Why is my PHP not autostarting with NginX on Windows 10? - php

Question

I'm running a new install of Windows 10. I need to create a local testing environment for PHP. I've set up and run NginX/PHP servers on Ubuntu Linux before, but never on Windows. I've installed the NginX and PHP binaries for Windows.
After I've booted up and logged in, if I cd to C:\nginx and run nginx.exe, the Nginx server starts up and runs fine, and I get the "Welcome to NginX" screen at http://127.0.0.1.
Then, if I cd to C:\nginx\php and run php-cgi.exe -b 127.0.0.1:9000 -c c:/nginx/php/php.ini, the PHP server runs, and I can access http://127.0.0.1/php.info and get the output of php_info();. So it seems everything is installed okay.
My goal now, is to to have the PHP server autostart when I boot the machine. I downloaded the Non-Sucking Service Manager, and opened a command prompt in Administraror mode, and ran nssm edit nginx. I filled out the screens as follows:
Then I did the same for PHP:
However, while NginX seems to be starting at boot, PHP does not. After a boot, without manually starting anything at the command line, I get the NginX welcome screen. However, if I try to view the PHP info page, I get the following message:
Unable to connect
Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1.
How do I get PHP to autostart on boot?
This is my nginx.conf file:
worker_processes 1;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include mime.types;
default_type text/html;
sendfile on;
keepalive_timeout 65;
server {
#Uncomment and edit the line below if you want to use a custom domainname
#server_name your.domain.com;
listen 80;
root c:/nginx/html;
location ~ .php$ {
root html;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME c:/nginx/html/$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
}

Answer 1

Your nginx.conf seems OK.
... However, while NginX seems to be starting at boot ...
I wouldn't trust NGINX welcome page, it most likely comes from cache. I also don't trust a service status Running unless there are nginx processes started by nssm.
In my tests both nginx and php services were not started properly.
I needed to set AppNoConsole=1 for both services to make them work.
According to the author(s) this is a known issue with Windows 10 Creators Update.
2017-04-26: Users of Windows 10 Creators Update should use prelease
build 2.2.4-101 to avoid an issue with services failing to start. If
for some reason you cannot use that build you can also set
AppNoConsole=1 in the registry, noting that applications which expect
a console window may behave unexpectedly.
You can change this setting via NSSM Service Editor GUI > Process > Console window. Just clear the checkbox and click Edit service. It's done.
The same operation can be done with commands too.
net stop php
net stop nginx
nssm set php AppNoConsole 1
nssm set nginx AppNoConsole 1
net start nginx
net start php