phpVMS 5.5.2 - changing hosting provider

[dbrambilla]

On 1/1/2025 at 9:24 AM, ProAvia said:

This VA is on a shared host which runs MariaDB 10.6 since a server migration. Many fuctions of phpVMS 5 won't work correctly with any MySQL above 5.7.4 or MariaDB above 10.2

 

The VA in question has updated to phpVMS v7.

 

Other VA's on shared hosting will also be encountering these issues as hosts update their PHP and MySQL/MariaDB versions.

 

It is recommended that all VA's on shared hosting update their sites to phpVMS v7 sooner rather than later.

 

Our site is on PHPVMS 5.5.2 and I am also thinking of moving to a new host provider. The current provider (php-mods.eu) seems to have completely disappeared and I can no longer get answers to any of my questions now for months for stuff that is broken (sounds like the same issue here the OP mentioned)...very frustrating.

 

A few questions:

 

1) Does anyone have a decent recommended PHPVMS host provider that they are using in North America? Our site performance has been absolute crap so I am hoping moving to a more regional server host will drastically improve performance. Also someone with familiarity / migration skills of a new provider would be extremely helpful.

 

2) As I believe the new PHPVMS7 runs in a new directory I should be able to migrate the 5.5.2 version to a new host provider and get that up and running again first, then in tandem build a new PHPVMS7 site on the same server is my assumption. Has anyone else done this / have some words of wisdom here?

 

3) Is there a good migration guide? I may have missed it here in the forums somewhere but trying to maintain our current pilots data is critical.

 

4) We are still using kAcars_Free V1.0.1.5 for our flight tracking / pirep submission. Will this integrate with PHPVMS7 or is there a newer / preferred Acars client that works better with version 7?

 

5) Our website is old / outdated an needs a refresh / design change. has anyone setup on a Wordpress site and integrated PHPVMS 7 with it?

 

Appreciate any advice / guidance on the above.

 

Cheers,

Darryl

[ProAvia]

1. If you are on phpVMS 5.5.2 you will need a host who supports PHP version 5 still (getting more difficult to find). If you are on phpVMS you will need a host who supports PHP version 7. Most shared hosts no longer support MySQL 5.6/Maria 10.2 - and this is mainly why many phpVMS 5.5.2/5.5.2.72 sites have stuff that no longer works.
2. phpVMS v7 - most install to a subdomain, so your 5.5.2 site will continue to run in tandem. It might be best to convert to phpVMS v7 first and then move the phpVMS v7 site to new hosting that will support it.
3. There isn't a migration guide to move from phpVMS v5 to phpVMS v7 as you can do a simple legacy import of most of your 5.5.2 data to version 7. Read thru this" https://docs.phpvms.net/
4. kACARS_Free will NOT work in phpVMS v7 - look into vmsACARS (same developer as phpVMS). It's payware - about $50 one time payment. Well worth it.
5. No need to have Wordpress. Just set up a Landing Page with a few links and have phpVMS v7 in a subdomain. Easy.

Some here use vmsHost for hosting. Others use other shared hosts and others have a VPS set up. It's all according to your budget.

How much is your present hosting per month?

[ProAvia]

I split this into it's own topic instead of hijacking another thread as the topics are unrelated.