On the new Servebolt Platform, PHP versions can easily be changed per environment directly from our Admin Panel.
In this article, we’ll cover how you can upgrade the PHP version of your site yourself on Servebolt.
Time needed: 2 days
- Create a backup of your site (recommended, but optional)
Being prepared with a backup of your site is never a bad idea. This is how you can backup your WordPress site. If you don’t have a WordPress site you can backup your site like this.
- Create a new Free trial Bolt
Your site’s PHP version is defined per Bolt. This means that you will need to create a new Free trial Bolt with your desired PHP version to change the PHP version of your site. Contact Servebolt Support if you require more GB to work with or if you should have any questions.
- Copy Control Panel settings
When your new Bolt has been created you need to copy every necessary site-setting over to the site within your new Bolt. That includes cache settings, PHP memory limit, cron jobs, etc.. Keep in mind that cron jobs need to respect the new path of the new site.
- Upgrade to a Paid Bolt Plan
“Why do I need a new paid Bolt for upgrading my PHP version?”
Having a Paid Bolt Plan is required to add domains and SSL to a site. If you are going to upgrade the PHP version of your Bolt, then Servebolt Support is happy to switch the Bolt subscription for you if you should want that instead. You can do this step by your own if you want that too, simply:
Log into the Servebolt Control Panel and navigate to the Bolt you want to upgrade. Click Upgrade to paid plan from the Bolt Dashboard, or use the Go live link, and select the plan that fits your needs. After running through checkout, your Bolt is reconfigured within seconds, and you’re ready for the next steps. - Migrate your site between two Bolts
a. Add your domain(s) and SSLs to the new Bolt.
b. Migrate your site, our sitecopy script is handy for migrating your files and database for you. We also have a guide specifically for copying a WordPress site with our sitecopy script. Keep in mind that sitecopy doesn’t copy files outside of your web root, so if you got important files elsewhere than your web root, then migrate those too! Don’t hesitate to reach out to Servebolt Support if you need any assistance.
c. Enable maintenance-mode for your site and proceed to migrate your site once more. This time the migration will go much faster, as your files have already been synced earlier in step 5. - Point domain to new Bolt
Once you are ready to prepare your new Trial Bolt to be the new production Bolt, the next step is to point the DNS of your site to the new Host IP. Your domain registrar or Cloudflare’s DNS settings need to point to the new Host IP address of your new Bolt. Learn more about how to best prepare yourself for that.
Pointing your domain to a new Bolt is necessary to reverse-proxy the traffic from your old Bolt to your new Bolt. - Deactivate maintenance mode
Now that traffic is hitting the new Bolt with the new PHP version, you will need to deactivate maintenance mode on your new Bolt. To check the real-time uncached traffic of your site you can check the AccessLog of your site. With the use of CLI, you can use this command for example:
tail -f ~/logs/AccessLog - Downgrade old paid Bolt Plan (optional)
When your site(s) have been fully migrated to the new Bolt, you most likely don’t need to have two identical Bolt subscriptions active anymore. Simply cancel the old Bolt subscription to be given credits for the remainder period of the time.
On downgrades, credits will be issued for the period from the time of upgrade until the end of the billing period. These credits are automatically recorded to your account, and will automatically be used for payment in the first coming future transaction. Credits are non-refundable and non-transferable but can be used for payments for any Servebolt service.
That’s all! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Servebolt Support at Servebolt.com.
