PHP 7.4+ on Centos 7.

[yo_marc]

Hi all - I'm running my XI servers on Centos 7, which maxes out PHP at v5.4. I need to update to 7.4+ as part of an IT mandate.

I see a common upgrade/update method is Remi-PHP. I work for an org that requires approval for third party software such as this so I am looking at other methods.

The only other update method I am aware of is a traditional compile. I toyed around with PHP 8 and it's a beast. Something like 50 or 75 checks failed out of 3,500 - enough to make me not want to attempt a hard install and pollute my OS. I also understand PHP 7.4, even though out of support, may be the highest rev I can/should use with my version of XI on Centos 7. (Latest XI rev)

Are there any specific settings I should use if manually compiling PHP and performing a hard install? I have a plain jane Centos 7 install running httpd. Not doing anything fancy with it.

Thanks!

[ajcoil]

Hi @yo_marc,

Thank you for reaching out!

I would recommend the following documentation for upgrading your php version:
https://support.nagios.com/kb/article/n ... 7-860.html

If you are still having issues, feel free to reach out!

[itunixops]

I strongly advise PHP 8.1 or higher from the remi-repo and as long as you are using the new version. Otherwise you will run into alot of problems. If you can even go to Alma or Rocky linux 8.X its even better. PHP 7.X series has been long depreciated.

[swolf]

I agree with @itunixops as far as the status of PHP - I would generally try to upgrade "all the way" instead of hitting the bare minimum here. That said, our Support team has indicated that manual PHP upgrades have a lot of corner cases for our application.

The preferred solution as far as what we can support is to migrate the CentOS 7 server to a newer distribution - CentOS Stream 9, RHEL 9, and Oracle Linux 9 are all supported. All of those come with PHP 8 and IMO the process is potentially less work than a manual PHP upgrade.

Here's our document on backing up and restoring XI - if you restore a CentOS 7 backup to a blank Nagios XI installation on any of the three distros above, things should "just work", as long as the XI versions are the same.

Hopefully that helps - let us know if you run into any issues.