NGINX 502's - Need Config Advice

Hey, I've got a LEMP server running on Debian 8.x and occasionally I receive nginx bad gateway errors. The nginx log reports:

2016/01/24 06:26:12 [error] 18214#0: *2639761 connect() to unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock failed (11: Resource temporarily unavailable) while connecting to upstream, client: 180.76.15.29, server: http://www.farmfreshhealthyliving.com, request: "GET /?p=896 HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock:", host: "www.farmfreshhealthyliving.com"

I've checked the normal stuff to make sure the site config file and the http://www.conf file are using the same php5-fpm socket. I think I need to tune both my site and nginx config files, and I'm willing to pay someone for some advice on that.

My server is a quad-core / 32GB RAM box. Current nginx.conf file:

user www-data;
worker_processes 8;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections 8096;
    multi_accept on;
    use epoll;
}

http {

    ##
    # Basic Settings
    ##

    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    types_hash_max_size 2048;
    client_max_body_size 100m;
    server_tokens off;

        ##
        ## custom additions by Kyler on Dec 2015
        ##
        client_body_timeout 12;
        client_header_timeout 12;
        send_timeout 20;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300s;
        client_body_buffer_size 10K;
        client_header_buffer_size 1k;
        large_client_header_buffers 4 32k;
        ## End custom additions by Kyler

    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
    # server_name_in_redirect off;

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

    ##
    # SSL Settings
    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##
    # Logging Settings
    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        ## added by Kyler on Dec 1 2015
        access_log off;

    ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##

    gzip on;
    gzip_disable "msie6";

    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_proxied any;
    gzip_comp_level 6;
    gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    gzip_http_version 1.1;
        gzip_min_length 1000;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Gzip Settings
    ##

    #gzip on;
    #gzip_disable "msie6";

    # gzip_vary on;
    # gzip_proxied any;
    # gzip_comp_level 6;
    # gzip_buffers 16 8k;
    # gzip_http_version 1.1;
    # gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##
    # Virtual Host Configs
    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

#mail {
#    # See sample authentication script at:
#    # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# 
#    # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
#    # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
#    # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# 
#    server {
#        listen     localhost:110;
#        protocol   pop3;
#        proxy      on;
#    }
# 
#    server {
#        listen     localhost:143;
#        protocol   imap;
#        proxy      on;
#    }
#}

Current site block configuration (this is the same for all sites on this box. i have about 90 sites):

##
# You should look at the following URL's in order to grasp a solid understanding
# of Nginx configuration files in order to fully unleash the power of Nginx.
# http://wiki.nginx.org/Pitfalls
# http://wiki.nginx.org/QuickStart
# http://wiki.nginx.org/Configuration
#
# Generally, you will want to move this file somewhere, and start with a clean
# file but keep this around for reference. Or just disable in sites-enabled.
#
# Please see /usr/share/doc/nginx-doc/examples/ for more detailed examples.
##

# Default server configuration
#
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    # SSL configuration
    #
    # listen 443 ssl default_server;
    # listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;
    #
    # Self signed certs generated by the ssl-cert package
    # Don't use them in a production server!
    #
    # include snippets/snakeoil.conf;

    root /var/www/happystrongandhealthy.com/public_html;
    access_log /var/www/happystrongandhealthy.com/logs/access.log;
        error_log /var/www/happystrongandhealthy.com/logs/error.log;    

    # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
    index index.php index.html;

    server_name www.happystrongandhealthy.com happystrongandhealthy.com;

    #location / {
        # First attempt to serve request as file, then
        # as directory, then fall back to displaying a 404.
    #   try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    #}

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
    #
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
    #
    #   # With php5-cgi alone:
    #   fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    #   # With php5-fpm:
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
    }

    # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
    # concurs with nginx's one
    #
    #location ~ /\.ht {
    #   deny all;
    #}
}

# Virtual Host configuration for example.com
#
# You can move that to a different file under sites-available/ and symlink that
# to sites-enabled/ to enable it.
#
#server {
#    listen 80;
#    listen [::]:80;
#
#    server_name example.com;
#
#    root /var/www/example.com;
#    index index.html;
#
#    location / {
#        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
#    }
#}

Current http://www.conf file:

; Start a new pool named 'www'.
; the variable $pool can we used in any directive and will be replaced by the
; pool name ('www' here)
[www]

; Per pool prefix
; It only applies on the following directives:
; - 'access.log'
; - 'slowlog'
; - 'listen' (unixsocket)
; - 'chroot'
; - 'chdir'
; - 'php_values'
; - 'php_admin_values'
; When not set, the global prefix (or /usr) applies instead.
; Note: This directive can also be relative to the global prefix.
; Default Value: none
;prefix = /path/to/pools/$pool

; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group
;       will be used.
user = www-data
group = www-data

