OpenEMR with nginx and php-fpm
The LAMP stack (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP) is very popular for powering OpenEMR. However is it possible to use Nginx?. OpenEMR may support Nginx, in fact, some OpenEMR sites are powered by Nginx as the reverse proxy with Apache. At least that is my understanding. A while back, after an update, my OpenEMR, FreeBSD/Apache/Mysql/PHP stack broke down. That is when I started looking for other solutions and came across Nginx. I liked it.
There are multiple ways to implement Nginx. However, this guide implements Nginx as the primary server instead of Apache. Please note that Apache and Nginx are not interchangeable. Hence this guide. For example, there is no directory-level configuration (.htaccess or IIS's Web.config files) in Nginx. All configuration must be done at the server level, and the server must be reloaded with each change.
Initially, this guide assumes you already have a working SSL enabled Nginx server with PHP7.2 and php-fpm is enabled and running. Later on, I may add sections on how to install the different components in a FreeBSD system, which is what I know. Hopefully, you already have a basic understanding of how to work with Nginx and how to debug it.
Please note that this set up is preliminary and new. There may be bugs in it. Use it at your own risk. We set up OpenEMR with SSL right from the start. Please post your comments at the community.open-emr.org forum.
In order for OpenEMR to work with Nginx, you have to configure the backend php-cgi. The Nginx default installation comes with three options for implementation of the CGI module: 'fastcgi', 'scgi' and 'uwsgi'. The CGI module connects Nginx and the php-fpm (PHP Fast Program Manager). We use the FastCGI module. The "fastcgi_params" file can already be found in the default Nginx configuration directory, which in FreeBSD is located at /usr/local/etc/nginx/
This is my setup:
- openemr-5.0.1_3
- FreeBSD 11.1
- nginx -1.14.0
- Mysql-5.7
- PHP-7.2 (includes the php-fpm server)
Important information regarding Nginx search instructions, placement and whitespaces are important:
^~ stop when found ~ case sensitive ~* case insensitive
/usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:
worker_processes auto;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
# start the http block
http {
include mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
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/access.log main;
sendfile on;
#tcp_nopush on;
#keepalive_timeout 0;
server_names_hash_bucket_size 128;
keepalive_timeout 65;
gzip off;
upstream php {
server unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
}
index index.html index.htm index.php;
# http host
# redirects to ssl only host below
server {
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
server_name example.net www.example.net;
# Redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS with a 301 Moved Permanently response.
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
# openemr https host
# This is an ssl only openemr site
server {
listen 443 default_server ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 default_server ssl http2;
server_name example.net www.example.net;
root /usr/local/nginx/www;
## redirect www to nowww
if ($host = 'www.example.net' ) {
rewrite ^/(.*)$ https://example.net/$1 permanent;
}
access_log /var/log/*/example.net_access_log main;
error_log /var/log/*/example.net_error_log notice;
# openemr specific SSL settings, I am still working on this
# to customize your configuration: https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/
# configuration can be placed here, or in a separate file
#include openemr-ssl.conf;
ssl_certificate /path/to/ssl.cert;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/ssl.key;
# restrict/protect certain files
include globals.conf;
# deny access to writable files/directories
location ~* ^/sites/*/(documents|edi|era) {
deny all;
}
# Pick one of the following two blockc, but not both:
# protect special files from outside openemer login, and restrict them to superAdmins only
location ~* ^/(admin|setup|acl_setup|acl_upgrade|sl_convert|sql_upgrade|gacl/setup|ippf_upgrade|sql_patch)\.php {
auth_basic "Restricted Access";
auth_basic_user_file /path/to/.htpasswd;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass php;
include fastcgi_params;
}
# Alternatively all access to these files can be denied
#location ~* ^/(admin|setup|acl_setup|acl_upgrade|sl_convert|sql_upgrade|gacl/setup|ippf_upgrade|sql_patch)\.php {
# deny all;
# return 404;
#}
location / {
# try as file ($uri), as directory ($uri/) if not found, send to index file
# no php is touched for static content
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
}
# redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/local/www/nginx-dist;
}
# pass the PHP scripts to the FastCGI server listening on unix socket, in this case php-fpm
location ~* \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass php;
include fastcgi_params;
}
# dynamic stuff goes to php-proxy
include php-proxy.conf;
}
} # end http block
/usr/local/etc/nginx/globals.conf file:
# globals.conf configuration file.
# Designed to be included in any server {} block
# If this server only hosts openemr, this file can be merged with openemr.conf
# Stops the annoying error messages in the logs. robots are not allowed
location = /favicon.ico {
log_not_found off;
access_log off;
}
location = /robots.txt {
log_not_found off;
access_log off;
}
# Deny all attempts to access hidden files such as .htaccess, .htpasswd, .DS_Store (Mac).
# Keep logging the requests to parse later (or to pass to firewall utilities such as fail2ban)
location ~ /\. {
deny all;
}
# protect or deny access to important server information and testing files
# alternatively, you can deny access to all files using {deny all; return 404;} or remove them
location ~* /(info|test)\.php$ {
auth_basic "Restricted Access";
auth_basic_user_file /path/to/.htpasswd;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass php;
include fastcgi_params;
}
# Not sure if openemr needs this. it comes from wordpress
location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
access_log off;
log_not_found off;
expires max;
}
## Deny certain Referers
if ( $http_referer ~* (babes|forsale|girl|jewelry|love|nudit|organic|poker|porn|sex|teen) ) {
#return 404;
return 403;
}
# Stop deep linking or hot linking
location /images/ {
valid_referers none blocked www.example.com example.com;
if ($invalid_referer) {
return 403;
}
}
/usr/local/etc/nginx/php-proxy.conf:
# php proxy block
# should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
#
location ~ \.php$ {
# php-fpm must be in same machine. Otherwise there is risk of hacking
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_buffer_size 16k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 16k;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_intercept_errors on;
fastcgi_read_timeout 120;
}
/usr/local/etc/nginx/openemr-ssl.conf:
# openemr gets its own SSL configuration. It should be stricter than a regular ssl.conf # SSL, go here to test your server: [https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/] # # For more information: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS ssl_ciphers "ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES128-GCM-SHA256:kEDH+AESGCM:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!RC4:!3DES:!MD5:!PSK"; # Allow only TLSv 1.1 and 1.2 in openemr ssl_protocols TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on; ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m; ssl_session_timeout 10m; ssl_session_tickets off; # [https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Strong_SSL_Security_On_nginx.html] for more information. ssl_dhparam /path/to/dhparam.pem; # OCSP_Stapling_on_nginx # https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/OCSP_Stapling_on_nginx.html #ssl_trusted_certificate /path/to/domain.chain.stapling.pem; ssl_trusted_certificate /path/to/rootCA.crt; ssl_trusted_certificate /path/to/sym-chain.crt; ssl_trusted_certificate /path/to/server-chain.crt; # # HEADERS add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15724800; includeSubdomains; preload"; # add always at end of statement after nginx 1.7 # add_header Strict-Transport-Security $hsts_header; # this works with the admin module, DENY might not work with all else add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN; add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff; # # STAPLING ssl_stapling on; # Requires nginx >= 1.3.7 ssl_stapling_verify on; # Requires nginx => 1.3.7 # # RESOLVERS #resolver $DNS-IP-1 $DNS-IP-2 valid=300s; # these must be for localhost if BIND is being used #resolver 127.0.0.1 [::1]:5353 valid=300s; # google resolvers resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s; resolver_timeout 5s;
