Message to my host

[biancamc]

I'm not sure if this is where I would ask this question. I recently wrote my host with this email.
"Hi, For security reasons and an increase in speed I want to update the PHP version of my WordPress website to PHP 7. WordPress also strongly recommends the latest version of PHP on their requirements page, https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/.

More information about currently supported versions of PHP can be found here: http://php.net/supported-versions.php.

I've heard that sometimes a website can break when updating the PHP version. Can you assist me and update my site safely to PHP 7?

Thanks!"

They responded back, but I'm totally confused! Could someone advise me on how to handle this because I'm really not understanding all the terms and lingo. Thanks so much!

Oh here was their response:
"Upon checking your requirement, I could see that the you want to upgrade the PHP 7 for a domain. It can be possible only if we can upgrade easyapache4. EasyApache 4 supports multiple versions of PHP. Multiple PHP versions allow you to assign different PHP versions to each of your domains. Coupled with automatic upgrades, this ensures that your PHP applications run on the most up-to-date, secured PHP versions.

However on checking I could see that the server is running on CentOS 6. We always recommend you to use EasyApache4 on new CentOS version which is 7, as upgrading EasyApache4 in CentOS 6 may break the working of sites. If you wish we can migrate your server from CentOS 6 to CentOS 7 for free of cost. If you would like to proceed with Migration, then please let us know so that we shall move the ticket to our Migration team.

Please contact your developer to check the compatibility of the application with new PHP version before upgrading.

However, please note that any apache customizations present in the server will get lost. Also the compilation process will cause a tleat 10 minutes of downtime. So it is better to do the process on off peak hours."

[benvaassen]

Hi @biancamc !

What your host is basically telling you is: we can do the update for you, but your site might break and we are not responsible when that happens. We won't fix your site, so have a developer ready to fix things.

Based on their response, we'd advise one of these things:

1. If you have a developer, inform him and you should ask your host to perform the migration.
2. If you don't have a developer, you can find one first and then ask your host to perform the migration.
3. You can find another host who is willing to help you. We have a few suggestions available here: https://yoast.com/wordpress-hosting/.

[jrfnl]

Just wondering if this issue has been resolved in the mean time and can be closed ?

[Remzi1993]

@jrfnl You should close this (stale) issue. I think @biancamc has found a solution, otherwise, she would have replied here.

[lkraav]

FWIW, I upgraded to EA4 successfully on CentOS 6 about 2 years ago.

I will be migrating to CentOS 7 at one point, since older versions have an end of support date that's approaching.

[Remzi1993]

@lkraav For testing multiple different servers and PHP versions I would recommend: https://github.com/cytopia/devilbox from @cytopia I discovered this a couple of days ago and it reduced a lot of hassle for me.