Azure Web App PHP version update by Microsoft last night?

Question

We have had a Azure Web App service with PHP running for a long time with no problems.

This morning it's broken and Googling the error, I was able to locate a GitHub issue that stated that the library (PHPOffice) worked fine with PHP 7.3 and broke with PHP 7.4. Upgrading the library got things (still have another issue to address) functional once again.

So i am functional again but we were always PHP 7.2 which according to an older screenshot i had of the web app configuration, it was Deprecated.

we knew it was going to be unsupported but according to another document "should still run". somehow it looks like we were upgraded to PHP 7.4 at some point, possibly as recent as last night but we did not initiate it and did not receive an alert that it was going to be done.

I see regular scheduled maintenance item MSB7-JP0 started last night, did it do it ?

Now that i did the GitHub work around, is it automatically going to update again ?

Answer 1

@Mark Vatcher To add to what Grace shared...

Update 97, which completed its rollout around mid-April, removed PHP 7.2 and 7.3 and force moved apps to 7.4. This was delayed from the original dates posted in the above GitHub article.

As called out in the document link that Grace shared, customers who hard coded paths into their app were likely to see their apps break. Could it be that some part of your app had a hard coded path and that was not used/called upon until now?

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Answer 2

Hi @Mark Vatcher ,

App Service upgrades the underlying PHP runtime of your application as part of the regular platform updates. As a result of this regular update process, your application will be automatically updated to the latest patch version of PHP available in the platform. So yes, it is possible that your php version was upgraded.

"Once a version of PHP has reached it's end of extended support your application will be upgraded to the next recommended supported minor version.For example on February 01, 2020 any application running on PHP 7.0 or PHP 7.1 will be upgraded to PHP 7.3" Please read this Github repo for more details.

Best,
Grace