If you are getting the error:

Couldn’t find any package whose name or description matched “php5-fpm”

The instructions below are how to solve it and get the most up-to-date version of PHP and PHP-FPM installed on your Ubuntu box or VPS.

Update your Package Lists

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade

Remove Apache2 if present

If apache2 is currently installed and you do not want it to be, run the commands below to totally uninstall and remove it from Ubuntu. Note that all your Apache2 vhosts and configuration will be deleted , so download them or back them up if you need them.

sudo apt-get -y remove --purge apache2 apache2-utils
sudo rm -rf /etc/apache2

Install Aptitude

sudo apt-get -y install aptitude
sudo aptitude -y update

Install Nginx

sudo aptitude -y install nginx
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

Add Nginx PHP source

There is no ‘php5-fpm’ package in the default repository list that ships with Ubuntu, so you will have to add the Debian PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php5
sudo aptitude update

If you get an error that says ‘add-apt-repository: command not found’, you have to install the ‘python-software-properties’ package first:

sudo aptitude -y install python-software-properties

Install PHP and PHP-FPM

Now we can install PHP with PHP-FPM

sudo aptitude -y install php5-cli php5-common php5-mcrypt php5-suhosin php5-gd php5-fpm php5-cgi php-pear php5-memcache php-apc php5-curl

Optionally Install PDO and MySQL

sudo apt-get -y install mysql-client mysql-server libmysqlclient15-dev
sudo aptitude -y install php5-mysql

Edit your PHP-FPM config

Now open your PHP-FPM nginx config file using a server editor like vim (or “vi” if vim is not installed):

vim /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

Look for the key named  pm.max_children . By default this is set to 50, but if you are running a small VPS, you will need to bring this down to 10 or so. Also make sure to check to values of  pm.start_servers ,  pm.min_spare_servers , and pm.max_spare_servers  to ensure they are within the max_children limit you set or nginx will not start.

While you are in there, also consider uncommenting  pm.max_requests to ensure your memory usage stays low, especially if you are working with an older codebase, image or video processing, or a lot of 3rd party libraries.

Configure Nginx

Be sure to read up on  nginx and PHP-FPM security before you do anything else or begin setting up your websites.

Start nginx

sudo service php5-fpm start

[Still Need]

• Install MySQL / other db
• Install cURL / other dependencies
• Restart PHP-FPM after any changes

Optimizing for Performance

Great guide for small VPSes: http://www.earnersblog.com/vps-optimization-guide/