connect() failed (111: Connection refused) while connecting to upstream

It sounds like you haven’t started and configured the backend for Nginx. Start php-fpm and add the following to nginx.conf, in the http context: server { listen 127.0.0.1; server_name localhost; error_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.error_log info; root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; location ~ \.php$ { fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*; fastcgi_intercept_errors on; error_page 404 /error/404.php; } }