Unless you absolutely need a new OS version, there's no reason to even move to a new provider. Regarding the VPS, well, that doesn't surprise me. But with most providers they give you many versions of Linux to choose from. The way Linux typically works is a lot of the software repositories (where you download software from) are kinda locked to specific major versions of software. So if you want updates, you have to upgrade the entire OS to a new version. However, these operating system maintainers have guaranteed EOL dates, and will support all the software until the specified date (though there's no guarantee some third party software you're using, like WordPress won't need a more updated version). There are some tricks around this, such as using 3rd party sources for updated software packages or delving into the realm of containerization. But anyway, unless you need a specific version of PHP for some feature (or to meet the requirements to run WP at all), it's not something that's that important. I will also say that usually a VPS is completely unmanaged and you as a customer are expected to handle all aspects of it, though not always.
Though I'm not entirely ignorant about servers, as you can tell, my experience isn't anywhere nearly as great as yours, so pardon me if this is an obvious question.
Your statement makes it sound a little as if OS updates are relatively trivial. I was kind of assuming they were a bigger deal than that. And it irked me that BH updated me from CENTOS 6 to 7 when 8 was already available. By the way, BH didn't notify me of the impending CENTOS 6 end of life. I had to ask support about it, and the tech was happy to schedule it, but if I hadn't said something, I'm not sure when (or if) it would have happened. That goes along with your last statement about VPS being unmanaged.
Anyway, that is kind of why I switched to Cloud Linux (which seems like a stupid thing to have done, though at the time it made sens). That's particularly true because it looked at the time as if CENTOS was going away in favor of something called CENTOS Stream. For example,
CentOS Linux 8 will reach end-of-life on December 31, 2021. No further updates will be available after that. The moment a security update comes out in 2022, you are at risk with CentOS Linux 8 from that point on.
You should absolutely have migrated well before this date to something else.
Some candidates for CentOS Linux 8 alternatives include:
* CentOS Stream
* RHEL (no-cost subscriptions)
* Alma Linux
* Rocky Linux
* Springdale Linux (formerly PUIAS)
* Oracle Linux
https://forums.centos.org/viewtopic.php?t=78026And I said to myself, oh, that's why BH didn't update me to CENTOS 8, because it's going away. (Even CENTOS Stream is being replaced by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, though I didn't hear about this at the time.
This and several other posts I read during the time period gave me the impression that the various Linux varieties were more or less interchangeable. (And indeed, though I've now found a false statement buried on the BH website about updates to other Linux distributions being incompatible with BH hosted sites, BH didn't really seem to address the question) Not anticipating the bind that I'm now in, switching OS made sense, and CL had a script specifically designed for it, which did indeed get the job done.
Anyway, here are my options:
Try to revert to CENTOS 7 and let BH update to whatever its next preference is. There may be risks to reverting. There was a script at the time, but the site has changed a lot since then, so who knows? Also, BH takes a long time doing this sort of thing. It's not as fast as I could do on my own--if there were no issues.
Try to update CL 7 to CL 8. As Matthew has noted, that can be risky.
Dump the whole thing and just use Substack. Though it has a lot of features, it's too soon for me to make that radical a change. I see it as a supplement rather than a replacement (though since it's free, it would be an incredible savings).
Switch providers. Honestly, the only downside there is losing about a year's worth of hosting I've already paid for.
I've looked at Siteground, which, as RC suggests, has a fine reputation. I've also looked at A2 Hosting, which I'm leaning toward. It uses both cpanel and Cloud Linux, so the transition would be slightly more seamless than with Siteground. The Cloudflare integrartion also seems a little more straightforward. But what really draws my eye is that A2
offers Managed VPS. (BH seems to have managed plans only with shared hosting, which is much slower.) Though A2 also allows clients to have root access (which is handy on occasion), the managed ecosystem would completely avoid the problem I'm having now. Also, A2's managed VPS is cheaper than comparable unmanaged VPS on BH, even ignoring the new customer discount. A switch now would lose money in the short-term, but in the long-term, I'd be saving.
Anyway, I have a little more time to contemplate. I'm planning on arranging things so that everything I need in May is offsite, just in case. A2 and Siteground both offer free migration, which should be smooth, but in case there's a glitch, I'll avoid a lot of unexpected end user downtime.
Thanks for all the help!
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