Create PHP web and worker roles

Article
07/23/2024

Overview

Important

Cloud Services (classic) is now deprecated for all customers as of September 1st, 2024. Any existing running deployments will be stopped and shut down by Microsoft and the data will be permanantly lost starting October 2024. New deployments should use the new Azure Resource Manager based deployment model Azure Cloud Services (extended support).

This guide shows you how to create PHP web or worker roles in a Windows development environment, choose a specific version of PHP from the "built-in" versions available, change the PHP configuration, enable extensions, and finally, deploy to Azure. It also describes how to configure a web or worker role to use a PHP runtime (with custom configuration and extensions) that you provide.

Azure provides three compute models for running applications: Azure App Service, Azure Virtual Machines, and Azure Cloud Services. All three models support PHP. Cloud Services, which includes web and worker roles, provides platform as a service (PaaS). Within a cloud service, a web role provides a dedicated Internet Information Services (IIS) web server to host front-end web applications. A worker role can run asynchronous, long-running, or perpetual tasks independent of user interaction or input.

For more information about these options, see Compute hosting options provided by Azure.

Download the Azure SDK for PHP

The Azure SDK for PHP consists of several components. This article uses two of them: Azure PowerShell and the Azure emulators. These two components can be installed via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. For more information, see How to install and configure Azure PowerShell.

Create a Cloud Services project

The first step in creating a PHP web or worker role is to create an Azure Service project. An Azure Service project serves as a logical container for web and worker roles, and it contains the project's service definition (.csdef) and service configuration (.cscfg) files.

To create a new Azure Service project, run Azure PowerShell as an administrator, and execute the following command:

PS C:\>New-AzureServiceProject myProject

This command creates a new directory (myProject) to which you can add web and worker roles.

Add PHP web or worker roles

To add a PHP web role to a project, run the following command from within the project's root directory:

PS C:\myProject> Add-AzurePHPWebRole roleName

For a worker role, use this command:

PS C:\myProject> Add-AzurePHPWorkerRole roleName

Note

The roleName parameter is optional. If it is omitted, the role name will be automatically generated. The first web role created will be WebRole1, the second will be WebRole2, and so on. The first worker role created will be WorkerRole1, the second will be WorkerRole2, and so on.

Use your own PHP runtime

In some cases, instead of selecting a built-in PHP runtime and configuring it as previously described, you may want to provide your own PHP runtime. For example, you can use the same PHP runtime in a web or worker role that you use in your development environment. This process makes it easier to ensure that the application behavior stays the same in your production environment.

Configure a web role to use your own PHP runtime

To configure a web role to use a PHP runtime that you provide, follow these steps:

Create an Azure Service project and add a PHP web role as described previously in this article.
Create a php folder in the bin folder that is in your web role's root directory, and then add your PHP runtime (all binaries, configuration files, subfolders, etc.) to the php folder.
(OPTIONAL) If your PHP runtime uses the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you need to configure your web role to install SQL Server Native Client 2012 when it provisions. To do so, add the sqlncli.msi x64 installer to the bin folder in your web role's root directory. The startup script described in the next step will silently run the installer when the role is provisioned. If your PHP runtime doesn't use the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you can remove the following line from the script shown in the next step:
```
msiexec /i sqlncli.msi /qn IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES
```

Define a startup task that configures Internet Information Services (IIS) to use your PHP runtime to handle requests for .php pages. To do so, open the setup_web.cmd file (in the bin file of your web role's root directory) in a text editor and replace its contents with the following script:

@ECHO ON
cd "%~dp0"

if "%EMULATED%"=="true" exit /b 0

msiexec /i sqlncli.msi /qn IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES

SET PHP_FULL_PATH=%~dp0php\php-cgi.exe
SET NEW_PATH=%PATH%;%RoleRoot%\base\x86

%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi /+"[fullPath='%PHP_FULL_PATH%',maxInstances='12',idleTimeout='60000',activityTimeout='3600',requestTimeout='60000',instanceMaxRequests='10000',protocol='NamedPipe',flushNamedPipe='False']" /commit:apphost
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi /+"[fullPath='%PHP_FULL_PATH%'].environmentVariables.[name='PATH',value='%NEW_PATH%']" /commit:apphost
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi /+"[fullPath='%PHP_FULL_PATH%'].environmentVariables.[name='PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS',value='10000']" /commit:apphost
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/handlers /+"[name='PHP',path='*.php',verb='GET,HEAD,POST',modules='FastCgiModule',scriptProcessor='%PHP_FULL_PATH%',resourceType='Either',requireAccess='Script']" /commit:apphost
%WINDIR%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/fastCgi /"[fullPath='%PHP_FULL_PATH%'].queueLength:50000"

Add your application files to your web role's root directory, which becomes the web server's root directory.
Publish your application as described in the Publish your application section.

Note

The download.ps1 script (in the bin folder of the web role's root directory) can be deleted after you follow the preceding steps for using your own PHP runtime.

Configure a worker role to use your own PHP runtime

To configure a worker role to use a PHP runtime that you provide, follow these steps:

Create an Azure Service project and add a PHP worker role as described previously in this article.
Create a php folder in the worker role's root directory, and then add your PHP runtime (all binaries, configuration files, subfolders, etc.) to the php folder.
(OPTIONAL) If your PHP runtime uses Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you need to configure your worker role to install SQL Server Native Client 2012 when it provisions. To do so, add the sqlncli.msi x64 installer to the worker role's root directory. The startup script described in the next step will silently run the installer when the role is provisioned. If your PHP runtime doesn't use the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you can remove the following line from the script shown in the next step:
```
msiexec /i sqlncli.msi /qn IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES
```

Define a startup task that adds your php.exe executable to the worker role's PATH environment variable when the role is provisioned. To do so, open the setup_worker.cmd file (in the worker role's root directory) in a text editor and replace its contents with the following script:

@echo on

cd "%~dp0"

echo Granting permissions for Network Service to the web root directory...
icacls ..\ /grant "Network Service":(OI)(CI)W
if %ERRORLEVEL% neq 0 goto error
echo OK

if "%EMULATED%"=="true" exit /b 0

msiexec /i sqlncli.msi /qn IACCEPTSQLNCLILICENSETERMS=YES

setx Path "%PATH%;%~dp0php" /M

if %ERRORLEVEL% neq 0 goto error

echo SUCCESS
exit /b 0

:error

echo FAILED
exit /b -1

Add your application files to your worker role's root directory.
Publish your application as described in the Publish your application section.

Run your application in the compute and storage emulators

The Azure emulators provide a local environment in which you can test your Azure application before you deploy it to the cloud. There are some differences between the emulators and the Azure environment. To understand these differences better, see Use the Azure Storage Emulator for development and testing.

You must have PHP installed locally to use the compute emulator. The compute emulator uses your local PHP installation to run your application.

To run your project in the emulators, execute the following command from your project's root directory:

PS C:\MyProject> Start-AzureEmulator

The following sample output is similar to what you should see:

Creating local package...
Starting Emulator...
Role is running at http://127.0.0.1:81
Started

You can see your application running in the emulator by opening a web browser and browsing to the local address shown in the output (http://127.0.0.1:81 in the example output shown earlier).

To stop the emulators, execute this command:

PS C:\MyProject> Stop-AzureEmulator

Publish your application

To publish your application, you need to first import your publish settings by using the Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile cmdlet. Then you can publish your application by using the Publish-AzureServiceProject cmdlet. For information about signing in, see How to install and configure Azure PowerShell.

Next steps

For more information, see the PHP Developer Center.

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