Dear ServerFault Community, I managed to get my site into a fully functional state two days ago.. Around 3 hours ago today, I've restarted my linux box and have found my site to no longer work. I have no idea as to why this would be and quite frankly I just don' think I'm at a level right now to fix it - I could really do with your help :)

Basically all my Nginx php files are rendering as blank or stating 'Permission Denied'

PHP-FPM was working fine the other day... Now i'm getting this error!!

My site has been working fine since I restarted it today!! Grr.

Looking in my Error Logs I can see:

while reading response header from upstream

    '2014/12/09 21:35:50 [error] 1945#0: *1 FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP message: PHP Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0 Unable to open primary script: /usr/share/nginx/html/phpinfo.php (Permission denied)" while reading response header from upstream, client: 82.15.196.119, server: www.vibeshed.com, request: "GET /phpinfo.php HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "vibeshed.com"' 

Unable to open primary script: /usr/share/nginx/html/phpinfo.php (Permission denied)" while reading response header from upstream, client: 82.15.196.119, server: vibeshed.com, request: "GET /phpinfo.php HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "vibeshed.com"
2014/12/09 20:02:02 [error] 1445#0: *1 FastCGI sent in stderr: "PHP message: PHP Warning:  Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0

My Nginx Site config:

#
# The default server
#
server {
    listen       80;
    server_name www.vibeshed.com vibeshed.com;
root   /usr/share/nginx/html;

    location / {
        index index.php  index.html index.htm;
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$uri;
    }

    error_page  404              /404.html;
    location = /404.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

    error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

    # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
    #
    location ~ \.php$ {
        root           /usr/share/nginx/html;
        fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include        fastcgi_params;
    }
}

PHP-FPM Configuration:

; Start a new pool named 'www'.
[www]

; The address on which to accept FastCGI requests.
; Valid syntaxes are:
;   'ip.add.re.ss:port'    - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific address on
;                            a specific port;
;   'port'                 - to listen on a TCP socket to all addresses on a
;                            specific port;
;   '/path/to/unix/socket' - to listen on a unix socket.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000

; Set listen(2) backlog. A value of '-1' means unlimited.
; Default Value: -1
;listen.backlog = -1

; List of ipv4 addresses of FastCGI clients which are allowed to connect.
; Equivalent to the FCGI_WEB_SERVER_ADDRS environment variable in the original
; PHP FCGI (5.2.2+). Makes sense only with a tcp listening socket. Each address
; must be separated by a comma. If this value is left blank, connections will be
; accepted from any ip address.
; Default Value: any
listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1

; Set permissions for unix socket, if one is used. In Linux, read/write
; permissions must be set in order to allow connections from a web server. Many
; BSD-derived systems allow connections regardless of permissions.
; Default Values: user and group are set as the running user
;                 mode is set to 0660
;listen.owner = nobody
;listen.group = nobody
;listen.mode = 0660

; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group
;       will be used.
; RPM: apache Choosed to be able to access some dir as httpd
user = nginx
; RPM: Keep a group allowed to write in log dir.
group = nginx

; Choose how the process manager will control the number of child processes.
; Possible Values:
;   static  - a fixed number (pm.max_children) of child processes;
;   dynamic - the number of child processes are set dynamically based on the
;             following directives:
;             pm.max_children      - the maximum number of children that can
;                                    be alive at the same time.
;             pm.start_servers     - the number of children created on startup.
;             pm.min_spare_servers - the minimum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is less than this
;                                    number then some children will be created.
;             pm.max_spare_servers - the maximum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is greater than this
;                                    number then some children will be killed.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm = dynamic

; The number of child processes to be created when pm is set to 'static' and the
; maximum number of child processes to be created when pm is set to 'dynamic'.
; This value sets the limit on the number of simultaneous requests that will be
; served. Equivalent to the ApacheMaxClients directive with mpm_prefork.
; Equivalent to the PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN environment variable in the original PHP
; CGI.
; Note: Used when pm is set to either 'static' or 'dynamic'
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm.max_children = 50

; The number of child processes created on startup.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Default Value: min_spare_servers + (max_spare_servers - min_spare_servers) / 2
pm.start_servers = 5

; The desired minimum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.min_spare_servers = 5

; The desired maximum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.max_spare_servers = 35

; The number of requests each child process should execute before respawning.
; This can be useful to work around memory leaks in 3rd party libraries. For
; endless request processing specify '0'. Equivalent to PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS.
; Default Value: 0
;pm.max_requests = 500

; The URI to view the FPM status page. If this value is not set, no URI will be
; recognized as a status page. By default, the status page shows the following
; information:
;   accepted conn    - the number of request accepted by the pool;
;   pool             - the name of the pool;
;   process manager  - static or dynamic;
;   idle processes   - the number of idle processes;
;   active processes - the number of active processes;
;   total processes  - the number of idle + active processes.
; The values of 'idle processes', 'active processes' and 'total processes' are
; updated each second. The value of 'accepted conn' is updated in real time.
; Example output:
;   accepted conn:   12073
;   pool:             www
;   process manager:  static
;   idle processes:   35
;   active processes: 65
;   total processes:  100
; By default the status page output is formatted as text/plain. Passing either
; 'html' or 'json' as a query string will return the corresponding output
; syntax. Example:
;   http://www.foo.bar/status
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?json
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?html
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set
;pm.status_path = /status

; The ping URI to call the monitoring page of FPM. If this value is not set, no
; URI will be recognized as a ping page. This could be used to test from outside
; that FPM is alive and responding, or to
; - create a graph of FPM availability (rrd or such);
; - remove a server from a group if it is not responding (load balancing);
; - trigger alerts for the operating team (24/7).
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set
;ping.path = /ping

