Upgrading to PHP 5.3.x

[KrazyBob]

Because of the many backwards compatible issues with PHP 5.4 I an not taking Plesk 10.4.4 for Linux there. I believe the current version is 5.3.13.

I am using the Atomic YUM installer and 64-bit.

The Wiki is assuming 5.1 to start but are the steps the same?

I realize that this isn't the MySQL forum but rather than cross post the same question applies to MySQL. Are the instructions the same, too? I believe the current version is 5.5.27.

Your advice is always appreciated. The best forums anywhere for Plesk!!!

[KrazyBob]

I haven't received a reply on this and the issue is growing on my end. I have a dedicated server customer that insists on bleeding edge or close to it.

Not quite bleeding edge she wants Zend 3.3.3 which apparently has been installed as an upgrade before on her old server but PHP was not upgraded.

Now Plesk 10.4.4 (a pain in the a$$!!!!!!!! for migrations) releases PHP 5.3.3 and Zend 2.3.0

Code: Select all

[root@abbey ~]# php -v
PHP Warning:  Directive 'safe_mode' is deprecated in PHP 5.3 and greater in Unknown on line 0
PHP 5.3.3 (cli) (built: May  7 2012 20:13:47) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies
    with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.0.7, Copyright (c) 2002-2011, by ionCube Ltd.

I simply cannot understand the logic behind Parallels. It makes no sense to install such an outdated version of php.

Complicating matters if one installs the Atomic repo Plesk complains that using it may be hazardous to one's server health. I am not an advanced server admin and don't have the ability to recover if all heck breaks loss.

So then how do I upgrade to PHP 5.3.16 and Zend 3.3.3 without breaking Plesk 10.4.4? It has to get done but I have yet to find instructions on doing it. Plesk will go as far now as refusing support if a non-approved repo is used (aka Atomic) Been there, done that. I've fought with them all week. With cleqar instructions however, I'd do it anyway.

Could someone please help a man struggling to keep up with changes that seem to happen every week? PLEASE?

[breun]

Now Plesk 10.4.4 (a pain in the a$$!!!!!!!! for migrations) releases PHP 5.3.3 and Zend 2.3.0

Code: Select all

[root@abbey ~]# php -v
PHP Warning:  Directive 'safe_mode' is deprecated in PHP 5.3 and greater in Unknown on line 0
PHP 5.3.3 (cli) (built: May  7 2012 20:13:47) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies
    with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.0.7, Copyright (c) 2002-2011, by ionCube Ltd.

I simply cannot understand the logic behind Parallels. It makes no sense to install such an outdated version of php.

Plesk does not distribute PHP. It just installs whatever version of PHP your OS distributes.

Also I guess you haven't grasped the idea of enterprise Linux distributions yet: they prefer stability over having the latest features (and thus bugs), so you won't find bleeding edge versions of software in their repositories. They backport security fixes in later versions to their stable branches. Read more about this process here: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/backporting/

If you need the latest PHP 5.3.x release, you can use the packages in the Atomic repository instead of the ones distributed by Red Hat/CentOS.

Complicating matters if one installs the Atomic repo Plesk complains that using it may be hazardous to one's server health. I am not an advanced server admin and don't have the ability to recover if all heck breaks loss.

So then how do I upgrade to PHP 5.3.16 and Zend 3.3.3 without breaking Plesk 10.4.4? It has to get done but I have yet to find instructions on doing it. Plesk will go as far now as refusing support if a non-approved repo is used (aka Atomic) Been there, done that. I've fought with them all week. With cleqar instructions however, I'd do it anyway.

Could someone please help a man struggling to keep up with changes that seem to happen every week? PLEASE?

Just use the instructions on the Atomic wiki, read the changelogs, do it on a testing system first, etc.

P.S. PHP 5.3.16 isn't out yet, 5.3.14 was just released.

[faris]

Regarding Zend -- you are looking at the wrong things, sort of.

There were two elements to Zend, which were reported by php 5.1 and 5.2. One was the Zend Engine, and one was the Zend Optimizer.

The 2.3 you see listed is for the Zend Engine. Not the Optimizer.

Version 3.3.3 is the latest version of the Optimizer that is available for php 5.2 and earlier. But not to php 5.3.

In php 5.3, things changed, and Zend Optimizer is not available for it like it used to be for 5.3 and earlier. Instead we have Zend Guard Loader, which allows apps protected by Zend Guard to run (this was also a function of Zend Optimizer in 5.2 and earlier).

