General System Requirements of Astra Website Protection plugin
Our security suite works on almost all PHP web-servers but to make sure our security suite works best on your website. We have listed down the minimum system requirements below, and prepared a guide to help you check if your server meets the requirements.
Astra Website Protection plugin works best on Linux or other Unix-type operating systems and also supports Windows/IIS.
We strongly recommend PHP version 7.1 or greater, and preferably PHP 7.4 or greater. Many hosts let you select the PHP version for your site from the cPanel or hosting account dashboard. If you're using a recent CMS version, your site is most likely already running on PHP 7.4 or higher.
Older websites could run into compatibility issues with newer PHP versions. Please check with your developer before upgrading.
For installation to be successful and at the same time for our security suite to work on your website effectively enabling these server modules are a must:
unzip - unzip is a utility tool that helps you decompress files and folders. This command extracts all files from the specified ZIP archive to the current directory.
cURL - allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols. It is basically used to send and receive data from and to a server.
pdo_sqlite - This module is used for enabling an interface for the SQLite database to create and access the databases. Since Astra creates an SQLite database and requires the SQLite driver for PHP installed.
Most web hosts have these drivers installed by default. If not, you can easily install them as shown in the guide below.
If it is not possible to enable pdo_sqlite on your server, you can also use a MySQL database
You can easily verify if your web server meets the requirements, by creating a phpinfo file. The phpinfo page will provide information about the server configuration, PHP version, installed modules, environment variables, OS information etc.
Open the File Manager in your Hosting Control Panel, or connect to your server via SSH or FTP
Navigate to the folder where your website files are there. On shared hosting servers, it is usually /home/USERNAME/public_html and /var/www/html in VPS servers.
Create a new file: phpinfo-70ccde79-e6b8-497b-8ca4-8031a015fe3a.php
Edit the file, and save the following code inside it:
Once you've uploaded this file to your server, visit the page in your browser by entering example.com/phpinfo-70ccde79-e6b8-497b-8ca4-8031a015fe3a.php
We strongly recommend to delete this file after use, as it contains highly sensitive information
Open the phpinfo file as shown in the above guide
Search the contents of this file for the string pdo_sqlite as shown below:
If you find a section titled pdo_sqlite, it is confirmed that pdo_sqlite & SQLite have been installed. If not, follow these guides to install pdo_sqlite:
cPanel
VPS
Similarly, find a sections for curl. If it is not present, you will have to install it by logging in to SSH and running the following commands:
sudo apt install curl
sudo apt-get install php7.4-curl
Once the verification is complete delete this file
Minimum System Requirements
Operating system
Astra Website Protection plugin works best on Linux or other Unix-type operating systems and also supports Windows/IIS.
PHP version
We strongly recommend PHP version 7.1 or greater, and preferably PHP 7.4 or greater. Many hosts let you select the PHP version for your site from the cPanel or hosting account dashboard. If you're using a recent CMS version, your site is most likely already running on PHP 7.4 or higher.
Older websites could run into compatibility issues with newer PHP versions. Please check with your developer before upgrading.
Server Modules
For installation to be successful and at the same time for our security suite to work on your website effectively enabling these server modules are a must:
unzip - unzip is a utility tool that helps you decompress files and folders. This command extracts all files from the specified ZIP archive to the current directory.
cURL - allows you to connect and communicate to many different types of servers with many different types of protocols. It is basically used to send and receive data from and to a server.
pdo_sqlite - This module is used for enabling an interface for the SQLite database to create and access the databases. Since Astra creates an SQLite database and requires the SQLite driver for PHP installed.
Most web hosts have these drivers installed by default. If not, you can easily install them as shown in the guide below.
If it is not possible to enable pdo_sqlite on your server, you can also use a MySQL database
How to check if your server meets these requirements
You can easily verify if your web server meets the requirements, by creating a phpinfo file. The phpinfo page will provide information about the server configuration, PHP version, installed modules, environment variables, OS information etc.
Step 1 - Create a phpinfo page
Open the File Manager in your Hosting Control Panel, or connect to your server via SSH or FTP
Navigate to the folder where your website files are there. On shared hosting servers, it is usually /home/USERNAME/public_html and /var/www/html in VPS servers.
Create a new file: phpinfo-70ccde79-e6b8-497b-8ca4-8031a015fe3a.php
Edit the file, and save the following code inside it:
<?php echo phpinfo(); ?>Once you've uploaded this file to your server, visit the page in your browser by entering example.com/phpinfo-70ccde79-e6b8-497b-8ca4-8031a015fe3a.php
We strongly recommend to delete this file after use, as it contains highly sensitive information
Step 2 - Verify PHP version & other system requirements
Open the phpinfo file as shown in the above guide
Search the contents of this file for the string pdo_sqlite as shown below:
If you find a section titled pdo_sqlite, it is confirmed that pdo_sqlite & SQLite have been installed. If not, follow these guides to install pdo_sqlite:
cPanel
VPS
Similarly, find a sections for curl. If it is not present, you will have to install it by logging in to SSH and running the following commands:
sudo apt install curl
sudo apt-get install php7.4-curl
Once the verification is complete delete this file
Updated on: 12/07/2022
Thank you!