Install PHP 7.1 with Nginx on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS

Step 1: Enable PPA

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update

Step 2: Install PHP 7.1

sudo apt-get install php7.1-cli php7.1-common php7.1-json php7.1-opcache php7.1-mysql php7.1-mbstring php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-zip php7.1-fpm

Step 5: Configure php.ini file

php --ini |grep Loaded
Loaded Configuration File: /etc/php/7.1/cli/php.ini

Edit the file using your favorite text editor:

sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/cli/php.ini

Make the following changes:

cgi.fix_pathinfo=0

Then, restart the PHP-FPM service:

sudo systemctl restart php7.1-fpm.service

Step 6: Install Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

sudo apt-get install nginx

Create Nginx virtual server block for your domain name:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

Paste the following content:

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name example.com www.example.com;
        root /var/www/example.com;
        index index.php;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
            fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
            include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        }

        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}

Of course, you should replace example.com with your actual domain name. Save and close the file. To enable the server block in Nginx you need to create a symbolic link to site-enabled. Use the following command to create a symbolic link:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/example.com

Check if there are errors with the configuration:

sudo nginx -t
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

If the syntax is OK and there are no errors you can restart Nginx.

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Enable Nginx and PHP-FPM on system boot:

sudo systemctl enable nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable php7.1-fpm.service