How to Switch your Dedicated Server from suPHP to FastCGI

In this tutorial we will briefly go over how to switch your server from using suPHP to something else such as CGI, FastCGI, etc. This article already assumes that you have root access to your system.

Check current available configurations

1. Log into your servers command line via the root user.
    
2. Run the following red command to check what options are available on your server.
   /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rebuild_phpconf –current
   Available handlers: suphp fcgi cgi none
   DEFAULT PHP: 5
   PHP4 SAPI: none
   PHP5 SAPI: suphp
   SUEXEC: enabled
   RUID2: not installed
    

Switch your server to FastCGI

1. Log into your servers command line via the root user.
    
2. Run the following red command to change the system from suPHP to FastCGI.
   /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rebuild_phpconf 5 none fcgi enabled
   [/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/set_mailman_archive_perms] Setting I/O priority to reduce system load: best-effort: prio 6
   [/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/set_mailman_archive_perms] Setting mailman archive permissions
   [/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/set_mailman_archive_perms] Continuing in the background
   php.conf updated to:

    

   # This file was automatically generated by the Cpanel PHP Configuration system
   # If you wish to change the way PHP is being handled by Apache on your system,
   # use the /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rebuild_phpconf script or the WHM interface.
   #
   # Manual edits of this file will be lost when Apache is updated.

   # Fastcgi configuration for PHP5
   LoadModule fcgid_module modules/mod_fcgid.so
   MaxRequestsPerProcess 500
   AddHandler fcgid-script .php5 .php4 .php .php3 .php2 .phtml
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .php5
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .php4
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .php
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .php3
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .php2
   FcgidWrapper /usr/local/cpanel/cgi-sys/php5 .phtml

   # End of autogenerated PHP configuration.

   Updating user configurable PHP settings.
   [info] recursion depth is set to: 2
   Restarting Apache

    
3. Run the following red command to confirm the changes have been made.
   /usr/local/cpanel/bin/rebuild_phpconf –current
   Available handlers: suphp fcgi cgi none
   DEFAULT PHP: 5
   PHP4 SAPI: none
   PHP5 SAPI: fcgi
   SUEXEC: enabled
   RUID2: not installed