Upgrade to Apache 2 and PHP 5 in cPanel with 7 Simple Steps

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Guides |

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Apache 2 was released quite some time ago and is very stable, so why aren’t you using it? If you are anything like me, it was because you were worried about compatibility issue with cPanel and Apache 1 has served you quite well. The straw that broke the camels back for me was wanting to install a subversion repository on my server which requires Apache 2. With the current release of cPanel the easyapache installer has been upgraded to install Apache 2, and it truly is “easy”. It is assumed that you have root access to a server that is running cPanel. Here are seven simple steps which will guide you through the upgrade.

  1. Log in to Web Host Manager as root, select “Update Config” under the Server Configuration section and make sure your cPanel/WHM updates are Automatic from the CURRENT tree. You may need to execute /scripts/upcp from a shell to update cPanel/WHM if you were not on the CURRENT tree.
  2. Select “Apache Update” under the Software section. If you have a previously saved configuration select that, otherwise I would suggest the Basic configuration. Click “Continue Configuration”.
  3. Select the latest version of Apache (currently Apache 2.2), click “Next Step”.
  4. Select PHP 5, click”Next Step”.
  5. Select the latest version of PHP (currently PHP 5.2.4), click “Next Step”.
  6. Select “Advanced Configuration” and check any additional modules you may require. I would suggest entering a “Save As”, “Display Name”, and “Description” so that all your custom settings will be there the next time you upgrade.
  7. Select “Save and Build” and wait a LONG time for it to build. At times you may think it has frozen up, but have patience, go outside and take a walk, or call your mother and tell her how much you love her.

That is all there is to it. If something should go horribly wrong, easyapache will rollback to your previous setup. If you are having problems with your installation, you can submit a ticket to cPanel and their team will help you figure out the problem. You can also check the forums to see if someone else has ran into the same issue, or see if anyone is willing to offer advice. To verify your installation, simply create a php file in any web accessible directory on the server and add the following code:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
View this file in your browser and verify that it was a success.

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