PHP5/SQL5 Upgrades

[GatorDaveC]

Please see this thread for current migration news: http://forums.hostgator.com/reseller...6.html?t=35106

Short version: All shared (gatorXX.hostgator.com and reseller) servers will be changed to PHP5 and MySQL5 by default, starting on March 8th. PHP4 will not be available on the servers in the near future.

Longer Version:

Dear HostGator clients,


As technology continues to advance and evolve, HostGator has always aimed to stay at the forefront of the technological curve. Following this trend to provide the most up-to-date hardware and software, we are proceeding with making PHP5 part of the standard working environment on all of our servers, as well as upgrading MySQL from version 4.1 to 5.0.

These upgrades will be on all new servers launched from this point forward. As of March 8th , 2008, we will begin converting current production servers to this new environment as well. We are aware that differences in PHP4 and PHP5 can lead to minor problems and instabilities in certain scripts, and are taking every measure possible to ensure your websites continue to function. This includes testing scripts that may conflict with the upgrade and automatically upgrading your code to a problem-free, stable and PHP5 compatible version. The MySQL upgrade may have minor issues as well, which will be handled in a similar manner.

This upgrade process is going to be as automated as possible, but we understand that some customers may wish to handle upgrades themselves. All servers and accounts will be upgraded to PHP5 and MySQL 5, but if you wish to handle the upgrading of any incompatible scripts yourself, please visit the opt-out page to confirm. By authenticating your login credentials on this page, you confirm that you wish leave any incompatible common scripts as they are. Opting out ONLY enables or disables our automated attempt to update your script(s) on your accounts if the system believes they're incompatible, and we have a known fix for the problem. Opting out does NOT change the fact that we are setting the default PHP environment to 5 on all servers, as PHP4 has reached it's EOL.

With that said, only a very small percentage of customers will be affected by this, as nearly all PHP scripts have been upgraded to comply with the PHP5 standards over the past few years. MySQL 5 has also been proven stable and the upgrade will be as streamlined as possible. Of those customers still concerned or looking for more information, please read this forum post regarding the upgrade process. Any news or progress updates will be posted there.

If you are a reseller and wish to opt out of the automatic upgrade procedure, please note that all of your underlying customers will be affected by your opt-out decision.

This upgrade will help HostGator provide the most up-to-date, reliable and secure software to better meet the ever changing needs of it's customers. PHP5 and MySQL 5 provide many new features and offer much more design flexibility for scripts written with the changes in mind. In the future, we intend on upgrading to the latest available Apache versions as well. We'll be following a strict upgrade procedure to minimize any problems that could potentially occur.

Any future upgrades will follow a similar process with minimal conflicts and downtime. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation, and thanks for choosing HostGator!

[GatorPatrick]

Gator Clients,

These upgrades are only going to be on Shared and Reseller servers. For Dedicated users, wanting to be upgraded to PHP5/MySQL5 please email support@hostgator.com requesting this to be completed.

We will be using this forum thread as a means to communicate with all of you during our upcoming migrations. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to post here as we will be monitoring this thread over the next few months as we proceed to migrate our server farm to php/mysql 5.

We look forward to working with you to ensure that this migration moves ahead as smoothly as possible.

[Toxinhead]

Cool, nice work guys!

[Jordanlw]

Thank You,
Although im already on a MySQL 5 server,
And it "seems" a PHP5 server to.

But good work HG!

[slapshotw]

So you're completely comfortable doing this upgrade for dedicated server users at this time? What about Apache 2.x?

I've been holding off so far...

[billyen]

@Gator staff:

I host a number of sites under a Swamp hosting package.

1) Will sites with "AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php" in .htaccess continue to function after the upgrade?

2) I plan to opt-out of the automated script upgrades. How will I know when my server has been upgraded so I can check all sites are functioning correctly? Will I be sent an email (this would be appreciated)?


Bill

(a happy HG customer )

[neerav]

Just a clarification question. On shared servers (e.g. gator107), php4 is "standard" and php5 IS available as an "option" by entering an .htaccess line. The php5 upgrades means php5 will be "standard" and php4 no longer available? Or will php4 be a backwards-compatible option if necessary?

[GatorDaveC]

Originally Posted by billyen

@Gator staff:

I host a number of sites under a Swamp hosting package.

1) Will sites with "AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php" in .htaccess continue to function after the upgrade?

2) I plan to opt-out of the automated script upgrades. How will I know when my server has been upgraded so I can check all sites are functioning correctly? Will I be sent an email (this would be appreciated)?


Bill

(a happy HG customer )

Hi Bill,
The PHP5 Handler will still exist. Each server that is being upgraded will be posted here... I guess I could make a quick script to just parse the CPanel contact e-mails and say that the server has been upgraded etc..We'll see.

At the moment we are still working on testing scripts that might have problems with the upgrade.

[Honggie]

they will be any problem with vBulletin script?
i host some website with vbulletin forum
need to do database backup?

[tyankee]

Please make sure you check out 2 of my websites - hondtraderonline.com and celicatraderonline.com. also, please check out hondatraderonline.com/admin.php and celicatraderonline.com/admin.php. These were having issues with a PHP5 server and that is why i moved them to your server. They are using the Autoboss script which the owner says there are no updates for and I would have to buy their newer version for $300 each - which I do not need to do.

Thanks,

Tony

[cobysan]

Please verify that PHP 5 is compiled with:

'--enable-soap'--enable-simplexml' '--with-xsl'

Thank you !!!!

Coby

[minimalnet]

I am scared with this decision , I am using wordpress and I am afraid thinking my blog can have problems after that.

Will be this new php and mysql version compatible with the last wordpress versions?

And other question, how i know here the dates of my domain? http://www.hostgator.com/php5opt-out/. I am not reseller, I am in a baby plain.

[Jordanlw]

Do a trace route on your domain to get your server.
(tracert serverdomain, Do it in CMD)

Yes WordPress will work.

[minimalnet]

Originally Posted by Jordanlw

Yes WordPress will work.

Ok, I will risk, but I am scared to lose my blog, it is my life.

[Jordanlw]

May i have the URL?
You can PM me it if you wish..

[minimalnet]

Sure, my blog is hostgator is minimalnet.org

[slapshotw]

Originally Posted by minimalnet

Ok, I will risk, but I am scared to lose my blog, it is my life.

Make sure you do backups then...regardless of PHP5 or not.

[minimalnet]

Originally Posted by slapshotw

Make sure you do backups then...regardless of PHP5 or not.

I do database backups and directory too every monday but if some day I need use, I will not know how use it

[Jordanlw]

Are you running your backups via cron?

[GatorPatrick]

Coby, php5 will be compiled with Soap, Simplexml and XSL support on all servers.

[James P]

And sorry if this is posted somewhere and I just missed it, is there a list, in chronological order, of all servers to be upgraded? That would be fantastic.

[minimalnet]

Originally Posted by Jordanlw

Are you running your backups via cron?

backups via cron?, what is that?, i do backups with the cpanel option.

[Jordanlw]

Well i use a PHP script which when ran it makes a backup and puts it in /full_backups I use Cron to automate it all.

[minimalnet]

Finally I used this option http://www.hostgator.com/php5opt-out/

I prefer continue with the current versions of php and mysql to avoid problems.

Jordanlw thanks for explain me the info about the tracert to can use this option, you are very nice.

Sorry my bad english, I am from Spain

[Jordanlw]

Well Thank You.
They even have the 2 Gator Shared servers in the list that are already PHP5,
And one is PHP&MySQL 5.