Update May 18 10:46 PM Pacific time: The maintenance described below has been completed and all services are running normally.
Over the last year, we’ve been slowly upgrading our servers from Debian Linux version 8 (codename “jessie”) to version 9 (codename “stretch”). We’ll be finishing that process over the next few weeks, with brief scheduled maintenance on each server.
The upgrade requires that each hosting server be taken offline for a few minutes over a three hour maintenance window and then restarted, causing brief scheduled “downtime” for websites and email on that server. The total downtime for any site should not exceed ten minutes during this three hour period.
Mail arriving while a server is being restarted will be queued and delivered after a short delay. No mail will be lost.
This coming weekend, we’ll be updating some (not all) web servers:
- Friday, May 17, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digits “2” and “3” (completed)
- Saturday, May 18, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digit “1” (completed)
So, for example, the “web03” server will be updated on May 17, and the “web11” server will be updated on May 18. This page explains how to find which server a site is on.
(Servers ending in digits “0”, “9”, “8” and “7” were updated last weekend, and servers ending in digits “4”, “5” and “6” will be updated the following weekend; we’ll post a separate announcement about that.)
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Update May 11 10:20 PM Pacific time: The maintenance described below has been completed and all services are running normally.
Over the last year, we’ve been slowly upgrading our servers from Debian Linux version 8 (codename “jessie”) to version 9 (codename “stretch”). We’ll be finishing that process over the next few weeks, with brief scheduled maintenance on each server.
The upgrade requires that each hosting server be taken offline for a few minutes over a three hour maintenance window and then restarted, causing brief scheduled “downtime” for websites and email on that server. The total downtime for any site should not exceed ten minutes during this three hour period.
Mail arriving while a server is being restarted will be queued and delivered after a short delay. No mail will be lost.
This coming weekend, we’ll be updating some (not all) web servers:
- Friday, May 10, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digits “0” and “9” (completed)
- Saturday, May 11, 9:00-11:59 PM Pacific: servers ending in digits “8” and “7” (completed)
So, for example, the “web10” server will be updated on May 10, and the “web07” server will be updated on May 11. This page explains how to find which server a site is on.
(Additional servers will be updated the following weekends; we’ll post separate announcements about that.)
Read the rest of this entry »
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.1.29, 7.2.18 and 7.3.5 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.1.28, 7.2.17 and 7.3.4 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.1.27, 7.2.16 and 7.3.3 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.2.15 and 7.3.2 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.2 and 7.3 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 5.6.40, 7.1.26, 7.2.14 and 7.3.1 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6, 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 series on our servers as a result.
In addition, ionCube Loader is now available for the PHP 7.3 series, so we’ve made that an option you can enable in our “My Account” control panel.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released a brand new version, PHP 7.3, so PHP 7.3.0 is now available in our control panel (in addition to the PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2 series).
We don’t yet recommend PHP 7.3 for most customers. It’s fairly new and some third-party scripts aren’t yet compatible with it. If you want to try it anyway:
- First, update your site’s PHP scripts (including WordPress, Joomla, any plugins or themes you use, and so on)
- Login to our My Account control panel
- Click PHP Settings
- Click PHP 7.3 series
- Click Save Settings
After updating, test your site carefully to make sure there aren’t any problems.
By the way, if all this seems confusing, we have a page explaining more about PHP versions and updates.
PHP 7.2 is now the default for new accounts
The somewhat older PHP 7.2 series has been out long enough that all modern script software should be compatible with it, and the authors of popular scripts like WordPress recommend using it. Because of that, we’re making PHP 7.2 the default for new customers.
We haven’t changed the version for any existing accounts, but we recommend that all customers use PHP 7.2 if possible (the instructions above explain how to choose the version your site uses). PHP 7.2 is slightly faster than PHP 7.1 and almost twice as fast as PHP 5. If you care about your site’s speed (and you should), always use the newest version of PHP that’s compatible with your scripts.
The PHP developers recently released versions 5.6.39, 7.0.33, 7.1.25, and 7.2.13 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
The PHP developers recently released versions 7.1.24 and 7.2.12 that fix several bugs. We’ve upgraded the PHP 7.1 and 7.2 series on our servers as a result.
These changes should not be noticeable, but as always, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any trouble.
