centos 7

CentOS7, ISPConfig3, and multiple PHP versions

Currently PHP developers face a great problem with PHP version - most OS repos already have outdated versions (CentOS has 5.4 which has passed its end of life!), but just swapping out versions is just not an option - especially with the version requirements of different frameworks / libraries. Furthermore, usually to have more than one version meant recompiling, and keeping up with updates - and no one wants that. Here's how to setup a server (virtual of physical), with ISPConfig3 hosting panel, multiple PHP versions, latest Apache and Mariadb in less than a half hour, with zero compiling. You can then manage your virtual hosts and their PHP version from a nice UI.

CentOS 7 server installation

CentOS 7 is out, and it brings some much needed features for web developers! For starters, MySQL is replaced by MariaDB (much better performance for InnoDB, and a better client), and PHP is 5.4 out of the box. In addition, multitudes of tweaks have been made to the system, making it more responsive.

The following is a guide (with screenshots) for installing a basic LAMP stack with the new OS, on an empty machine (in this case, a virtual machine), using the NetInstall image (Minimal is not yet available, but being worked on).