This tutorial is tested on a bare installation of CentOS 6.

Install wget:

# yum install wget

Install RPMforge repository:

# wget -c http://pkgs.repoforge.org/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Temporarily disable SELinux:

# echo 0 > /selinux/enforce

Add port 80 on iptables:

Default rules:

# iptables -L -n
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source        destination         
ACCEPT	all	--  	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 
ACCEPT	icmp	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           
ACCEPT	all	-- 	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           
ACCEPT	tcp	-- 	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:22 
REJECT	all	-- 	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source        destination         
REJECT	all  	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source	destination

# iptables -I INPUT 5 -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
# iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables

Note: All rules should be input above any reject rules.

# iptables -L -n
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source        destination         
ACCEPT	all	--  	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           state RELATED,ESTABLISHED 
ACCEPT	icmp	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           
ACCEPT	all	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           
ACCEPT	tcp	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:22 
ACCEPT	tcp	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           state NEW tcp dpt:80 
REJECT	all	-- 	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source        destination         
REJECT	all  	--	0.0.0.0/0     0.0.0.0/0           reject-with icmp-host-prohibited 

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target	prot	opt	source	destination

Install Lighttpd:

# yum install lighttpd

Install FastCGI and MySQL support:

# yum install lighttpd-fastcgi php-cli php-mysql

Enable FastCGI:

# vi /etc/lighttpd/modules.conf

Uncomment the line 132:

include "conf.d/fastcgi.conf"

Configure FastCGI:

# mkdir /var/run/lighttpd
# chown lighttpd.lighttpd /var/run/lighttpd
# vi /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/fastcgi.conf

At the end of the file, append the following:

fastcgi.server  = ( ".php" =>
                    ( "localhost" =>
                      (
                        "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/php-fastcgi.socket",
                        "bin-path" => "/usr/bin/php-cgi",
                        "max-procs" => 5,
                        "bin-environment" => (
                           "PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN" => "16",
                           "PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS" => "10000" ),
                        "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable"
                      )
                    )
                  )

Start lighttpd:

# /etc/init.d/lighttpd start

Add lighttpd to your startup:

# chkconfig --add lighttpd

Test configuration:

# echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /srv/www/lighttpd/info.php

Open to your browser and go to:

http://ServerIPAdd/info.php

You should see a page with your PHP information.