Installing PHP on IBM i

There are two practical ways to get PHP onto an IBM i partition: install the Zend PHP RPMs through the Open Source Package Manager, or install Zend Server (the commercial distribution). For most shops, the RPMs are the right choice.

The PHP RPMs and Zend Server are runtime-equivalent. The differences are in tooling and packaging: Zend Server adds debugging, deployment workflow, and a custom package manager, but does not include some extensions (notably intl and zip). The RPMs include those, are free, and are what the rest of this guide assumes.

1. Set up the Open Source Package Manager (OSPM)

OSPM is the standard way to install open-source software on modern IBM i. It comes bundled with IBM i ACS (Access Client Solutions). Follow IBM’s instructions to enable it: Getting started with Open Source Package Management.

If SSH is not yet configured on your partition (which OSPM normally requires), see our companion guide: How to set up OSPM without SSH.

Once OSPM is working, all open-source binaries live under /QOpenSys/pkgs/, and yum itself is at /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/yum.

2. Install yum-utils

From the Available Packages tab in OSPM, install yum-utils. This gives you yum-config-manager, which you’ll need to add the Zend repository.

3. Add the Zend PHP repository

From a shell (SSH preferred; QSH works in a pinch), add the Zend repo:

/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/yum-config-manager --add-repo http://repos.zend.com/ibmiphp/

For the full list of community-maintained third-party repositories, see 3rd Party Open Source Repos for IBM i.

Read the notes in the IBM OSS docs before you add the PHP repo. The Zend repo bundles a number of packages, and it’s worth knowing what’s in it before you install everything.

4. Install the PHP packages

Back in OSPM’s Available Packages tab, install the packages whose names begin with php. The footprint is small, and you’ll likely use most of them eventually. Pay particular attention to:

  • php — the core runtime
  • php-cli — command-line PHP
  • php-cgi — the FastCGI binary used by Apache/NGINX
  • php-fpm — FastCGI Process Manager (required for the NGINX path)
  • php-pdo, php-pdo-odbc — PDO drivers
  • php-ibm_db2 — the native ibm_db2 extension (optional, but useful for some workloads)
  • php-mbstring, php-intl, php-zip, php-xml, php-curl — common extensions Composer packages will expect

5. Configure PHP

The defaults are reasonable for most setups, but you’ll want to know where the configuration lives.

The default php.ini ships at:

/QOpenSys/etc/php.ini

For PHP RPMs to load it, move (or copy) it into the php subdirectory:

/QOpenSys/etc/php/php.ini

Per-extension configuration lives in:

/QOpenSys/etc/php/conf.d

To verify your php.ini is being loaded, drop an index.php containing <?php phpinfo(); ?> into your web root and load it from a browser. The Loaded Configuration File line near the top of the output tells you exactly which php.ini PHP is reading.

For the full list of configuration directives, see php.net’s php.ini documentation.

When yum updates PHP later, it preserves any config files you’ve modified and writes the new defaults alongside as php.ini.rpmnew. If you’ve made changes, diff against .rpmnew after every update so you don’t miss new directives.

Running multiple PHP versions side by side

A single IBM i partition can host as many PHP versions as you want, each fully isolated, using chroot. This is invaluable when you have one application stuck on PHP 7.4 and another on PHP 8.4, or when you need to test an upgrade in parallel without touching production.

chroot (“change root”) makes a subdirectory look and behave like the root filesystem to processes running inside it. With it, you can install a complete second copy of yum plus its packages — including PHP — into an isolated tree.

Install ibmichroot 

yum install ibmichroot

Create a chroot environment

The convention is one chroot per PHP version. Below we create one named PHP73, but you can name yours whatever fits your shop’s conventions:

chroot_setup -y /QOpenSys/chroots/PHP73

This sets up a working /QOpenSys/pkgs/ inside the chroot, with its own yum, its own configuration, and its own PHP install path.

To use the chroot, prefix commands with chroot:

chroot /QOpenSys/chroots/PHP73 /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/php -v

You can run a different Apache instance inside the chroot, or have your top-level Apache forward FastCGI requests to a php-cgi running inside it. Either pattern works; choose based on which feels less surprising to operate.

The chroot pattern is also useful for running NGINX and PHP-FPM together as a self-contained unit, separate from any Apache/PHP instance also running on the partition.

Re-adding the IBM i base repos

If yum-config-manager ever loses track of the IBM repos (this happens occasionally after upgrades), re-add them with:

yum-config-manager --add-repo http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/ibmi/products/pase/rpms/repo

This requires yum-utils to be installed already. If yum itself is broken, follow the OSPM recovery guide to bootstrap it.

Where next

With PHP installed, you have two web-server choices ahead of you. Pick the one that fits your shop:

  • Apache + PHP — IBM’s traditional path. Slightly more setup, well-documented, and what most existing IBM i shops are running. Configurable through the IBM HTTP Admin web interface.
  • NGINX + PHP-FPM — the modern alternative. Hand-edited config, noticeably better performance under concurrent load, and the standard for new PHP deployments outside IBM i.