Nginx FastCGI cache configuration example.

README.md

Nginx FastCGI cache

Example /etc/nginx/nginx.conf using FastCGI (e.g. to PHP-FPM) with FastCGI cache enabled. This will capture returned data and persist it to a disk based cache store for a configurable amount of time, great for robust full page caching.

Will need to create a directory to hold cache files, for the example given here that would be:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/nginxfastcgi
$ chown www-data: /var/cache/nginxfastcgi

Ownership of the cache storage directory should be the same as the running Nginx user.

nginx.conf

user www-data www-data;
worker_processes 1;
lock_file /run/lock/nginx.lock;


events {
	worker_connections 1024;
}


http {
	server_tokens off;
	sendfile on;
	tcp_nopush on;
	keepalive_timeout 5;

	include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
	default_type application/octet-stream;

	gzip on;
	gzip_static on;
	gzip_comp_level 2;
	gzip_disable "msie6";
	gzip_proxied any;
	gzip_types application/javascript application/json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf image/svg+xml text/css text/plain text/xml;
	gzip_vary on;
 
	fastcgi_cache_path /var/cache/nginxfastcgi levels=1:2 keys_zone=fastcgicache:10m inactive=10m max_size=64m;
	fastcgi_cache_key $scheme$request_method$host$request_uri;
	# note: can also use HTTP headers to form the cache key, e.g.
	#fastcgi_cache_key $scheme$request_method$host$request_uri$http_x_custom_header;
	fastcgi_cache_lock on;
	fastcgi_cache_use_stale error timeout invalid_header updating http_500;
	fastcgi_cache_valid 5m;
	fastcgi_ignore_headers Cache-Control Expires Set-Cookie;
 
	index index.php;
 
 
	server {
		listen 127.0.0.1:80;
		server_name sitename.com;
 
 
		root /var/www/sitename.com;
		access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
		error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
 
		# example FastCGI cache exception rules
		set $fastcgi_skipcache 0;
 
		if ($query_string) {
			set $fastcgi_skipcache 1;
		}
 
		if ($http_x_custom_header) {
			set $fastcgi_skipcache 0;
		}
 
		if ($uri ~ "/path/matches/") {
			set $fastcgi_skipcache 1;
		}
 
		if ($http_cookie ~ "users_login_cookie") {
			set $fastcgi_skipcache 1;
		}
 
		include /etc/nginx/conf/phpfastcgicache;
 
		location / {
			try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
		}
 
		location ~ "\.php$" {
			fastcgi_index index.php;
			if (!-f $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name) {
				return 404;
			}
 
			# note: adds a HTTP response header "X-Cache" returning HIT/MISS/BYPASS/EXPIRED for cache use status
			add_header X-Cache $upstream_cache_status;
			fastcgi_cache fastcgicache;
			fastcgi_cache_bypass $fastcgi_skipcache;
			fastcgi_no_cache $fastcgi_skipcache;
 
			include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
			fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php5/php-fpm.sock;
		}
	}
}

It doesn't work on my CentOS 7.0 + nginx. It requires this:
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

I also changed the line "if (!-f $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name)" to "if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name)".

I have followed these indications. However, I have this blocks

    if ($uri ~* "/promocion/") {
            set $fastcgi_skipcache 1;
    }

    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|css|bmp|js|ico|ogg|mp3|flv)$ {
            root   /var/www/myweb.com/web;
            expires     1y;
            add_header Pragma "public";
            add_header Cache-Control "max-age=2592000, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";       
    }  

And then the

location / {
fastcgi_cache_bypass $fastcgi_skipcache;
fastcgi_no_cache $fastcgi_skipcache;

            proxy_pass         http://127.0.0.1:60080/;
            proxy_redirect     off
            .........

}

But as long as the static images/resources block is defined, my exception for /promocion/ takes no place at all :(

What other consideration do I have to take into account in this case where Apache serves behind Nginx ?

OK stupid question I did :)

I just needed serving a static directory so

    location ^~ /promocion {
            root   /var/www/myweb.com/web;
            expires     off;
            add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";       
    }  

was enough. No need of proxy neither fastcgi directives at all

@gothicx - sounds like you are running an older version of Nginx. With Nginx 1.6+ this should be all solid.