Installing php 5.6 for dual php version under virtualmin

I thought I was in the clear building a new server for a client but now he tells me he had four website on the latest version of php. I am not sure how he did it and neither is he. I tried to get it to show up in the virtualmin control panel on the old server first so that we could be comfortable installing in on the fresh clean machine. No joy. An abbreviated transcript of my attempt is below but my attempt was more long winded. I am just fumbling around in the dark at the moment. The URL article I attempted to do at first is

https://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/web/multiplephp

Anyway, does anyone know how to add php 5.6 to a new CentOS virtualmin machine?

yum install scl-utils Installed: scl-utils.x86_64 0:20120927-27.el6_6 scl enable software_collection_1 'perl --version' Unable to open /etc/scl/prefixes/software_collection_1! rpm -Uvh https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/rh-php56/epel-7-x86_64... curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found error: skipping https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/scls/rhscl/rh-php56/epel-7-x86_64... - transfer failed yum install rh-php56 rh-php56-php-mysqlnd No package rh-php56 available. No package rh-php56-php-mysqlnd available. rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm Retrieving https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm warning: /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.Df9JHu: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 352c64e5: NOKEY Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:epel-release ########################################### [100%] yum install php56w php56w-opcache epel | 4.3 kB 00:00
epel/primary_db | 4.5 MB 00:01
Error: xz compression not available yum remove epel-release Removed: epel-release.noarch 0:7-9 rm -rf /var/cache/yum/x86_64/7/epel Installed: epel-release.noarch 0:6-8
yum install php56w php56w-opcache
Error: xz compression not available wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm Saving to: “epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm” yum install php56w php56w-opcache Error: xz compression not available

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Unfortunately, same results on the first step. ???

[root@sting ~]# yum install centos-release-scl Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Setting up Install Process Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * base: centos.eecs.wsu.edu * epel: ftp.osuosl.org * extras: repo1.sea.innoscale.net * updates: mirror.tocici.com Error: xz compression not available

Hmm, that's a pretty unusual error you're seeing there!

What is the output of this command:

rpm -qa |grep epel

[root@sting ~]# rpm -qa |grep epel
epel-release-7-9.noarch

Okay, doing some research, it looks like you may want to remove that.

Try running this command:

yum remove epel-release

And then try the instructions shared in Comment #1 above. Does it work for you at that point?

The solution for the moment on the new server was the client down grading the PHP version on the 4 sites that had 5.6. He believes that many scripts now are requiring the newer version. Can you leave me with your thoughts on the versions found in the stock CentOS 7 install? I assume that CentOS is conservative in what they include. Is 5.6 coming soon and how many server administrator go ahead and install a newer version? The panel provides for it so it can't be too rare. Just wondering if you would recommend that I attempt the install on the new replacement server for this client. Gun shy a bit because I can't get it to work on the server I am moving it from.

The stock PHP release is old.

sh-4.2$ cat /etc/centos-release CentOS Linux release 7.3.1611 (Core) -sh-4.2$ php --version PHP 5.4.16 (cli) (built: Nov 6 2016 00:29:02) Copyright (c) 1997-2013 The PHP Group Zend Engine v2.4.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v7.0.5, Copyright (c) 1999-2015, by Zend Technologies

Yeah CentOS provides PHP 5.4, and that's likely the only version they'll provide.

The SCL repository is normally what's needed if you wish to have additional PHP versions installed side-by-side with the stock CentOS PHP.

I've never run into the problem you're seeing there before with the SCL repo.

My Googling suggests that you could be seeing some sort of compatibility issue, though I'm not quite sure at the moment.

I don't imagine you have another CentOS 7 system, even a test server, that you could try it on for testing purposes?