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#How to create PHP web and worker roles

This guide will show 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, how to 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.

##Table of Contents

##What are PHP web and worker roles? Azure provides three compute models for running applications: Azure Web Sites, Azure Virtual Machines, and Azure Cloud Services. All three models support PHP. Cloud Services, which include web and worker roles, provide 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, while a worker role can run asynchronous, long-running or perpetual tasks independent of user interaction or input.

For more information, see What is a Cloud Service?.

##Download the Azure SDK for PHP

The Azure SDK for PHP consists of several components. This article will use to of them: Azure PowerShell and the Azure Emulators. These two components can be installed via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer here: Install Azure PowerShell and the Azure Emulators.

##How to: 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 contains the project's service definition (.csdef) and service configuration (.cscfg) files.

To create a new Azure Servcie project, execute the following command:

PS C:\>New-AzureServiceProject myProject

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

##How to: 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 WebRole2, and so on. The first worker role created will be WorkerRole1, the second WorkerRole2, and so on.

##How to: Specify the built-in PHP Version

When you add a PHP web or worker role to a project, the project's configuration files are modified so that PHP will be installed on each web or worker instance of your application when it is deployed. To see the version of PHP that will be installed by default, run the following command:

PS C:\myProject> Get-AzureServiceProjectRoleRuntime

The output from the command above will look similar to what is shown below. In this example, the IsDefault flag is set to true for PHP 5.3.17, indicating that it will be the default PHP version installed.

Runtime Version		PackageUri						IsDefault
------- ------- 	----------  					---------
Node 0.6.17      	http://nodertncu.blob.core...   False
Node 0.6.20         http://nodertncu.blob.core...   True
Node 0.8.4          http://nodertncu.blob.core...   False
IISNode 0.1.21      http://nodertncu.blob.core...   True
Cache 1.8.0         http://nodertncu.blob.core...   True
PHP 5.3.17          http://nodertncu.blob.core...   True
PHP 5.4.0           http://nodertncu.blob.core...   False

You can set the PHP runtime version to any of the PHP versions that are listed. For example, to set the PHP version (for a role with name roleName) to 5.4.0, use the following command:

PS C:\myProject> Set-AzureServiceProjectRole roleName php 5.4.0
Note

More PHP versions may be available in the future, and the available versions may change.

##How to: Customize the built-in PHP runtime

You have complete control over the configuration of the PHP runtime that is installed when you follow the steps above, including modification of php.ini settings and enabling of extensions.

To customize the built-in PHP runtime, follow these steps:

  1. Add a new folder, named php, to the bin directory of your web role. For a worker role, add it to the role's root directory.

  2. In the php folder, create another folder called ext. Put any .dll extension files (e.g. php_mongo.dll) you want to enable in this folder.

  3. Add a php.ini file to the php folder. Enable any custom extensions and set any PHP directives in this file. For example, if you wanted to turn display_errors on and enable the php_mongo.dll extension, the contents of your php.ini file would be as follows:

     display_errors=On
 extension=php_mongo.dll
Note

Any settings that you don't explicity set in the php.ini file that you provide will automatically be set to their default values. However, keep in mind that you can add a complete php.ini file.

##How to: Use your own PHP runtime In some cases, instead of selecting a built-in PHP runtime and configuring it as described above, 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, making it easier to ensure that application will not change behavior in your production environment.

Configuring a web role to use your own PHP runtime

To configure a web role to use a PHP runtime that you provide, follow the steps below.

  1. Create an Azure Service project and add a PHP web role as described in the How to: Create a cloud services project and How to: Add PHP web or worker roles sections above.

  2. Create a php folder in the bin folder that is in your web role's root directory, then add your PHP runtime (all binaries, configuration files, subfolders, etc.) to the php folder.

  3. (OPTIONAL) If your PHP runtime uses the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you will need to configure your web role to install SQL Server Native Client 2012 when it is provisioned. To do this, add the sqlncli.msi installer to the bin folder in your web role's root directory. You can download the installer here: sqlncli.msi x64 installer. The startup script described in the next step will silently run the installer when the role is provisioned. If your PHP runtime does not 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

  4. The next step is to define a startup task that configures Internet Information Services (IIS) to use your PHP runtime to handle requests for .php pages. To do this, 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"

  5. Add your application files to your web role's root directory. This will be the web server's root directory.

  6. Publish your application as described in the How to: Publish your applicaiton section below.

Note

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

Configuring a worker role to use your own PHP runtime

To configure a worker role to use a PHP runtime that you provide, follow the steps below.

  1. Create an Azure Service project and add a PHP worker role as described in the How to: Create a cloud services project and How to: Add PHP web or worker roles sections above.

  2. Create a php folder in the worker role's root directory, then add your PHP runtime (all binaries, configuration files, subfolders, etc.) to the php folder.

  3. (OPTIONAL) If your PHP runtime uses Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server, you will need to configure your worker role to install SQL Server Native Client 2012 when it is provisioned. To do this, add the sqlncli.msi installer to the worker role's root directory. You can download the installer here: sqlncli.msi x64 installer. The startup script described in the next step will silently run the installer when the role is provisioned. If your PHP runtime does not 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

  4. The next step is to 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 this, 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

  5. Add your application files to your worker role's root directory.

  6. Publish your application as described in the How to: Publish your applicaiton section below.

##How to: Run your application in the Compute and Storage Emulators

The Azure Compute and Storage Emulators provide a local environment in which you can test your Azure applicaiton before deploying it to the cloud. There are some differences between the emulators and the Azure environment. To understand this better, see Differences Between the Compute Emulator and Azure and Differences Between the Storage Emulator and Azure Storage Services.

Note that you must have PHP installed locally to use the Compute Emulator. The Compute Emulator will use 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

You will see out put similar to this:

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 local address shown in the output (http://127.0.0.1:81 in the example output above).

To stop the emulators, execute this command:

PS C:\MyProject> Stop-AzureEmulator

##How to: Publish your application

To publish your application, you need to first import your publish settings with the Import-PublishSettingsFile cmdlet, then you can publish your application with the Publish-AzureServiceProject cmdlet. Details on using each of these cmdlets can be found in How to: Import publish settings and How to: Deploy a cloud service to Azure respectively.