How to Build and Deploy PHP Application Images on the Omega Platform

Background: Container technology can greatly improve PHP application deployment efficiency, reducing initial deployment from half a day to minutes; Omega platform supports all company applications.

Purpose: This article explains the process and details of building PHP application images on the Omega platform.

Part 1: PHP Technology Overview

This section covers the PHP architecture diagram, server architecture, and extension classification.

1.1 PHP Architecture Diagram

PHP consists of four layers from bottom to top:

Zend Engine : Core written in C, parses PHP code into opcodes, provides data structures, memory management, and APIs.

Extensions : Provide built‑in functions and libraries; developers can create custom extensions.

SAPI : Server Application Programming Interface that decouples PHP from the surrounding environment.

Application Layer : The PHP program itself, running via various SAPIs (web server, CLI, etc.).

1.2 PHP Server Architecture

Two common stacks:

LAMP : Apache handles static files; PHP runs as an Apache module.

LNMP : Nginx handles static files; PHP‑FPM processes PHP requests via FastCGI.

1.3 PHP Extension Packages

Extensions are installed from source; there are three types:

Extension Type

Description

Download Method

Installation Method

Core Extension

Included in PHP source, compiled via configure options.

Source included, no download.

Compile with PHP source.

General Extension

Available from the PECL repository.

PECL website.

Install via yum/pecl or source.

Non‑General Extension

Not in PECL; must obtain source from GitHub or other sites.

GitHub or personal site.

Compile from source.

Part 2: Building PHP Images

The deployment workflow on Omega is illustrated below:

Key steps:

Build the image: start from a PHP base image and add application code.

Publish the image: store it in an image registry for deployment or rollback.

Deploy the image: run the image on a Kubernetes cluster.

Common issues addressed:

Base image construction : Separate images for PHP5 and PHP7, built with required extensions, Nginx, etc.

OS selection : Custom images are used instead of official ones to keep the image minimal and meet security policies.

Extension installation : Performed via source compilation to ensure consistency.

File paths inside the image (e.g., /app/bin, /app/conf, /app/www, /app/logs, ~/runtime).

Special configuration : php.ini includes auto_prepend_file = /app/conf/Environment.php; nginx.conf includes include /app/conf/vhosts*.conf;. These files are added manually through the Omega platform.

Deployment steps on Omega : Create project, configure files, and start the project via the Omega UI.

Part 3: Practical Local Debugging

Steps to run the image locally:

Obtain the image name from Omega.

Prepare configuration files (Environment.php, nginx config) and mount them.

Start the container, e.g.:

docker run -d -p <Local Port>:<Container Port> --name <Container Name> -v <Local Conf path>:/app/conf -v <Local code>:/app/www <Image Name>

Example:

docker run -d -p 10080:80 --name test -v /Users/nian/ziroom/dockerfile/php7/Archive/conf:/app/conf harbor.ziroom.com/rent-web/mis:release_20190828100643_daily-5757

After a successful start, the application is reachable at http://php.test.local:10080. An alternative approach is to create a new image via a Dockerfile (see attached Dockerfile.zip).

References:

https://www.cnblogs.com/phphuaibei/archive/2011/09/13/2174927.html

https://littlesqx.github.io/2017/10/15/lamp-lnmp-lanmp/