The Problem

One problem with the current Plesk version (as with most Plesk versions :/) is that it has some nasty bugs. For example mod_rewrite doesn’t work with the FastCGI configuration. The problem is that the generated virtual host configuration has a small but important problem. The generated host looks something like this:

<VirtualHost 88.198.164.10:80>
  ServerName   playground.himberger.de:80
  ServerAlias  www.playground.himberger.de

  <IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
    <Files ~ (\.php)>
      SetHandler fcgid-script
      FCGIWrapper /usr/bin/php5-cgi .php
      Options ExecCGI
      allow from all
    </Files>
  </IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

The issue with this configuration is the line “Options ExecCGI“. This line enables the execution of CGI scripts for this particular directory but overrides all the Options set earlier. These are in parts needed for mod_rewrite. To fix this the line should be “Options +ExecCGI“. Sadly changing the configuration doesn’t help because at the next opportunity Plesk will regenerate the config file and your change is gone.

Luckily there is a way around this…

Enable mod_rewrite (the solution)

Luckily Plesk allows you to append a custom configuration to the virtual host by creating a file vhost.conf in the ${yourvhost}/conf directory. By putting the following config in your vhost.conf you can take back the overwritten Options (don’t forget to restart the Apache HTTPD).

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts/${yourvhost}/httpdocs">
  <Files ~ (\.php)>
    Options All
  </Files>
</Directory>

You have to be very specific (using the enclosing Directory directive) to cause the current setting to be overridden.

With this knowledge at hand we can do some other nice tricks.

Using a custom php.ini with fastcgi

Since we are now able to override the Plesk generated configuration we can also alter the fastcgi command and for example specify a custom php.ini:

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts/${yourvhost}/httpdocs">
  <Files ~ (\.php)>
    FCGIWrapper "/usr/bin/php5-cgi -c /etc/phpconfigs/${yourvhost}"  .php
    Options All
  </Files>
</Directory>

The FCGIWrapper command will use the directory specified with the -c parameter for it’s php configuration. Simply put your php.ini in this directory and it will automatically be picked up. This way you can easily use a per customer PHP configuration with fastcgi and Plesk.

Prerequisites

• OpenCms 7 (already installed)
• Apache HTTPD 2.2 with mod_proxy_ajp
• Apache Tomcat 5.5+

Goal of the setup

• Dynamic content served from http://www.yourdomain.com/
• Static content served from http://www.yourdomain.com/opencms/export/

Steps to perform

Configure Tomcat

As described in the Howto you have to add the emptySessionPath=”true” attribute to the Tomcat AJP Connector in the server.xml:

<Connector emptySessionPath="true" port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" />

Configure OpenCms

You have to modify the opencms-importexport.xml configuration file. But beware the <rfs-prefix> doesn’t need changing anymore. In fact: Things won’t work if you change it the old way. These are the settings you want.

       <rfs-prefix>${CONTEXT_NAME}/export</rfs-prefix>
       <vfs-prefix></vfs-prefix>

Don’t forget to restart OpenCms.

Configure Apache HTTPD

Since the AJP Connector is now integrated in mod_proxy you don’t need the (stupid) rewrite rules anymore. I also got rid of the fact that static content is served from Apache. This has several reasons:

1. The new Tomcat is fast enough to serve static content itself. Espcecially with the NIO / APR Connector.
2. If you ever want to move the Tomcat to a different machine and use Apache HTTPD as a simple load balancer things get a lot easier if Apache doesn’t need access to the web application files.

Here’s an example virtual host:

<VirtualHost *:80>

  ServerName yourdomain.com
  DocumentRoot /some/directory

  <Proxy ajp://localhost:8009*>
     Allow from all
  </Proxy>

  ProxyPass        /opencms/   ajp://localhost:8009/opencms/
  ProxyPassReverse /opencms/   ajp://localhost:8009/opencms/

  ProxyPass /          ajp://localhost:8009/opencms/opencms/
  ProxyPassReverse /   ajp://localhost:8009/opencms/opencms/

</VirtualHost>

This is it. Don’t hesitate to ask questions.