Installing php extension for SQL Anywhere on server with CentOS, Plesk, php-fpm

[floriankornhoffer]

Hello,

we got a new WebServer with CentOS, Plesk and php-fpm.
Now we don't get the php extension running.

What we did:
- installed SQL Anywhere 17 (ebf29577)
- copied php-7.3.0_sqlanywhere_r.so to /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/
- loading php-7.3.0_sqlanywhere_r.so via /opt/plesk/php/7.3/etc/php.d/sqlanywhere.ini
- this leads to an error:
WARNING: [pool plesk-php73-fpm.plesk-service.localdomain] child 11616 said into stderr: "NOTICE: PHP message: PHP Warning: request_startup() for sqlanywhere module failed in Unknown on line 0"
(This leads to, that php 7.3 fpm is not loading at all)
- next try was to switch from FPM to CGI: same error
- module is loadable itself by shell if LD_LIBRARY_PATH was enhanced with path /opt/sqlanywhere17/lib64/
- some tries getting the cause by strace did not help

Are there some more installing instructions for php-fpm (maybe even for CentOS)?
Informations from https://archive.sap.com/kmuuid2/90c5c96c-2442-3010-5393-de2af3857c52/Getting%20Started%20with%20SQL%... didn't help.

Thanks for your help
Florian

[chris_keating]

To confirm:

• The php.ini that is being used in the web server environment is being modified i.e., the one that is reported in the phpinfo() output.
• The php.ini extension_dir references /opt/plesk/php/7.3/lib64/php/modules/.
• The extension been corrected added to the Dynamic Extensions section
• The SQLA environment has been correctly sourced and visible to the web browser i.e., %sqlany17%\bin64\sa_config.sh. Primarily, you will want to ensure the libxx where xx is the bitness of the webserver is in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH as well as SQLANY17 environment variable pointing to the root of the SQLA install. The shared object for dbcapi which is required by the PHP driver needs to be located by the web server PHP environment.

The phpinfo() is a very useful diagnostic to identify what is not correctly configured.

[floriankornhoffer]

First: I'm not to familiar with linux - I gave the work to my hoster who should know what he is doing, but he was not successfull.

Now to your questions as far I can answer them:

- php.ini is not modified itself but in subdir php.d there was placed a file sqlanywhere.ini with line
extension=php-7.3.0_sqlanywhere_r.so

- there was a try to load extension directly in php.ini (once without and once with complte path), but with same negative result

- extension_dir is not set in php.ini as it has ; at the beginning, but all other extensions are loaded fine (none of them, is set in php.ini but with an ini file i php.d

- sa_config.sh was executed without errors

- env variables: how can I check these?
In phpinfo none of both is shown in Box Environment. There are 'USER' and 'HOME' only

- libdbcapi.so exists in lib64

Thanks for your help

[chris_keating]

I still suspect that configuration is incorrect. I have no knowledge of the webservers that you are citing and only enough knowledge of linux to be dangerous (in fact, I am winging the following but basing it on what I expect is needed to configure the SQLA PHP extension).

I would like you to get the phpinfo() so that we can confirm the php.ini file being loaded and then check its contents and settings. Please look for Loaded Configuration File. It is that file that we are concerned. You should also look for the block of output that lists the Apache Environment (** this may be named for the host webserver ** ) and Environment and confirm that the SQL Anywhere configuration in particular lib64 (and perhaps SQLANY17) are in those blocks. I will assume that there is not a block for sqlanywhere as it is not being loaded correctly. If there is, please share its content. If the environment settings are not found, they will need to be sourced so that they are visible to the webserver. Please go to the PHP root directory (where the PHP binaries that are being used by the webserver) and execute php -m. This will list the modules that are loaded and generally an error (with context) for modules that cannot be loaded. I am expecting to see sqlanywhere to appear here either as loaded or with an error outlining more info as to why it failed to load.

If it is never referenced in the output for php -m then the environment is not configured to attempt loading sqlanywhere. In testing; the sqlanywhere extension would only be loaded if the extension_dir was defined *or* the sqlanywhere PHP shared object was in the default location for extensions *and* the entry extension=<sqlanywhere php shared object> existed in the php.ini file that is loaded (as per phpinfo() ).

[floriankornhoffer]

I got a step forward:

using this command within shell as root

/opt/plesk/php/7.3/bin/php -c /opt/plesk/php/7.3/etc/php.ini -i

returns a complete phpinfo with sqlanywhere block and a lot of Enviroment variables. So this shows me that all is in it's place.

But using same command as user returns error 'request_startup() for sqlanywhere module failed'!

So I think it's quite clear that Apache runs without the needed permissions or an incomplete configuration. I forwarded this infornation to my hoster - I hope he's able to do what's needed now.

Thanks for your input

[floriankornhoffer]

It took us a step forward, but the hoster is not able to configure the system that the result is same as on commandline. They say: they know how to do it on commandline but are not able to find the correct way oto get it running under the webserver. They need a step to step instruction how to activate the module in a php-ftpm context when using plesk.

php -m shows the module when (as with -i above) you are root and you have run sa_config.sh before.

Any idea how to do it?

[chris_keating]

I have no knowledge of that tool. If they are having problems setting up an PHP extension using that tool, they should be working with plesk to understand how to achieve it. I have exhausted my knowledge of this topic. If they ensure that the php.ini that is the Loaded Configuration File is modified to set the extension_dir and add extension=<sqla_driver>, this should work.

[floriankornhoffer]

All of these documented things are done, but we and they were not able to find a solution with this server configuration.

Thanks you anyway for your input.

[floriankornhoffer]

after a lot of tests we found a solution:
in Plesk Domain php settings we had to add:

[php-fpm-pool-settings]
env[LD_LIBRARY_PATH]="/opt/sqlanywhere_v2/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

Now all libs are found and it works