; The address on which to accept FastCGI requests.
; Valid syntaxes are:
;   'ip.add.re.ss:port'    - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific IPv4 address on
;                            a specific port;
;   '[ip:6:addr:ess]:port' - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific IPv6 address on
;                            a specific port;
;   'port'                 - to listen on a TCP socket to all IPv4 addresses on a
;                            specific port;
;   '[::]:port'            - to listen on a TCP socket to all addresses
;                            (IPv6 and IPv4-mapped) on a specific port;
;   '/path/to/unix/socket' - to listen on a unix socket.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
listen = /var/run/php5-fpm.sock
listen.owner = www-data
listen.group = www-data

; Set listen(2) backlog.
; Default Value: 65535 (-1 on FreeBSD and OpenBSD)
;listen.backlog = 65535

; Set permissions for unix socket, if one is used. In Linux, read/write
; permissions must be set in order to allow connections from a web server. Many
; BSD-derived systems allow connections regardless of permissions. 
; Default Values: user and group are set as the running user
;                 mode is set to 0660

;listen.mode = 0660
; When POSIX Access Control Lists are supported you can set them using
; these options, value is a comma separated list of user/group names.
; When set, listen.owner and listen.group are ignored
;listen.acl_users =
;listen.acl_groups =

; List of addresses (IPv4/IPv6) of FastCGI clients which are allowed to connect.
; Equivalent to the FCGI_WEB_SERVER_ADDRS environment variable in the original
; PHP FCGI (5.2.2+). Makes sense only with a tcp listening socket. Each address
; must be separated by a comma. If this value is left blank, connections will be
; accepted from any ip address.
; Default Value: any
;listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1

; Specify the nice(2) priority to apply to the pool processes (only if set)
; The value can vary from -19 (highest priority) to 20 (lower priority)
; Note: - It will only work if the FPM master process is launched as root
;       - The pool processes will inherit the master process priority
;         unless it specified otherwise
; Default Value: no set
; process.priority = -19

; Choose how the process manager will control the number of child processes.
; Possible Values:
;   static  - a fixed number (pm.max_children) of child processes;
;   dynamic - the number of child processes are set dynamically based on the
;             following directives. With this process management, there will be
;             always at least 1 children.
;             pm.max_children      - the maximum number of children that can
;                                    be alive at the same time.
;             pm.start_servers     - the number of children created on startup.
;             pm.min_spare_servers - the minimum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is less than this
;                                    number then some children will be created.
;             pm.max_spare_servers - the maximum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is greater than this
;                                    number then some children will be killed.
;  ondemand - no children are created at startup. Children will be forked when
;             new requests will connect. The following parameter are used:
;             pm.max_children           - the maximum number of children that
;                                         can be alive at the same time.
;             pm.process_idle_timeout   - The number of seconds after which
;                                         an idle process will be killed.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm = dynamic

; The number of child processes to be created when pm is set to 'static' and the
; maximum number of child processes when pm is set to 'dynamic' or 'ondemand'.
; This value sets the limit on the number of simultaneous requests that will be
; served. Equivalent to the ApacheMaxClients directive with mpm_prefork.
; Equivalent to the PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN environment variable in the original PHP
; CGI. The below defaults are based on a server without much resources. Don't
; forget to tweak pm.* to fit your needs.
; Note: Used when pm is set to 'static', 'dynamic' or 'ondemand'
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm.max_children = 25

; The number of child processes created on startup.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Default Value: min_spare_servers + (max_spare_servers - min_spare_servers) / 2
pm.start_servers = 5

; The desired minimum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.min_spare_servers = 3

; The desired maximum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.max_spare_servers = 5

; The number of seconds after which an idle process will be killed.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'ondemand'
; Default Value: 10s
;pm.process_idle_timeout = 10s;

; The number of requests each child process should execute before respawning.
; This can be useful to work around memory leaks in 3rd party libraries. For
; endless request processing specify '0'. Equivalent to PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS.
; Default Value: 0
;pm.max_requests = 500

