Resolved How do I upgrade PHP 5.4.45 on Plesk Onyx 17.5.3

[josie333]

‪CentOS 6.9‬
Plesk Onyx Version 17.5.3
PHP 5.4.45

Is this version of PHP secure and supported?
I am unable to run a video plugin on a Wordpress site on this server due to the PHP version which requires at least 5.6

I have never upgraded PHP and I am unsure what to do
Any assistance would be gratefully received

Thank you

 

[IgorG]

Just go to Plesk installer and install any 5.x or 7.x PHP version. After that enable it in Hosting Settings of your site.

 

[josie333]

I see option for several versions of PHP
Can I select 1 or more and enable any version on a per site basis?

Is this reversible?

Is the current version secure?

 

[IgorG]

Can I select 1 or more and enable any version on a per site basis?

Yes, you can.

Is the current version secure?

It is versions from php.net

 

[josie333]

According to php.net version 5.4 reached its end of life on 3 Sep 2015, 2 years, 4 months ago

PHP: Unsupported Branches

 

[IgorG]

We doesn't ship PHP 5.4
It is version from OS vendor.

 

[josie333]

Would that be Centos then?

 

[Bitpalast]

Yes, current CentOS ships with 5.4. I can only discourage to make any changes to that. It is better to simply let this be and follow Igor's instructions to use the PHP versions shipped with Plesk. There is practically no risk in installing them. If you don't want to use them later, deselect them. But in general, the 5.4 version that ships with CentOS is not only outdated, it is also missing many additional PHP modules that are very common for today's software.

 

[josie333]

I have added a higher version of PHP via Plesk as suggested.
I have not as yet encountered any issues.

However, at CentOS they categorically deny shipping 5.4.45 and insist it must be Plesk

 

[Bitpalast]

It is probably part of a pre-installed image that the hosting provider uses to install new servers.

 

[josie333]

On a domain where I have enabled PHP 5.6.33, in the PHP Settings for domain when I click the link "View the phpinfo() page"
I get the error below

Error: Unable to retrieve information about the PHP configuration.

This does not happen on domains with the previous PHP version

 

[Bitpalast]

I think that I've seen this on one occasion, and the reason was simply that the web server had not yet restarted (reloaded) so that the PHP version shown in the backend was different from the one active in the server configuration. Maybe it helps to either wait until the web server restart interval expires or to manually reload with
# service httpd reload
# service nginx reload

 

[josie333]

Thank you for your reply Peter

I tried the reload / restart
No change unfortunately

 

[josie333]

The answer:
Temporarily disable the Permanent SEO-safe 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS option when checking phpinfo() through the PHP Settings page.