However, there is no opcode caching in Zend Guard Loader as far as I'm aware. But it doesn't matter - it is no longer particularly relevant. Someone with more knowledge will maybe add some detail here? Has the opcode caching become integrated into the php code itself or something?

Bottom line: Zend Optimizer is no longer relavant in typical php 5.3 installs. Forget it. Ignore it. (*)

* Zend Optimizer+ (PLUS) does exist for php 5.3 and does some advanced opcode caching. It is part of the php+apache package that Zend offers. Some forums indicate that it can be extracted from that package and loaded in other php bundles. But seriously -- it is no longer something to worry about.

[faris]

Code: Select all

]# php -v
PHP 5.3.14 (cli) (built: Jun 14 2012 16:34:56)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies
    with eAccelerator v0.9.6-svn358-dev, Copyright (c) 2004-2007 eAccelerator, by eAccelerator
    with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.0.10, Copyright (c) 2002-2011, by ionCube Ltd., and
    with Zend Guard Loader v3.3, Copyright (c) 1998-2010, by Zend Technologies
    with Suhosin v0.9.33, Copyright (c) 2007-2012, by SektionEins GmbH

This is the most up to date you will get via the Atomic repos as of today. I do note that the Zend Guard Loader version listed on the Zend website says 5.5, however, so maybe it is time to ask Scott to look at updating the version in the Atomic repo if he has some time?

[breun]

However, there is no opcode caching in Zend Guard Loader as far as I'm aware. But it doesn't matter - it is no longer particularly relevant. Someone with more knowledge will maybe add some detail here? Has the opcode caching become integrated into the php code itself or something?

I believe the plan is to make APC the default PHP opcode cache (in PHP 6?). If you need an opcode cache for PHP 5.3, look at APC, eAccelerator or maybe XCache.

[KrazyBob]

Your deliberate insult is inappropriate. I DO know what and RPM is and i DO know that PHP is distributed within a distro. What YOU don't know is that Plesk 10.4.4 puts a warning on the screen that one should not use the Atomic or other repos because of Plesk incompatibilities. Now if you're done insulting me maybe its time to learn something about Plesk 10.4.4. I know how to read and follow the Atomic instructions that are contradicted by Plesk.

Could someone actually try to answer the question?

Now Plesk 10.4.4 (a pain in the a$$!!!!!!!! for migrations) releases PHP 5.3.3 and Zend 2.3.0

Code: Select all

[root@abbey ~]# php -v
PHP Warning:  Directive 'safe_mode' is deprecated in PHP 5.3 and greater in Unknown on line 0
PHP 5.3.3 (cli) (built: May  7 2012 20:13:47) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies
    with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.0.7, Copyright (c) 2002-2011, by ionCube Ltd.

I simply cannot understand the logic behind Parallels. It makes no sense to install such an outdated version of php.

Plesk does not distribute PHP. It just installs whatever version of PHP your OS distributes.

Also I guess you haven't grasped the idea of enterprise Linux distributions yet: they prefer stability over having the latest features (and thus bugs), so you won't find bleeding edge versions of software in their repositories. They backport security fixes in later versions to their stable branches. Read more about this process here: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/backporting/

If you need the latest PHP 5.3.x release, you can use the packages in the Atomic repository instead of the ones distributed by Red Hat/CentOS.

Complicating matters if one installs the Atomic repo Plesk complains that using it may be hazardous to one's server health. I am not an advanced server admin and don't have the ability to recover if all heck breaks loss.

So then how do I upgrade to PHP 5.3.16 and Zend 3.3.3 without breaking Plesk 10.4.4? It has to get done but I have yet to find instructions on doing it. Plesk will go as far now as refusing support if a non-approved repo is used (aka Atomic) Been there, done that. I've fought with them all week. With cleqar instructions however, I'd do it anyway.

Could someone please help a man struggling to keep up with changes that seem to happen every week? PLEASE?

Just use the instructions on the Atomic wiki, read the changelogs, do it on a testing system first, etc.

P.S. PHP 5.3.16 isn't out yet, 5.3.14 was just released.

[breun]

Your deliberate insult is inappropriate. I DO know what and RPM is and i DO know that PHP is distributed within a distro. What YOU don't know is that Plesk 10.4.4 puts a warning on the screen that one should not use the Atomic or other repos because of Plesk incompatibilities. Now if you're done insulting me maybe its time to learn something about Plesk 10.4.4. I know how to read and follow the Atomic instructions that are contradicted by Plesk.

Deliberate insult? Who insulted you? And who are you replying to anyway? I truly have no idea.

