Upgrade php from 5.4 to 5.6 on Centos 6 without causing an outage

Question

I'm currently running CentsOS 6.6 and php 5.4 (from REMI repo) on my vps. I want to upgrade my php framework to the newest version, but it requires php 5.6.

Since I have a few dozen users using my webapp, is there a way for me to upgrade php from 5.4 to 5.6 without causing an outage?

I'm new to Linux and I've never done a php upgrade.

Answer 1

The best way is to keep 2 copies of the website, one with php5.4 and one with php5.6 .

And let the users work until you are ready with the new version, then switch the symbolic link / directory mapping / dns to the new site.

To give a more specific answer, I'll need to know your server ( apache / nginx ) and your setting (shared hosting/dedicated).

Edit:

Running multiple php versions on the same server This link describes the configuration needed on CentOS, running Apache.

Answer 2

Software Collections are designed to allow parallel installation.

See documentation on: https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/

SCL of PHP 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 7.0 are available in above site, in remi repository, and soon in centos-scl repository.

Notice, as a single mod_php version can be used, you, as explained in the referenced link, have to used php-fpm.