Do you expect your host to upgrade PHP and SQL versions?

When you have a low-cost ($10 a month or less) shared Linux host, do you expect them to keep the server’s PHP and SQL versions reasonably current?

When I started hosting my website, the PHP that came with my shared hosting was current. But now it’s five years later, and they have never upgraded. The latest version of a PHP application that I use requires PHP 5.3 and my host is still running 5.2. When I asked support if they were going to upgrade the server’s PHP, they said no, whatever version was put on the server when it was first put into production was the version it kept throughout the life of the server.

Is that normal or do most shared hosts upgrade their PHP, SQL, etc.?

Considering the latest is PHP5.6x and with PHP6 on the horizon I’d say it’s not unreasonable for anyone to expect their host keeps up to date. In my experience many hosts run a “recent” version as standard and not necessarily the very latest - my own host’s standard is currently PHP5.4 and they are planning an upgrade in the not too distant future, whether that 5.5 or 5.6 is really their call as to which is the most stable and secure for them.

PHP5.2 is well past it’s sell by date, with PHP5.3 at “end of of life” last year.

All the shared hosting I have ever used make multiple versions available.and insist on you upgrading if you fall too far behind.

If I were looking for a host I’d insist on 5.4 at the minimum. Any host that only offered 5.2 or 5.3 I’d steer well clear of

Yeah, I hear what you say. I certainly don’t expect the very latest x.x.x version, but like you say, 5.2’s end of life was back in 2011.

Thanks SpacePhoenix, though the question is whether it’s reasonable to expect you host to keep updating the server-based software.

See, when I signed up to my current host, the PHP was reasonably current, just like 5.4 is reasonably current now. But then they never upgraded from there. As they got more users, they opened more servers, and each server was current on the date it went into production. However, by policy, they don’t upgrade servers once in production, and I’m trying to find out if that’s typical or not among shared hosting providers.

RSF,

My experience with all hosts (including my current host, WebHostingBuzz) is mirrored by the comments here: The better the account (YOU control the upgrade of daemons on VPS/Dedi), the faster things are upgraded. That’s simply because shared server update affect more clients.

Note that upgrades of Apache and PHP had disabled (minor but critical) functionality and hosts will advise of End Of Life of various daemons as well as point to the location to identify the code updates which will be necessary. As soon as the code updates are made, you can add code to the .htaccess file which will cause the server to utilize the newer version.

Despite all that, I’ve NEVER heard of a host updating suddenly to the BLEEDING edge of daemon technology without notice.

Regards,

DK

Oh, I would never expect the software to be at the bleeding edge because that could cause more problems. I just wondered if most hosting companies that offer shared hosting (the cheap kind) keep their PHP/MySQL reasonably current.

In any case, after telling me they were not going to do it, I suddenly find that my host upgraded PHP to version 5.4.x, which is what my application needs.

Maybe they realised their upgrade policy wasn’t a very good one. Or maybe they moved you to a 5.4 server :wink:

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