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I'm actually using PHP 5.3 on all my projects. But for all the reasons you know, I want to update to PHP 5.4 (or 5.5).

We're also going to migrate on AWS EC2 soon, on a "normal" Linux, Debian Wheezy for example.

But the problem is that we've got some old projects we can't migrate to PHP 5.3 for some reasons, and we can't remove them either for some other reasons.

So I was wondering what would be the best way to isolate those projects on our AWS EC2 instance, to use multiple versions of PHP/Apache.

I was thinking about using Docker, so we can easily install an other PHP/Apache than on the main system. Plus knowing that it's kind of a VM sounds good, so it won't have any impact on the main "server".

Is it the best solution ?

EDIT : Also, we can't afford another EC2 instance for some cost reasons

Bonswouar
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2 Answers2

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You did not mentioned OS but assuming that it is linux based best solution would be to create multiple applicative users and install different versions of php by compiling in the respective app user's home directory.

For example create users user1 (home directory:/home/user1/) and user2 (home directory:/home/user2/). Now switch to user1 and install php5.3 and apache by compilations under the path /home/user1/app/php and /home/user1/app/apache respectively. Do same for user2 but this time with another version of php. Remember apache must run on different ports to avoid port conflicts. You can install third apache to as a reverse proxy with multiple vhosts which will accept traffic on port 80 and will send them to different backend apaches based on request.

Traffic will be like this 

client http request <--> apache rp <--->  app1 based on apache1 or app2 based on apache2

Regards

Rajarshi Haldar

Rajarshi Haldar
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  • I thought about this solution, but wouldn't it be easier and safer to install that old PHP/Apache in Docker ? As said @Regan, "I honestly don't know". Anyway thanks for the answer ! – Bonswouar Aug 13 '14 at 11:56
  • I didn't work with Docker but in all of our work environment we used different applicative users to segregate different versions of apps. also use of rp provides extra features like load balancing/caching etc. – Rajarshi Haldar Aug 13 '14 at 12:16
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Why not using php-fpm and install two of them ? Then you can decide which one to use with which vhost. So each vhost can have it's own php version. And in that case, you have only 1 apache server running.

It should be pretty easy to find tutorial on google about that.

Eric D.
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