CentOS 7 end of support: what next?

Security support for CentOS 7 ends on 30 June 2024. At HaiSoft, although many CentOS 7 servers have already been replaced by servers running AlmaLinux 8 or Debian 12, some are still in service. Here is why you should upgrade, and how.

Where things stand

We started installing CentOS 7 on our servers in 2014, the year it was released and also the year I joined HaiSoft 🥳
So after almost 10 years of CentOS 7 installations, support for this version is coming to an end: it will no longer receive any updates at all, not even security updates. That is why it is important to move to another system, so you can once again enjoy an excellent level of security, along with any new features. We will guide you through the change.

The options

Upgrading the server

With earlier versions of CentOS (CentOS 5 or CentOS 6), it was impossible to upgrade to a newer major version. Those days are over, thanks to ELevate, a script that makes major version upgrades possible. You can therefore upgrade CentOS 7 to… AlmaLinux 8! Were you expecting CentOS 8? Read our article to find out why CentOS 8 is not on the table 😄
An upgrade with ELevate is not a routine update that can be run automatically: it is a manual upgrade that requires certain prerequisites to be checked, with 30 to 60 minutes of downtime (more than an hour in rare cases). We take every precaution beforehand (server backup, prerequisite checks) to make sure the upgrade goes smoothly, or that we can roll back to the previous state in the unlikely event that it fails.
Another important point: Plesk supports upgrades via ELevate, which was essential for us to be able to offer this type of upgrade.

The prerequisites include:

• Running at least CentOS 7.9 (we will update to the latest CentOS 7 release before any upgrade via ELevate);
• Having enough free disk space and RAM;
• Not using any PHP version older than PHP 5.6;
• Not using any PostgreSQL version older than version 10.

Moving to a new system

Another option (which we recommend if you have an older server or would like more resources) is to set up a new server on which we install an up-to-date, supported OS (Debian 12) from the outset. This can be the perfect opportunity to move to the new HaiSoft managed server plans, with full SSD storage and more RAM! In some cases, the speed gains are impressive.

The choice is yours…

…but we are always here to advise you!

Here is what is new in the two recent systems currently supported at HaiSoft (compared with CentOS 7):

Debian 12

• Support for Plesk Obsidian 18.0.57 and later
• Upgrade to Apache 2.4
• Support for PHP up to PHP 8.3 to date
• Obsolete PHP versions dropped (PHP versions older than PHP 5.6 are not available)
• Support for dedicated PHP-FPM processes
• Support for TLS 1.3
• Support for SNI certificates on the mail server (each domain can have its own certificate, which simplifies client configuration and server-to-server migrations)
• Support for MariaDB 11.4 to date, for a noticeable performance gain over MySQL
• Support for Mailman 3
• On Debian, major version upgrades are supported and simpler than on CentOS
• Support for our new Proxmox Backup solution

AlmaLinux 8

• Support for Plesk Obsidian 18.0.35 and later
• Upgrade to Apache 2.4
• Support for PHP up to PHP 8.3 to date
• Obsolete PHP versions dropped (PHP versions older than PHP 5.6 are not available)
• Support for dedicated PHP-FPM processes
• Support for TLS 1.3
• Support for SNI certificates on the mail server (each domain can have its own certificate, which simplifies client configuration and server-to-server migrations)
• Support for MariaDB 11.4 to date, for a noticeable performance gain over MySQL
• Support for our new Proxmox Backup solution

So, ready to take the plunge? If you have not yet discussed it with the HaiSoft technical team, feel free to contact us by phone or via a support ticket in your customer area.
In any case, we plan to contact you by e-mail and/or ticket to start the conversation about upgrading your CentOS 7 server. Speak soon!