I believe everyone in this thread knows about the warning the Plesk installer shows when third party repositories are enabled. It doesn't say they're incompatible, it says Parallels doesn't guarantee it will work ("installation may fail") and then offers you the choice to proceed or not. They're just telling you they don't support third party repositories.

Could someone actually try to answer the question?

People have already tried to help you in this thread. If you'd be less demanding, use a little less capital letters and exclamation marks and be more clear about what question you still need an answer to, people might help. Please realize you're asking people for a favor by posting here, so I recommend trying to help them out to help you.

Maybe your problem is not solved yet, but I guess that's because the problem is not 100% clear to the other forum users: PHP 5.3.16? 5.3.15 is not even released yet. Zend 3.3.3? Are you referring to Zend Engine? Zend Optimizer? Zend Guard Loader? Zend Studio? I really don't understand why you feel insulted, so far everyone replying here has been trying to help.

[KrazyBob]

You, Breun. There was no need to say "Also I guess you haven't grasped the idea of enterprise Linux distributions yet..." That in itself is sarcastic and unnecessary. But I see nothing more than Faris and I politely discussing the issue.

Maybe we can stay on topic. I am concerned with upgrading and I am expressing that concern. The problem in part is that one cannot backup a Virtuozzo 4 container to a Virtuozzo 3 backup server. I have no safety net. I take a warning from Parallels not to use the Atomic repo seriously considering that I have spent over a week trying to migrate to Plesk 10.4.4. Perhaps I am stressed but not demanding. The errors are serious enough that Parallels top 2nd line staff need to address the issues. I cannot make matters worse using the Atomic repo if it is going to cause a problem. So... I ask if it has caused problems. No need to snipe at me.

[KrazyBob]

Thank you for correcting me on the version. Let me ask, does the eAccelerator or Suhosin make that much difference? I don't have any experience with either.

Code: Select all

]# php -v
PHP 5.3.14 (cli) (built: Jun 14 2012 16:34:56)
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies
    with eAccelerator v0.9.6-svn358-dev, Copyright (c) 2004-2007 eAccelerator, by eAccelerator
    with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.0.10, Copyright (c) 2002-2011, by ionCube Ltd., and
    with Zend Guard Loader v3.3, Copyright (c) 1998-2010, by Zend Technologies
    with Suhosin v0.9.33, Copyright (c) 2007-2012, by SektionEins GmbH

This is the most up to date you will get via the Atomic repos as of today. I do note that the Zend Guard Loader version listed on the Zend website says 5.5, however, so maybe it is time to ask Scott to look at updating the version in the Atomic repo if he has some time?

[breun]

You, Breun. There was no need to say "Also I guess you haven't grasped the idea of enterprise Linux distributions yet..." That in itself is sarcastic and unnecessary.

That was not meant to be sarcastic. You said: "It makes no sense to install such an outdated version of php." This is obviously not true, since lots of people are running servers using enterprise Linux distributions with the PHP packages distributed by the vendor (we have lots of clients that prefer a stable older versions with backported fixes over having to test extensively against new versions with changed feature sets as they are released), which is why thought you didn't know yet how versions and backporting are handled in enterprise distributions and tried to help you by pointing you to a URL which explains this.

Maybe we can stay on topic. I am concerned with upgrading and I am expressing that concern. The problem in part is that one cannot backup a Virtuozzo 4 container to a Virtuozzo 3 backup server. I have no safety net. I take a warning from Parallels not to use the Atomic repo seriously considering that I have spent over a week trying to migrate to Plesk 10.4.4. Perhaps I am stressed but not demanding. The errors are serious enough that Parallels top 2nd line staff need to address the issues. I cannot make matters worse using the Atomic repo if it is going to cause a problem. So... I ask if it has caused problems. No need to snipe at me.

I haven't seen any issues with the Atomic PHP packages. Of course examples of something working for someone is never a guarantee someone else won't have any issues. If you have any you should be able to just install the previous packages again. If this is a production server I recommend cloning the container and testing in a non-production environment first.

[KrazyBob]

I actually agree with you regarding earlier versions of PHP. Its my customers that don't. The newer versions of Joomla, Wordpress and others require later versions. Regardless of my protests and explanations they want what they want. When they have a dedicated server I'll upgrade it with a warning.

[breun]

The newer versions of Joomla, Wordpress and others require later versions.

The latest version of Joomla requires PHP 5.2.4+: http://www.joomla.org/technical-requirements.html The same goes for WordPress:
http://wordpress.org/about/requirements/ These applications will work with both the vendor PHP 5.3 packages and the ones from Atomic.