[FQuest Announcement] PHP7 Now available

[Bob]

FutureQuest is very pleased to announce that PHP7 has been enabled for all packages and has been made the default PHP version for all new package activations.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For existing Packages before you enable PHP7 you must first ensure that any php flag or value settings are moved to a new file named user.ini as they are no longer read from the .htaccess file."

We have included a tool to automatically move any php flag and value settings.

PHP7 support does not extend to Shared SSL Certificates. If you have a shared SSL Certificate and want to upgrade to PHP7 for HTTPS you would need to replace the shared SSL Certificate with a Private Certificate or a Let's Encrypt Certificate. Sites with a current Shared SSL Certificate can Order a LE Certificate installation at No Charge, from your QuestAdmin login, https://www.QuestAdmin.net/

Steps to enable PHP7 for existing Accounts.

Important: If you are currently using a PHP version older than PHP 5.6 you would want to FIRST access your MySQL Manager and make sure you are not prompted to update your password. If you are prompted to update your password you must first do that befoire attempting the PHP 7 upgrade, or your MySQL databases will not be accessible.

Access the CNC for the domain you wish to enable PHP7 on.
https://www.futurequest.net/GoToCNC/

Click on Server Info


Scroll down to Version Information Section and at the very bottom you will see "Change PHP Version"


If your CNC does not show the "Change PHP Version" button that means your hosting package is on a shared IP and you would need to send an email to the Service Desk requesting a move to a dedicated IP address before you would be able to upgrade to PHP 7

When you press the "Change PHP Version" button a box will POP up and in Red in that Box you will see "Note: If you are changing to a PHP 7 (FPM mode), and have not already done so, make sure you convert your custom php_flag and php_value settings.




Click on "convert your custom php_flag and php_value settings." to create the user.ini file and move your PHP Flags and/or Value Settings to the new file.

You will be presented with a list of any PHP Flags and/or Value Settings that need to be moved (if any) and once confirmed your package will be ready for PHP7.

Click on Server Info again, scroll down to "Change PHP Version" and press the button again. Now select the PHP 7 version you want, PHP 7.2.23 or 7.3.9 and then "Save Settings"


If your site experiences any issues then you can always convert back to PHP 5.6.29 until you determine what the issue may be.

It is recommended that you check and make sure all of your installed Applications and/or scripts support PHP 7 before switching.

If your site does NOT use PHP it would still be advantageous to switch to PHP 7 as the RAM requirements are lower when your site is running on the FPM engines.

Note: From personal experience, if you are running WordPress make sure all of your Plugins are up to date and if you have any that are no longer supported you will want to disable them as there is a good chance that PHP7 will break those plugins. We have also received one report that changing to PHP7 broke the WordPress WordFence plugin and uninstalling prior to changing your PHP version and then reinstalling after the change is completed may be prudent.

Good luck,
The FutureQuest Team

[Erica C.]

Thank you!

Thank you much Terra and the Fquest team! In my case WF broke one site. Uninstalling and reinstalling did not work. WF apparently cannot figure out this for itself. Doing the Manual Config using the ini file worked.

[Bob]

We just added another Important note to the PHP 7 upgrade steps...

Important: If you are currently using a PHP version older than PHP 5.6 you would want to FIRST access your MySQL Manager and make sure you are not prompted to update your password. If you are prompted to update your password you must first do that befoire attempting the PHP 7 upgrade, or your MySQL databases will not be accessible.

-Bob

I've noticed a potential bug in the Fquest popup before upgrading to the latest PHP. If I use the Fquest popup, the ini file that is writ has duplicates. If I use the WF Manual Config, the ini file has one command and no duplicates.

[Bruce]

Originally Posted by mromero

I've noticed a potential bug in the Fquest popup before upgrading to the latest PHP. If I use the Fquest popup, the ini file that is writ has duplicates. If I use the WF Manual Config, the ini file has one command and no duplicates.

That shouldn't be possible unless the .htaccess file had duplicates to start with. If you are referring to the Wordfence WAF settings in .htaccess, they are in fact duplicated, though it is behind an <IfModule> guard so only one would be active. The converter is not aware of conditionals such as this and simply copies over both setting.

[Bruce]

Due to some vulnerabilities reported last night, PHP 7.2 has been bumped to version 7.2.24 and PHP 7.3 to 7.3.11.

[phppete]

Hi,

What is the req/sec compared to your previous php 5.x apache module?
Will we see a performance boost or will there be more sites per server therefore no noticeable difference?

Thank you

I think I was one of the first to convert to the SSL cert. If I recall well we did it manually. WPROCKET writes duplicate files to www and example.com directories on this site. I manually go in every couple days with FTP to delete the cache stored in the www directory. In latter sites when Fquest implemented the automated LETSENCRYPT setup, WPROCKET does NOT write a cache at www. Perhaps I need to open a ticket to resolve this as it may be related to the behavior described?

Originally Posted by Bruce

That shouldn't be possible unless the .htaccess file had duplicates to start with. If you are referring to the Wordfence WAF settings in .htaccess, they are in fact duplicated, though it is behind an <IfModule> guard so only one would be active. The converter is not aware of conditionals such as this and simply copies over both setting.

For those of us that upgraded to PHP 7 a couple of days ago do we need to go in and re-upgrade or is it now done automagically by FQuest?

Originally Posted by Bruce

Due to some vulnerabilities reported last night, PHP 7.2 has been bumped to version 7.2.24 and PHP 7.3 to 7.3.11.