Frequently Asked Question

In short: no, but...

it may stop working if you are relying on old software or are doing weird includes that would not be possible if your website is running isolated from all the other sites.

Current situation

The CBC manages a shared PHP installation no longer receiving updates that cannot be upgraded because a lot of legacy applications will break.

New situation

Organs will be able to pick between two options:

• Shared hosting: the CBC provides a shared PHP installation that is currently receiving security updates (currently 7.4 and 8.0), which also means that your website may stop working if you don't maintain it. You can find more at: https://support.gewis.nl/kb/faq.php?id=11
• Container hosting: the organ puts everything in a Docker container and picks its own software (that does not contain security vulnerabilities). There you can upgrade software in your own pace, as long as it does not introduce security issues. Container hosting is proxied through a nginx proxy that will be maintained by the CBC, so committees don't need to worry about TLS etc.

It does not matter which option you pick for database hosting. For both options a managed database server will be available with a recent MySQL version and a recent phpMyAdmin interface will be published. A backup will be regularly made from these databases to make sure nothing goes wrong.

This permanently solves the problem where we cannot upgrade the PHP version, because some legacy website that is running on the same shared PHP installation thinks it has to break when doing so.