; This directive may be used to customize the response of a ping request. The
; response is formatted as text/plain with a 200 response code.
; Default Value: pong
;ping.response = pong

; The timeout for serving a single request after which the worker process will
; be killed. This option should be used when the 'max_execution_time' ini option
; does not stop script execution for some reason. A value of '0' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_terminate_timeout = 0

; The timeout for serving a single request after which a PHP backtrace will be
; dumped to the 'slowlog' file. A value of '0s' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_slowlog_timeout = 0

; The log file for slow requests
; Default Value: not set
; Note: slowlog is mandatory if request_slowlog_timeout is set
slowlog = /var/log/php-fpm/www-slow.log

; Set open file descriptor rlimit.
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_files = 1024

; Set max core size rlimit.
; Possible Values: 'unlimited' or an integer greater or equal to 0
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_core = 0

; Chroot to this directory at the start. This value must be defined as an
; absolute path. When this value is not set, chroot is not used.
; Note: chrooting is a great security feature and should be used whenever
;       possible. However, all PHP paths will be relative to the chroot
;       (error_log, sessions.save_path, ...).
; Default Value: not set
;chroot =

; Chdir to this directory at the start. This value must be an absolute path.
; Default Value: current directory or / when chroot
;chdir = /var/www

; Redirect worker stdout and stderr into main error log. If not set, stdout and
; stderr will be redirected to /dev/null according to FastCGI specs.
; Default Value: no
;catch_workers_output = yes

; Limits the extensions of the main script FPM will allow to parse. This can
; prevent configuration mistakes on the web server side. You should only limit
; FPM to .php extensions to prevent malicious users to use other extensions to
; exectute php code.
; Note: set an empty value to allow all extensions.
; Default Value: .php
;security.limit_extensions = .php .php3 .php4 .php5

; Pass environment variables like LD_LIBRARY_PATH. All $VARIABLEs are taken from
; the current environment.
; Default Value: clean env
;env[HOSTNAME] = $HOSTNAME
;env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
;env[TMP] = /tmp
;env[TMPDIR] = /tmp
;env[TEMP] = /tmp

; Additional php.ini defines, specific to this pool of workers. These settings
; overwrite the values previously defined in the php.ini. The directives are the
; same as the PHP SAPI:
;   php_value/php_flag             - you can set classic ini defines which can
;                                    be overwritten from PHP call 'ini_set'.
;   php_admin_value/php_admin_flag - these directives won't be overwritten by
;                                     PHP call 'ini_set'
; For php_*flag, valid values are on, off, 1, 0, true, false, yes or no.

; Defining 'extension' will load the corresponding shared extension from
; extension_dir. Defining 'disable_functions' or 'disable_classes' will not
; overwrite previously defined php.ini values, but will append the new value
; instead.

; Default Value: nothing is defined by default except the values in php.ini and
;                specified at startup with the -d argument
;php_admin_value[sendmail_path] = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f [email protected]
;php_flag[display_errors] = off
php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log
php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on
;php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 128M

; Set session path to a directory owned by process user
php_value[session.save_handler] = files
php_value[session.save_path] = /var/lib/php/session

NGINX global config:

#######################################################################
#
# This is the main Nginx configuration file.  
#
# More information about the configuration options is available on 
#   * the English wiki - http://wiki.nginx.org/Main
#   * the Russian documentation - http://sysoev.ru/nginx/
#
#######################################################################

#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Main Module - directives that cover basic functionality
#
#   http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpMainModule
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

user              nginx;
worker_processes  4;

error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log;
#error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log  notice;
#error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log  info;

pid        /var/run/nginx.pid;


#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Events Module 
#
#   http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpEventsModule
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}


#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HTTP Core Module
#
#   http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpCoreModule 
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------

http {
    include       /etc/nginx/mime.types;

    log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
                      '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
                      '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    access_log  /var/log/nginx/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    #tcp_nopush     on;

    #keepalive_timeout  0;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    #gzip  on;

    #
    # The default server
    #
    server {
        listen       80;
        server_name  _;

        #charset koi8-r;

        #access_log  logs/host.access.log  main;

        location / {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
            index  index.php index.html index.htm;
        }

        error_page  404              /404.html;
        location = /404.html {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        }

        # redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
        #
        error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
        location = /50x.html {
            root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        }

        # proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
        #
        #location ~ \.php$ {
        #    proxy_pass   http://127.0.0.1;
        #}

        # 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;
        #    include        fastcgi_params;
        #}

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        # concurs with nginx's one
        #
        #location ~ /\.ht {
        #    deny  all;
        #}
    }

    # Load config files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory
    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;

}

More configs are in Nginx serves php files as plain text (Mod_Rewrite)

Please let me know if you need anything else from me!


Solution 1:

The first things I would try in this case is to double-check the permissions on the files you are trying to read, just in case a startup script caused them to be changed. "ls -l /var/www/" would let you see this, where /var/www/ is your web root.

Then, try turning on error reporting in the php configuration to see if PHP reports any additional errors when loading one of these blank pages (often, the cause of blank pages is that a fatal PHP error has occurred but error reporting is set to Off for the whole server). To do this, add "display_errors = On;" to the php-fpm configuration. In addition to this, you could uncomment the line ending in "info;" in the global nginx config and see if any other errors are logged.

As you haven't mentioned any steps you have tried to fix the situation, what I've mentioned here is the basic first steps :). If they don't work, there is much more you can do.

Solution 2:

Just check nginx & php-fpm running user.

ps aux | grep nginx
ps aux | grep php-fpm

they should work with the same user (probably nginx as i see in your config)

then check that user if it can read the file.

su - nginx -c "cat /usr/share/nginx/html/phpinfo.php"