Important Removing deadweight in Plesk Onyx 17.8

[custer]

Hi everyone,

We are removing support for certain outdated, deprecated or unused features in Plesk Onyx 17.8. Below is the full list. Note: you can always find the latest information on Plesk Onyx drops here: (link to KB: Plesk Onyx 17.8 Deprecated Components)

The following components and features are deprecated in Plesk Onyx 17.8:

• Apache Tomcat
• Virtuozzo EZ Templates
• Debian 7
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 shipment
• mod_php, mod_perl, mod_python Apache modules
• PHP 4 shipment on Windows
• Update from Plesk 11.x

Apache Tomcat drop

• Both our users and us were often dissatisfied with a degree of Tomcat support in Plesk, but low demand for this feature did not allow us to invest more efforts into it. Tomcat usage among Plesk users has been steadily declining over the years, and our statistics do not show any evidence that this trend is going to change. Nevertheless, if the demand will be significant, we will consider a possibility of supporting Tomcat in some way.
  
  
• What to do? Existing Plesk versions (up to Plesk Onyx 17.5) will continue to fully support Tomcat until their EOL. We will continue monitoring Uservoice for Tomcat support requests to evaluate Tomcat popularity and to assess the feasibility of creating a Tomcat extension. Alternatively, you can develop your own Tomcat extension using the Plesk Extensions SDK.

Virtuozzo EZ Templates drop

• In the past, EZ templates for Plesk have provided higher density via sharing RAM/disk space for identical files. However, an embedded deduplication mechanism we use nowadays provides the same effect without using EZ Templates and makes usage of EZ templates redundant. At the present time, the popularity of Virtuozzo EZ templates among Plesk users is very low.

• What to do? If you were using EZ Templates to install Plesk, we recommend to install and update Plesk using Plesk Autoinstaller. Refer to the links below to read about available Plesk Onyx 17.8 installation options:
  • Quick non-interactive Plesk installation with default settings and components
  • Custom non-interactive Plesk installation
  • Installing Plesk in the console
  • Installing Plesk in the browser

Debian 7 drop

• This used to be an excellent OS, but unfortunately, it’s outdated now – regular vendor support for “Wheezy” ended in April 2016, and long-term-support by volunteers will end on May 31, 2018. The number of people running Plesk on Debian 7 is quite low now, and since we are dedicated to focus our efforts on the latest, most secure OSes recommended by OS vendors, we are dropping Debian 7 support in Onyx 17.8.
  
  
• What to do? For those who use Plesk on this OS, we recommend either migrating to a different OS using Plesk Migrator or running distupgrade to upgrade your Debian 7 instance (with the ability to upgrade from Debian 8 to Debian 9 in future).

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 shipment drop

• The official vendor support for SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 has ended on July 8, 2014, and we'd like to keep your server from using such outdated software.
  
  
• What to do? Plesk Onyx 17.8 will work with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 if you install it on the server manually. However, we strongly recommend using up-to-date versions of Microsoft SQL Server still supported by Microsoft. You will also be able to continue using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 if it was installed on your Plesk server before the upgrade to Plesk Onyx 17.8.

mod_php, mod_perl, mod_python Apache modules drop

• Previously these modules were very popular and widely distributed, but nowadays usage of these components is deprecated and is not recommended. Using these modules in a shared hosting environment is a security risk for the following reasons:

1) File security. mod_php, mod_perl, and mod_python run under the identity of Apache server itself, and therefore scripts executed by these engines can potentially access anything the server user can. For example, files containing highly confidential personal data could be read by a script from another domain.

2) Security of database connections. DBI connections of other users can be hijacked, and since all users can read each other’s code, database usernames and passwords could be visible to every user.

3) Potential system compromise. Security issues in the Apache code can lead to compromising the whole server in general.​

• What to do? If you are updating to Plesk Onyx 17.8 from previous Plesk versions and you have these modules installed, you will still have these modules available on your servers and will be able to manage them until you switch to a different, recommended, module like mod_fcgid. However, new Plesk Onyx 17.8 installations will not have mod_php, mod_perl, and mod_python modules available. We strongly recommend to avoid using these modules to keep your servers safe and secure.

PHP 4 shipment on Windows drop

• Plesk 17.8 for Windows will not ship PHP 4 because we want to prevent the usage of EOLed and insecure PHP versions on new Plesk instances. PHP 4 has reached vendor's end-of-life date on August 7, 2008, and the number of Plesk servers using PHP 4 is extremely low. Note that Linux versions of Plesk Onyx do not ship PHP 4 .
  
  
• What to do? If you were using PHP 4 on Windows before updating to Plesk Onyx 17.8, you will still be able to use it after the update, although we strongly recommend using up-to-date PHP versions which are supported by the vendor and continue to receive security updates.

Update from Plesk 11.x drop

• Our priority is to help users stay up-to-date with the latest version of Plesk which is important for higher performance and more secure experience. Plesk 11.0 and 11.5 versions were EOLed on December 13, 2016, and their usage among Plesk users has been steadily declining.

• What to do? If you are using Plesk 11.x and you want to update to Plesk Onyx 17.8, we recommend using Plesk Migrator to migrate your Plesk 11.x instance to Plesk Onyx 17.8. Alternatively, if you use Plesk 11.x on an OS that is still supported by Plesk Onyx 17.8, you can update to Plesk 17.5, and then update your Plesk 17.5 instance to Plesk Onyx 17.8.
  
  
• For illustrative purposes, below is a table with possible upgrade paths for customers who have Plesk 11.x

IMPORTANT: direct upgrades are not possible for x32 OSes.



If you have any questions or comments about the list above, please let us know.

 

[G J Piper]

If you have any questions or comments about the list above, please let us know.

I'm running Plesk 17.5.3 in CentOS 6.9 in a Parallels Virtuozzo container currently, in a VPS. Will there be any problems for me to upgrade to 17.8 when it is released? I'm not sure what "not supporting Virtuozzo EZ Templates" really means for existing VPS customers who are set up inside Virtuozzo containers their hosting providers set up for them.

 

[IgorG]

I'm running Plesk 17.5.3 in CentOS 6.9 in a Parallels Virtuozzo container currently, in a VPS. Will there be any problems for me to upgrade to 17.8 when it is released? I'm not sure what "not supporting Virtuozzo EZ Templates" really means for existing VPS customers who are set up inside Virtuozzo containers their hosting providers set up for them.

Yes, you will be able to upgrade. But I'd suggest you transfer your Plesk installations to modern OSes like CentOS7, for instance.

 

[Laurence@]

Is there an official release date? Can I upgrade a production server to 17.8?