cPanel continues to surprise the industry-releasing one new feature here and there, making sure that its clients get the most out of their investments. With its newest innovation, cPanel is set to enhance the client’s web hosting experience.
The launch of EasyApache 4 (EA 4) brings various improvements in installation, update, and other features that are important for the client. EasyApache 4 is a major revamp of how cPanel and WHM ships and maintains the Apache and PHP distribution.
EasyApache 4 represents a total overhaul of how cPanel & WHM ships and maintains our Apache and PHP distribution.
Simply explained, EasyApache is the software that installs, configures, updates, and validates your web server, PHP, and other components of your web server.
cPanel & WHM installs EasyApache 4 by default on new installations of systems that run cPanel & WHM version 58 or higher.
EasyApache 4 offers the following improvements over EasyApache 3:
- Binary packages
- Software collections
- Path reorganization
- MultiPHP support
- Post-update actions
Binary packages
Binaries are cost-efficient improvements that save time and monetary resources for site owners, server owners, and developers.
Rather than compile binaries from source, we build RPM packages with binaries that you can easily install via yum. This allows for quicker, automatic updates of packages.
The system forks any custom packages from the Red Hat® specification files, but contain the latest version. Binary packages also allow Apache and PHP to automatically update.
Binary Packages allow for quicker updates, installations, and the ability to spin down and spin up different web stacks and configurations quickly. This reduces the cost for site owners and server owners.
These binaries reduce the time it takes for updates and installs to a few minutes. This also allows developers to quickly spin up and spin down different configurations.
Software collections
EasyApache 4 uses the Software Collections Library (SCL) for PHP packages. The use of SCLs enables the installation of multiple, concurrent version of PHP on the file system.
An SCL is an alternate path inside the /opt file that contains the full file system that various software needs. When you enable an SCL, it adds the path within that environment to the system. Commands that do not specify a path and scripts that use the /usr/bin/env file to determine their path can then use this path to find the appropriate version of the software.
How to execute a script with SCL
To execute a script with a software collection environment, you must run the scl command. For example, to run the php -v command on a php56 collection, run the following command:
scl enable ea-php56 ‘php -v’
This command’s output will resemble the following example:
PHP 5.6.6 (cli) (built: Jul 16 2015 12:28:49)
Copyright (c) 1997-2015 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.6.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Zend Technologies
- The additional paths allow EasyApache 4 to function quicker and more efficiently.
- The additional paths allow multiple directories to store data and symlink between files.
- The additional paths allow more effective storage of data, especially with backups and recovery.
The following table lists the new file directories where EasyApache 4 now stores the Apache files:
| File or Directory location | Description |
|---|---|
| /usr/bin/httpd/ | This directory contains the actual Apache executable, binary file, and webserver. |
| /var/log/apache2/ | This directory contains all the logs for the apache2 file as well as all access logs. |
| /etc/apache2/ | This directory contains the configuration directory for Apache and contains all directories for Apache includes, modules, and configuration files. This directory does not contain log files. Note: This directory uses the symlink to the usr/lib64/apache24/ directory. |
| /usr/lib64/apache2/modules/ | This directory contains all of the dynamic modules for Apache. |
| /opt/cpanel/ea-php*/ | This SCL directory contains all of Apache’s binary files. |
| /etc/apache2/logs/access_log/ | This file contains HTTP requests that the server received and that did not go to a domain. |
| /etc/apache2/logs/domlogs/ | This directory contains a log of HTTP requests that the system routed to a domain. |
| /etc/apache2/logs/error_log/ | This file contains error information. |
| /var/www/html/ | This directory contains the document root for the server. It contains default pages that users can see. |
| /etc/apache2/logs/ | This directory contains an alias to the /var/log/apache2/ directory. |
| /etc/apache2/modules/ | This directory contains an alias to the /usr/lib64/apache2/modules/ directory. |
MultiPHP support
EasyApache 4 supports multiple versions of PHP. Multiple PHP versions allow you to assign different PHP versions to each of your domains. Coupled with automatic upgrades, this ensures that your PHP applications run on the most up-to-date, secured PHP versions.
Post-update actions
EasyApache 4 removed OptMods and no longer supports them. However, in addition to the new RPM actions that EasyApache 4 can execute from its specification file, we created yum-plugin-universal hooks. These new hooks allow for executable actions based on the package name they operate in. For example, if you run a script on an ea-* package, if any updated packages exist in the ea4 namespace, the system executes these scripts.
