How do I upgrade php on a VPS?

Question:

The php version on my VPS is out of date. How do I update it?

Answer:

Using the OS vendors normal update command can get you some updates (but perhaps not what you want – see below). For example on RedHat/CentOS run:

yum update php

However usually the OS vendors versions are not the latest. The update them to patch security issues but many times are far out of date from what you may require.

To update RedHat/CentOS to a newer php run these commands:


yum erase php-pdo php-xml php-mysql php php-common php-cli php-gd php-mbstring php-devel

yum install php53-pdo php53-xml php53-mysql php53 php53-common php53-cli php53-gd php53-mbstring

/sbin/service httpd restart

A note:

These are “unofficial” RPM’s as RedHat only official supports a particular (semi-old) version and backports security fixes to it – good for large corporate users but not so great for active developers). However the RPMS’s above are widely used in the community and most developers view them as trustworthy (just important to note that they are not actually from RedHat).

Dedicated IP versus Shared IP – what’s the difference?

Question:

Can you explain the difference between a dedicated IP and a shared IP?

Answer:

A shared IP means that the IP address for your website is shared with other websites hosted on the same server. This is arrangment that ARIN (the American Registry for Internet Numbers) who controls the allocation of IP addresses requires. IPv4 addresses are a limited resource so ARIN requires that all hosting providers use shared IP’s when possible.

A dedicated IP is an IP address that is used only by your website. Dedicated IP’s are allowed in several cases. SSL’s certificate (in most cases) require the use of a dedicated IP. Hosting without a domain name also require a dedicated IP.

All VPS servers are also dedicated IPs.

If you have a special case and need a dedicated IP let us know. The cost is $2 per month per IP.

As a side note, all IP’s at phpwebhosting.com (both shared and dedicated) are “static” IP addresses. Static means that they do not change (or at least not often – perhaps once every few years at the most). A static IP means that if you make use of the raw IP address, you can be sure that it does not change over time. The only time a static IP changes is in the rare case of a datacenter change that require the use of new IPs. This is rare and for most servers never happens.