; The URI to view the FPM status page. If this value is not set, no URI will be
; recognized as a status page. It shows the following informations:
;   pool                 - the name of the pool;
;   process manager      - static, dynamic or ondemand;
;   start time           - the date and time FPM has started;
;   start since          - number of seconds since FPM has started;
;   accepted conn        - the number of request accepted by the pool;
;   listen queue         - the number of request in the queue of pending
;                          connections (see backlog in listen(2));
;   max listen queue     - the maximum number of requests in the queue
;                          of pending connections since FPM has started;
;   listen queue len     - the size of the socket queue of pending connections;
;   idle processes       - the number of idle processes;
;   active processes     - the number of active processes;
;   total processes      - the number of idle + active processes;
;   max active processes - the maximum number of active processes since FPM
;                          has started;
;   max children reached - number of times, the process limit has been reached,
;                          when pm tries to start more children (works only for
;                          pm 'dynamic' and 'ondemand');
; Value are updated in real time.
; Example output:
;   pool:                 www
;   process manager:      static
;   start time:           01/Jul/2011:17:53:49 +0200
;   start since:          62636
;   accepted conn:        190460
;   listen queue:         0
;   max listen queue:     1
;   listen queue len:     42
;   idle processes:       4
;   active processes:     11
;   total processes:      15
;   max active processes: 12
;   max children reached: 0
;
; By default the status page output is formatted as text/plain. Passing either
; 'html', 'xml' or 'json' in the query string will return the corresponding
; output syntax. Example:
;   http://www.foo.bar/status
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?json
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?html
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?xml
;
; By default the status page only outputs short status. Passing 'full' in the
; query string will also return status for each pool process.
; Example: 
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?json&full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?html&full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?xml&full
; The Full status returns for each process:
;   pid                  - the PID of the process;
;   state                - the state of the process (Idle, Running, ...);
;   start time           - the date and time the process has started;
;   start since          - the number of seconds since the process has started;
;   requests             - the number of requests the process has served;
;   request duration     - the duration in µs of the requests;
;   request method       - the request method (GET, POST, ...);
;   request URI          - the request URI with the query string;
;   content length       - the content length of the request (only with POST);
;   user                 - the user (PHP_AUTH_USER) (or '-' if not set);
;   script               - the main script called (or '-' if not set);
;   last request cpu     - the %cpu the last request consumed
;                          it's always 0 if the process is not in Idle state
;                          because CPU calculation is done when the request
;                          processing has terminated;
;   last request memory  - the max amount of memory the last request consumed
;                          it's always 0 if the process is not in Idle state
;                          because memory calculation is done when the request
;                          processing has terminated;
; If the process is in Idle state, then informations are related to the
; last request the process has served. Otherwise informations are related to
; the current request being served.
; Example output:
;   ************************
;   pid:                  31330
;   state:                Running
;   start time:           01/Jul/2011:17:53:49 +0200
;   start since:          63087
;   requests:             12808
;   request duration:     1250261
;   request method:       GET
;   request URI:          /test_mem.php?N=10000
;   content length:       0
;   user:                 -
;   script:               /home/fat/web/docs/php/test_mem.php
;   last request cpu:     0.00
;   last request memory:  0
;
; Note: There is a real-time FPM status monitoring sample web page available
;       It's available in: /usr/share/php5/fpm/status.html
;
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set 
;pm.status_path = /status

; The ping URI to call the monitoring page of FPM. If this value is not set, no
; URI will be recognized as a ping page. This could be used to test from outside
; that FPM is alive and responding, or to
; - create a graph of FPM availability (rrd or such);
; - remove a server from a group if it is not responding (load balancing);
; - trigger alerts for the operating team (24/7).
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set
;ping.path = /ping

; This directive may be used to customize the response of a ping request. The
; response is formatted as text/plain with a 200 response code.
; Default Value: pong
;ping.response = pong

; The access log file
; Default: not set
;access.log = log/$pool.access.log

; The access log format.
; The following syntax is allowed
;  %%: the '%' character
;  %C: %CPU used by the request
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{user}C for user CPU only
;      - %{system}C for system CPU only
;      - %{total}C  for user + system CPU (default)
;  %d: time taken to serve the request
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{seconds}d (default)
;      - %{miliseconds}d
;      - %{mili}d
;      - %{microseconds}d
;      - %{micro}d
;  %e: an environment variable (same as $_ENV or $_SERVER)
;      it must be associated with embraces to specify the name of the env
;      variable. Some exemples:
;      - server specifics like: %{REQUEST_METHOD}e or %{SERVER_PROTOCOL}e
;      - HTTP headers like: %{HTTP_HOST}e or %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}e
;  %f: script filename
;  %l: content-length of the request (for POST request only)
;  %m: request method
;  %M: peak of memory allocated by PHP
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{bytes}M (default)
;      - %{kilobytes}M
;      - %{kilo}M
;      - %{megabytes}M
;      - %{mega}M
;  %n: pool name
;  %o: output header
;      it must be associated with embraces to specify the name of the header:
;      - %{Content-Type}o
;      - %{X-Powered-By}o
;      - %{Transfert-Encoding}o
;      - ....
;  %p: PID of the child that serviced the request
;  %P: PID of the parent of the child that serviced the request
;  %q: the query string 
;  %Q: the '?' character if query string exists
;  %r: the request URI (without the query string, see %q and %Q)
;  %R: remote IP address
;  %s: status (response code)
;  %t: server time the request was received
;      it can accept a strftime(3) format:
;      %d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z (default)
;  %T: time the log has been written (the request has finished)
;      it can accept a strftime(3) format:
;      %d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z (default)
;  %u: remote user
;
; Default: "%R - %u %t \"%m %r\" %s"
;access.format = "%R - %u %t \"%m %r%Q%q\" %s %f %{mili}d %{kilo}M %C%%"

