[vox-tech] Risks of upgrading past CentOS 6 supported PHP 5.4?

[Dr. Larry Ozeran]

Thanks Bill. That's helpful. It is a physical server. You have given me 
several things to consider.

Dr. Larry Ozeran
President, Clinical Informatics, Inc.
(530) 671-9244

On 6/1/2016 21:51, Bill Broadley wrote:
> On 05/18/2016 08:58 PM, Dr. Larry Ozeran wrote:
>> I am Googled out (repeatedly finding the same sites) and the impressive
>> expertise on this list gives me high hopes that someone here has an
>> answer or a reference.
>>
>> I have found many sites talking about how to upgrade from PHP 5.4 (which
>> appears to be the last CentOS 6 supported version of PHP) to later
>> versions using webtatic. [https://webtatic.com/packages/php55/] What I
>> have been unable to learn are the risks of doing so.
>>
>> Does anyone know any downsides to using the webtatic PHP packages on
>> CentOS 6?
>
> I've seen many machines with ugly configurations related to cpanel, 
> custom php installs (sometimes more than one), and fragile very hard 
> to reproduce apache configurations.
>
> Although I guess I shouldn't complain, they get hacked and I get 
> consulting.
>
> The main problem being that OS packages are upgraded regularly, if you 
> build it yourself you really should be tracking the patches/upgrades 
> for anything you compile your self daily or at least weekly.  In most 
> environment that just isn't practical.
>
> Normally I'd just recommend upgrading the OS when a major package is 
> too old.  Sadly upgrading to CentOS 7 doesn't get you newer than PHP 
> 5.4.16.  Pretty sad that CentOS 7 has a PHP from 2012. Ubuntu 14.04 
> LTS includes 5.5.
>
> Ubuntu 16.04 LTS include PHP 7.0.4.
>
> So supporting a custom PHP or doing a major OS switch to a Debian (or 
> derivative) could be a difficult decision.
>
> I do suggest a full backup before you do anything, it could be quite 
> painful if things go awry.  You didn't mention if it was a virtual 
> server or physical.  If virtual it could be a fairly quick experiment 
> to try any of your options without breaking the original.
>
> Sorry, no easy answer from me.
>
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