VPS & Nginx

Nginx and PHP-FPM

The Nginx server block must pass the Authorization header to PHP-FPM and deny direct access to internal directories.

Nginx Configuration (Server Block)

In your virtual host configuration block (for example, /etc/nginx/sites-available/helpdesk.conf), include the following structure to handle the front-controller pattern and secure internal paths:

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name helpdesk.example.com;
    root /var/www/helpdesk;
    index index.php;

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

    # These deny rules must appear before the generic PHP regex.
    location ~ ^/(backups|bin|includes|storage|uploads)(?:/|$) {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ ^/(config(?:\.example)?\.php|version\.json|\.maintenance)$ {
        deny all;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param HTTP_AUTHORIZATION $http_authorization;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Adjust the PHP-FPM socket and filesystem path for the installed PHP version. The try_files check prevents Nginx from passing a nonexistent script to PHP-FPM. Keep the deny rules before the generic PHP regex so internal data and configuration cannot match the PHP handler first. Run nginx -t before reloading Nginx, then open install.php in a browser. Do not create config.php before the fresh-install wizard; it creates that file after validating the database.