Centos, Kolab and php-fpm

If you want to simultaneously use other PHP-versions or simply like to have the additional performance and manageability FastCGI Process Manager (PHP FPM) is the way to go. Basic receipt is:

yum install php-fpm
; Edit /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf Listen-Port to 9054
systemctl enable php-fpm
systemctl start php-fpm
rm /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/10-php.conf
; Edit in /etc/httpd/conf.d/ the websites you want to use PHP 5.4 FPM
        
            SetHandler "proxy:fcgi://127.0.0.1:9054"
        
apachectl graceful

Generally php-directives in conf and .htaccess-files don’t work with FPM. If you get errors on restarting httpd you have to remove those statements and either try to live without them or add .user.ini-files, add it to the global settings or use SetEnv-statements.
Kolab is tied to PHP 5.4 on Centos 7 and also needs some tweaking to work with FPM.

Centos, Owncloud and PHP 5.6/7.1

Centos 7 comes with PHP 5.4, securitywise this is not a problem, fixes get backported by RedHat, but Owncloud X (and likewise Nextcloud) need at least PHP 5.6. And naturally other web apps may also gain from newer PHP versions.

There is a more or less official way to have newer PHP versions on Centos and RHEL, Software Collections. There is PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0. A slightly less official way for a current version is the Remi repository with PHP 7.1.

The Software Collection-way of installation is parallel installation, this means the newer PHP ist installed side by side to the system’s version (look in /opt, /etc/opt and /var/opt paths) and is only used if called explicitly. This is very clean but not very practical. You easily find howtos on globally changing the system’s PHP Version to the new one, especially for the Apache httpd Server, the main consumer of PHP. Remi also a has “replacing” way of installation.

But what if other web apps like Kolab won’t work with anything else than PHP 5.4?