO php-cgi is already running.
   )

   Notes:

   • Use localhost instead of 127.0.0.1 to support both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing (if it is enabled). 127.0.0.1 was not resolvable on my IPv6-enabled Windows installation. (Strangely, using 127.0.0.1 in the nginx.conf’s FastCGI section above is okay though.)
   • Unfortunately, “start php-cgi.exe” will show a separate “Command Prompt” window which will remain visible; the “/min” parameter flag is used to minimize that window. If you really want to prevent that window from appearing, you’ll need to use a VBScript to execute the batch file.
   • The order in which Nginx and php-cgi are launched does not matter.
   • The PHP distribution has a “php-win.exe” file which supposedly is the same as “php-cgi.exe” but without throwing up a “Command Prompt” window; however, I could not get “php-win.exe” to run as a server.
3. Add the following to the bottom of the “stop_nginx.bat” file:
   REM Stop php-cgi
   tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq php-cgi.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "php-cgi.exe">NUL
   IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
      REM php-cgi is currently running, so quit it
      taskkill /f /IM php-cgi.exe
      ECHO php-cgi killed.
   ) else (
      ECHO php-cgi is not currently running.
   )
4. Create a PHP test script at “c:\nginx\html\info.php”with the following content:
   <?php
   phpinfo();
   ?>
5. Run “start_nginx.bat” to launch Nginx and php-cgi. Browse to http://localhost/info.php and you should see information about the PHP installation.

Install MySQL

Let’s get MySQL up and running:

1. Download the latest MySQL Community Server. I suggest the “ZIP Archive” distributions, either the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Click the Download button. You don’t need to log in to download, just click the “No thanks, just start my download” link at the bottom of the page.
2. Unzip to a directory like “c:\nginx\mysql”.
3. Select the default MySQL configuration:
   copy c:\nginx\mysql\my-default.ini c:\nginx\mysql\my.ini
4. Initialize MySQL by running the “Command Prompt” as an administrator (so Windows registry keys and service can be created) and these commands:
   # Current directory must be the MySQL installation directory
   cd c:\nginx\mysql
   
   # Initialize database with root user and blank password
   bin\mysqld --initialize-insecure
   
   # Install MySQL as a Windows service
   bin\mysqld --install-manual
   
   # Start MySQL Server service
   net start mysql
5. Test by running these commands (administrator privileges not required):
   # Run MySQL client, skipping password input since blank
   c:\nginx\mysql\bin\mysql.exe -u root --skip-password
   
   # Run some commands and a query
   mysql> SHOW databases;
   mysql> USE mysql;
   mysql> SHOW tables;
   mysql> DESC user;
   mysql> SELECT * FROM user;
   
   # Assign new root password
   mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';
   
   # Quit MySQL client
   mysql> quit;
   
   # Run MySQL client with password prompt
   c:\nginx\mysql\bin\mysql.exe -u root -p
   # Input the new_password
6. Enable PHP mysqli extension by uncommenting the line below in “c:\nginx\php\php.ini”:
   extension=php_mysqli.dll
7. Create a test script named mysql.php with the following content:
   <?php
   // HTML response header
   header('Content-type: text/plain');
   
   // Database connection parameters
   $DB_HOST = 'localhost';
   $DB_PORT = 3306; // 3306 is default MySQL port
   $DB_USER = 'root';
   $DB_PASS = ''; // blank or new_password
   $DB_NAME = 'mysql'; // database instance name
   
   // Open connection (all args can be optional or NULL!)
   $mysqli = new mysqli($DB_HOST, $DB_USER, $DB_PASS, $DB_NAME, $DB_PORT);
   if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
     echo 'Connect Error (' . $mysqli->connect_errno . ') ' . $mysqli->connect_error . PHP_EOL;
   } else {
     // Query users
     if ($result = $mysqli->query('SELECT User FROM user')) {
       echo 'Database users are:' . PHP_EOL;
       for ($i = 0; $i < $result->num_rows; $i++) {
         $result->data_seek($i);
         $row = $result->fetch_assoc();
         echo $row['User'] . PHP_EOL;
       }
       $result->close();
     } else {
       echo 'Query failed' . PHP_EOL;
     }
   }
   
   // Close connection
   $mysqli->close();
   ?>
8. Run “stop_nginx.bat” followed by “start_nginx.bat” to restart Nginx and php-cgi processes. Browse to http://localhost/mysql.php and you should see a listing of the MySQL database users.
9. You can stop and/or uninstall the MySQL Server service by running “Command Prompt” as an administrator and issuing these commands:
   # Stop MySQL Server service
   net stop mysql
   
   # Uninstall MySQL Server service
   sc delete mysql

You don’t have to run MySQL Server as a Windows service. Instead, you can run MySQL Server from the “Command Prompt” (administrator privileges not required) like so:

Unfortunately, the “mysqld.exe” will take control of the “Command Prompt” window and the “start” command does not work in this case, so you will need to open a second “Command Prompt” window in order to issue the shutdown command.

Some info taken from:

• Nginx + PHP + MySQL on Windows in 6 minutes
• How to check if a process is running via a batch script
• Understanding and Implementing FastCGI Proxying in Nginx
• 2.10.1.1 Initializing the Data Directory Manually Using mysqld
• Executing statements
• 2.3.5.6 Starting MySQL from the Windows Command Line