Friday, July 12, 2024 – PHP Upgrade Completed
Phase 3 of the server updates, individual PHP upgrades on each account was completed successfully. Except for two customers who requested in advance to stay on 7.4 temporarily, everyone has been upgraded to PHP 8.2. Please let me know if you notice any issues with your site.
Saturday, June 29, 2024 – Server OS Upgrade Completed
4:40pm (Eastern time) — Phase 2 of the server updates, an OS upgrade, was completed successfully. Downtime lasted from about 4:00-4:20pm. Everything seems to be fully functional. Please let me know if you have any issues.
3:50pm (Eastern time) — Phase 2 of the server updates, an OS upgrade, is now underway. This upgrade will affect all accounts on the server by causing about 15-30 minutes of downtime for both email and web hosting. I will post here with any updates as I get them from our admin team.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024 – Next Phases
I am in the process of making several updates to our web hosting server.
Phase 1 (MySQL): The first phase was completed on Sunday, involving an upgrade to the MySQL database software on the computer, as well as an update to the PHP configuration.
Phase 2 (OS): The next phase will be upgrading the operating system (OS) on the web server, which will happen in the next week or so. This upgrade will affect all accounts on the server by causing about 15-30 minutes of downtime for both email and web hosting. I can’t schedule the upgrade for an exact date/time, but I will send out an update if I get more details about when it will occur. Contact me if you have any questions about the OS upgrade.
Phase 3 (PHP): After the OS upgrade is complete and we’ve confirmed everything is running smoothly, I will also be upgrading sites to PHP 8.2 (PHP 8.1 and 8.3 are available, but 8.2 will be the new default). Most accounts on the server are now running PHP 7.4, which is out of date and needs to be removed. I will send out another message with details once the PHP upgrade is scheduled. This is very easy to switch, but can cause web site issues if you have any outdated software or plugins on your site, so I will do some initial testing and you will want to do further testing after the upgrade. The good news is that if any issues are found, individual accounts can be easily switched to 7.4 or 8.1 until the needed fixes can be implemented (for example, updating older plugins). If you have any questions or concerns about the PHP 8.x upgrade, please contact me.
Sunday, June 23, 2024 – Phase 1 (MySQL) Completed Successfully
7:30pm: The upgrade to MySQL 8 is complete, and it appears to have gone smoothly.
A change to the PHP setup was also made on the server (switching from MPM_Prefork with DSO/ruid2 to MPM_Event + PHP-FPM). This change caused a minor issue with one site, but it was quickly corrected by our server admins.
Please notify me if you discover any issues with your web site or have any questions.
1:30pm: I didn’t hear back from anyone with any concerns or questions about the MySQL upgrade, so I’m planning to perform the upgrade this evening to hopefully reduce any downtime during the week. I will send another email once the upgrade is complete.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 – Phase 1 Scheduled
Early next week, we will be upgrading MySQL on our server from version 5.7 to version 8 (there is no MySQL 6 or 7). This is needed to get all the hosting accounts on a currently supported version of MySQL. This upgrade should provide web site performance and security improvements, as well as enable us to proceed with an OS upgrade on the server in July.
Most web sites shouldn’t have any issues with the new MySQL version, but I will test everyone’s site after the upgrade to make sure everything appears to be loading correctly.
If you have done any significant technical customizations to your site or have any other reason you’re concerned, you may want to do further testing yourself after the upgrade. You can also review the list of changes in MySQL 8 at the following link:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/upgrading-from-previous-series.html
If your site does have any issues after the upgrade, I can help you determine what changes need to be made to your site so that it works under MySQL 8. Unfortunately, we are unable to roll back to the previous MySQL version.
I will be updating this page during and after the upgrade with the latest details.
If you have questions or experience any issues with your web site, please contact Kelley.