Topic: How to update Apache HTTPD on Linux CentOS?

[man_of_culture]

Apache Server Current version 2.4.46 (i want update to latest version)
CentOS 8.3.2011

I need help updating my Apache server to the latest version on CentOS 8.3.2011 while keeping all configuration files intact.
Can anyone guide me on how to do this safely without losing any settings?

[tangent]

Knowing that Centos is now End Of Life, there are no official package updates any more, which includes Apache. