cPanel AWS?

[Rigo]

Hi folks,
Did a health check of my website which advised a few things to be done namely:
1) PHP version ~ upgrade to 7.3 (currently 7.0 - highest listed on PHP options);
2) Enable PHP modules: fileinfo - imagick (any drawback from doing so if I were to just tick these on?);
3) Outdated SQL server ~ should be >5.6 (couldn't find how to check the current version ).
Contacted my hosting support and the guy advised that in order to get these features I'd have to upgrade to cPanel AWS server.
What is cPanel AWS? Amazon Web Services? The support guy only gave me some vague potential benefits for upgrading.
Only use the hosting for the website and email accounts, don't do any selling as I'm a service provider only.
Some help lifting the fog here really appreciated .

 

[Markverhyden]

Running on top of linux? If so pretty much every application has a --version or similar which switch will tell you the version. CLI only though.

If I remember properly cpanel is just a management tool you can install to manage a server, including website, etc. Kind of like webmin. Many hosting providers include that as part of their VPS offering. Where's your website hosted?

 

[Rigo]

Thanks Mark,
tppwholesale part of netregistry on a package they call Personal cPanel Hosting ~ no idea what the back of this would be.
I did understand cpanel being just a management tool, that's why I got a little suspicious about a service upgrade/update to get certain features. Unless I misunderstood what he was on about.

 

[Mick]

3) Outdated SQL server ~ should be >5.6 (couldn't find how to check the current version

If you use phpmyadmin - and you almost certainly will, from the sound of it - then you can get the server version from there. My current host runs 5.6.2.1. and nothing seems to be going wrong so far

 

[Rigo]

Thanks Mick,
Your pointer was good, I managed to find that my site is running on sql version 5.5.61 which is indeed <5.6
Any idea whether this is something I could upgrade myself or should this be done by the hosting support?

 

[Markverhyden]

Upgrades in the *nix world are usually pretty painless. Sounds like it's just a LAMP stack. Anything fancy going on with the website? What's the back story on this? When I've done upgrades like this I just shutdown Apache, run the upgrades, and start up Apache. Of course I'll have a couple of known good backups.

 

[Rigo]

Thanks Mark,
Everything's running smoothly, no apparent issues.
Just trying to ward any potential issues, especially security wise with all scary hijacking stuff going on.

 

[Mick]

Thanks Mick,
Your pointer was good, I managed to find that my site is running on sql version 5.5.61 which is indeed <5.6
Any idea whether this is something I could upgrade myself or should this be done by the hosting support?

From what you've said so far, it appears this site is hosted by a third party - i.e. not by you? If that's so, then you'd need to approach them about an upgrade to your sql version. That's my experience at least, unless someone knows better.

 

[Markverhyden]

From what you've said so far, it appears this site is hosted by a third party - i.e. not by you? If that's so, then you'd need to approach them about an upgrade to your sql version. That's my experience at least, unless someone knows better.

Yeah, that what it sounds like. Hosted website and not a hosted VPS. Ran into this with one of my customers. Because they accepted payments via their website it was to PCI scans. As the designer put it on a bottom of the barrel service it had all kinds of problems. Discovered I couldn't touch it, no FTP, SSH or cpanel.

 

[Rigo]

Thanks folks,
Yeah, third-party hosting service, not my own server if it's what you mean. Though I've signed up directly for the service, not through a web designer or such. Actually signed up as a hosting reseller, got a couple of my customers under my account who felt they wanted me to handle these things for them.
I believe I do have access to all admin areas, just don't know what I can or not do myself and how. Need help with the what and how .

 

[Mick]

@Rigo I use two different hosts for my sites and both allow me to specify the PHP version that is in use - both by slightly differing approach routes. Yours may do the same - I wouldn't know without looking around - but neither of my hosts use CPanel, so I'm not sure where you'd start looking. As Mark says, the cheaper the host, the less likely it is that you're going to find that much in the way of bells-and-whistles options available to you, but it's still worth looking. On some hosts, you can manually specify the PHP version in your .htaccess file (in the form of: AddType x-httpd-phpXX .php [where XX is the version]) - but use this at your own risk! It is easy enough to reverse if it has no or a negative effect.

 

[Rigo]

Thanks Mick,
I could select and apply PHP versions as well, only problem is that the highest offered on the server is 7.0. The health check advised v7.3 at least which I think is the current highest.

 

[Mick]

As you say, 7.3 is the latest. It's unlikely that running 7, or 7.1/7.2 is going to break anything on your site. Healthchecks like this are always going to recommend you run the latest version - just like MS thinks you desperately need O365 when actually, for most people, their copy of Office 2013 is all they need. In most cases, unless you are running some hugely picky code, just keeping as up to date as your host permits is going to be fine.

 

[Rigo]

@Mick
That puts my mind at ease. Nothing fancy on my site, and I don't need the latest bells and whistles.
I'm still using office 2013 as you said and it's all I need as a matter of fact