Containerizing PHP and Nginx with Docker: Step‑by‑Step Guide

Containerizing a PHP application with Nginx requires creating separate Docker containers for each service and configuring them to work together. The following steps outline a basic Docker setup based on a simple PHP app.

1. Create project structure

Start with a directory layout like:

//projet
├── index.php
├── nginx
│   └── nginx.conf
├── Dockerfile
├── Dockerfile-nginx
└── docker-compose.yml

2. Create PHP application

Add a minimal index.php file at the project root:

<?php
echo "Hello!";

3. Configure Nginx

Write an Nginx configuration file at nginx/nginx.conf :

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php;
    server_name localhost;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_page 404 /index.php;
    root /var/www;
    client_max_body_size 20m;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
        gzip_static on;
    }
}

4. Write Dockerfile for PHP

FROM php:8.0.2-fpm

WORKDIR /var/www

5. Create Dockerfile for Nginx

Place this file in the project root as Dockerfile-nginx :

FROM nginx:1.19-alpine

WORKDIR /var/www

6. Create .dockerignore

docker-compose
Dockerfile*

7. Write Docker Compose file

version: "3"

services:
  app:
    container_name: app-container
    build:
      context: ./
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile
    working_dir: /var/www/
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www
    networks:
      - app-network

  nginx:
    container_name: nginx-container
    build:
      context: ./
      dockerfile: ./Dockerfile-nginx
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "8000:80"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d
      - ./:/var/www
    depends_on:
      - app
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

The application network connects the PHP and Nginx containers, allowing them to communicate without interfering with the host network.

8. Build and run containers

Execute the following command to build the images and start the services:

docker-compose up --build

Then open http://localhost:8000 in a browser; you should see the message “Hello!”.