Tag: PHP

A new vulnerability in PHP-FPM has been noted which could lead to remote code execution on nginx. An earlier message on Twitter exposed the CVE-2019-11043 bug:

In this article, we will be discussing how to install Multiple PHP Versions on Ubuntu 16.04. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS servers assign the PHP 7.0 version by default. Although PHP 5.6 is currently EOL (end of life) as of December of 2018, some applications may not be compatible with PHP 7.0. For this tutorial, we instruct on how to switch between PHP 7.0 and PHP 5.6 for Apache and the overall default PHP version for Ubuntu.

Whether you’re new to hosting websites or a seasoned developer, you’ve more than likely heard of a LAMP stack. The LAMP stack is the base set of applications that most websites running on a Linux server are served from and is commonly referred to as “Lamp”. Rather than a single program that interacts with the website being served, LAMP is actually a number of independent programs that operate in tandem: Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, and PHP. Throughout this article, we’ll walk through installing the LAMP stack on your CentOS 7 server so you can run a website from any Dedicated Server or Virtual Private Server. Although we’re focusing on installing LAMP on a CentOS 7 server, the steps that we’ll cover are very similar across multiple Linux distributions.

In our last tutorial, we showed you how to install Apache’s mod_fcgid and provided Linux scripts to assist in transitioning from mod_php. In this next section, we’ll be discussing how to configure a baseline setting for PHP optimization.

When it comes to PHP execution, mod_fcgid (also called FCGI) is one of the heavyweight contenders. There are a few rival handlers, like PHP-FPM or mod_lsapi, which come close to matching its execution speed, but they generally leave something to be desired when it comes to fine-tuning and resource consumption. FCGI is built for speed and includes a myriad of Apache directives that can be leveraged for resource regulation.

Similar to Dropbox and Google Drive, Nextcloud is self-hosting software that allows you to share files, contacts, and calendars. But, unlike Dropbox and Google Drive, your files will be private and stored on your server instead of a third-party server. Nextcloud is a GDPR and HIPAA compliant hosting solution, so your files will be encrypted along with the ability to audit. For this tutorial, we’ll be installing our Nextcloud instance on our Ubuntu VPS server.

What is Webmin?

Webmin is a browser-based graphical interface to help you administrate your Linux server.  Much like cPanel or Plesk, Webmin allows you to set up and manage accounts, Apache, DNS zones, users and configurations.  As these configurations can get somewhat complicated Webmin works to simplify this process. The result is fewer issues during server and domain setup.  Which results in a stable server and a pleasant administration experience. Unlike Plesk or cPanel, Webmin is completely free and open to the public. Unfortunately, here at Liquid Web, we do not offer managed support for Webmin, but we are always willing to assist as much as possible when issues arise.   You can download Webmin from their site. Also, you can find some excellent documentation on this interface.

The Action Scheduler is a background processing, queue job runner which is built into WooCommerce core. A number of plugins use the Action Scheduler, WooCommerce Subscriptions and WooCommerce Follow-Ups being two of the best known.

EasyApache 4 installs, configures, updates, and validates your Apache, PHP and other services on your server. EasyApache 4 also supports multiple versions of PHP.  This allows you to assign different versions of PHP to each of your domains. There are great tools that have been implemented with EasyApache 4 that makes managing PHP versions simple. Two of these are the MultiPHP Manager and MultiPHP INI Editor. These can be found within the Web Host Manager, or “WHM” for short.  With the addition of these tools in cPanel/WHM, users can now complete most of these tasks from the Graphical User Interface. However, it is worth mentioning, attempting these tasks from the command line is recommended as we have seen better performance when compiling Apache builds.  

Using PHP 7.2 on an Ubuntu dedicated server is highly recommended over previous PHP versions for several reasons, first being security. Active Support for PHP 7.2 goes until November 30th, 2019 and Security Support until Nov. 30, 2020. Older versions like 7.0 and anything 5.6 and below are no longer getting any support and can leave open security holes on a server if they are not replaced. Another main reason to upgrade is the big performance increase over previous versions when PHP 7.2 is installed and is using the OPcache module.  This can greatly decrease the time it takes for your web page to load! If you are developing a site locally or launching it on one of Liquid Web’s Ubuntu VPS or Dedicated Servers, using PHP 7.2 or newer would be the way to go.