; The log file for slow requests
; Default Value: not set
; Note: slowlog is mandatory if request_slowlog_timeout is set
;slowlog = log/$pool.log.slow

; The timeout for serving a single request after which a PHP backtrace will be
; dumped to the 'slowlog' file. A value of '0s' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_slowlog_timeout = 0

; The timeout for serving a single request after which the worker process will
; be killed. This option should be used when the 'max_execution_time' ini option
; does not stop script execution for some reason. A value of '0' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_terminate_timeout = 0

; Set open file descriptor rlimit.
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_files = 1024

; Set max core size rlimit.
; Possible Values: 'unlimited' or an integer greater or equal to 0
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_core = 0

; Chroot to this directory at the start. This value must be defined as an
; absolute path. When this value is not set, chroot is not used.
; Note: you can prefix with '$prefix' to chroot to the pool prefix or one
; of its subdirectories. If the pool prefix is not set, the global prefix
; will be used instead.
; Note: chrooting is a great security feature and should be used whenever 
;       possible. However, all PHP paths will be relative to the chroot
;       (error_log, sessions.save_path, ...).
; Default Value: not set
;chroot = 

; Chdir to this directory at the start.
; Note: relative path can be used.
; Default Value: current directory or / when chroot
chdir = /

; Redirect worker stdout and stderr into main error log. If not set, stdout and
; stderr will be redirected to /dev/null according to FastCGI specs.
; Note: on highloaded environement, this can cause some delay in the page
; process time (several ms).
; Default Value: no
;catch_workers_output = yes

; Clear environment in FPM workers
; Prevents arbitrary environment variables from reaching FPM worker processes
; by clearing the environment in workers before env vars specified in this
; pool configuration are added.
; Setting to "no" will make all environment variables available to PHP code
; via getenv(), $_ENV and $_SERVER.
; Default Value: yes
;clear_env = no

; Limits the extensions of the main script FPM will allow to parse. This can
; prevent configuration mistakes on the web server side. You should only limit
; FPM to .php extensions to prevent malicious users to use other extensions to
; exectute php code.
; Note: set an empty value to allow all extensions.
; Default Value: .php
;security.limit_extensions = .php .php3 .php4 .php5

; Pass environment variables like LD_LIBRARY_PATH. All $VARIABLEs are taken from
; the current environment.
; Default Value: clean env
;env[HOSTNAME] = $HOSTNAME
;env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
;env[TMP] = /tmp
;env[TMPDIR] = /tmp
;env[TEMP] = /tmp

; Additional php.ini defines, specific to this pool of workers. These settings
; overwrite the values previously defined in the php.ini. The directives are the
; same as the PHP SAPI:
;   php_value/php_flag             - you can set classic ini defines which can
;                                    be overwritten from PHP call 'ini_set'. 
;   php_admin_value/php_admin_flag - these directives won't be overwritten by
;                                     PHP call 'ini_set'
; For php_*flag, valid values are on, off, 1, 0, true, false, yes or no.

; Defining 'extension' will load the corresponding shared extension from
; extension_dir. Defining 'disable_functions' or 'disable_classes' will not
; overwrite previously defined php.ini values, but will append the new value
; instead.

; Note: path INI options can be relative and will be expanded with the prefix
; (pool, global or /usr)

; Default Value: nothing is defined by default except the values in php.ini and
;                specified at startup with the -d argument
;php_admin_value[sendmail_path] = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f www@my.domain.com
;php_flag[display_errors] = off
;php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/fpm-php.www.log
;php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on
;php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 32M

1 Reply

Try switching php-fpm to ondemand (your config has it as dynamic). I know it sounds weird but that worked for me and here is the theory I have.

When php-fpm is running in dynamic mode it keeps a small number of children active. For whatever reason these children stop responding properly but the fpm manager doesn't know to kill them or that there is an issue. When lighttpd or nginx tries to pass a connection to them though they never respond and you get a 502 error.

Ondemand changes this. It doesn't load any children at all until there is a connection then it leave it active until idle. After a bit the child is killed. This effectively prevents 502 errors due to stale child processes.

Please be aware that a side effect is that it may take slightly longer to load a page and be ready to tweak ondemand related settings. When I had the issue I was using lighttpd in a similar way (it uses php via fpm as well). With that in mind I have not switched php-fpm to ondemand mode on my current server config so this serves as a reminder to myself to handle that quick. ;)

EDIT: Just checked the OP post date and realized it was very old. Well I'll leave this as a possible solution for others even if the OP might not need it anymore.

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