Jeff called me up asking for help with his dedicated server on Godaddy. He needed to update his PHP 5.1.6 to the latest stable version. His server is running Centos 5.2 (Final). He tried to call Godaddy for assistance and of course they were no help. I’m no expert myself but have played around with different systems. I found out that you can use the yum command to manage the installed packages. The problem is that the current repositories yum looks at does not contain new versions of PHP. This is why you get an error that says something like – cannot find PHP. What you need to do is add a repository that does have a newer version of PHP. We’re going to add Jason Litka‘s repository.

  • Log in to the Simple Control Panel
  • Log in using SSH
  • Type “su – ” to log in with root privileges
  • Type “nano -w /etc/yum.repos.d/utterramblings.repo”. If you’re not comfortable with nano, use whatever editor you’re more comfortable with.
  • In the utterramblings.repo file type the following [utterramblings] name=Jason’s Utter Ramblings Repo baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/ enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka
  • Save the file and close it
  • Now you can use “yum update php” and it should update it to the latest that the repositories have
  • Restart Apache

This tutorial is based on the one found at http://www.jasonlitka.com/yum-repository/. It took awhile for me to find the solution. I hope this helps out people who had the same problem as I did.

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Comments

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detoxtech — 2009-10-06

i have several websites hosted at Godaddy and i am pretty much satisfied with this domain name registrar. it is also very easy to get coupon codes for Godaddy.

webcodez — 2010-01-30

Ah I needed this, thanks a lot for posting.

Kris — 2010-02-12

Thanks for this. It worked for me perfectly even after a few months since your post date.

Pat — 2010-02-26

Perfect! Thanks for this… works perfectly.

Josh — 2010-04-03

Is this compatiable with Linux? Or is this windows? I am having an issue with mcrypt not being loaded.

sherwin — 2010-04-03

This was done in a Linux box. Check your php.ini and see if mcrypt is commented out. It should have a semicolon in front of the line. Just remove it. Apache may have to be restarted. I’m not using Godaddy anymore so I can’t remember if you’re able to restart Apache on your own or they refresh the php.ini every so often.

Daniel Davis — 2010-05-19

Can anyone suggest a reliable Dedicated Server hosting that is not very expensive?;~-

sherwin — 2010-05-19

depends on what you consider “expensive” and “reliable”. also how would the dedicated server be set up. the higher the hardware specs, the more it will cost. i did a quick google search and found that $69 is the starting price for a dedicated server from godaddy (http://www.godaddy.com/hosting… or iweb (http://iweb.com/dedicated/budg… have you considered virtual private servers? they are cheaper http://www.godaddy.com/hosting…as far as reliability, just search for reviews of hosting companies. i personally don’t like godaddy for their shared hosting packages (not VPS). their tier 1 support isn’t much help either. trying to get someone at a higher tier support is another challenge. a friend of mine has a dedicated server from godaddy. from what i’ve seen and heard it’s a nice package. interface is easy to use and you have full control over your server. i believe he went with the deluxe plan.another choice is to build yourself a server with the specs you want. then find a nearby data center that will allow you to rent space and bandwidth. see if that is more economical. if not, at least you will be able to use your own server with your own specs.hope that helps.

vilo — 2010-07-10

thanks a million! it’s still working perfectly. godaddy screwed me at signup not telling me centos comes with 5.1.6 by default where their redhat comes 5.2. After I ordered the new server, moved and set 30 domain on it, I found out to my horror that because I decided to go with centos, I don’t have PHP 5.2 preinstalled. I called them, pleaded with them, accused them of being bloody cheaters (which they are), reasoned, begged - nothing. they told me I am on my own to upgrade it or I can pay them $200 for doing it for me. yum made my day man. thanks!!!

isaac — 2010-11-21

awesome still works! thanks!

Amber Verducci — 2011-06-17

Great post! I used to be with VPS.net but their VPS servers kept having storage drive failures which corrupted its hard drive. So I kept getting calls from clients saying their website didn’t exist - the VPS had died! Anyway, I tried Dediserve. I think they got given a massive grant by the government in Ireland to invest in cloud hosting as their directors had prior experience in setting up an ISP. So far it’s awesome, their connection speed is crazy - I downloaded 18MB of unix updates in less than 1 second! They offer the first month free with no commitment so if I were you I’d give them a go - http://www.dediserve.co.uk/

Sharp — 2012-06-27

Nice overview. I only have one site left on GoDaddy (I’ve migrated the rest to AWS and SingleHop) and no longer have the procedure for Centos committed to memory.This was very clearly laid out, and best of all, the instructions worked like a charm. The whole process took about two minutes to get JSON back up and running on a new server (hey GoDaddy, time to upgrade your PHP version…)

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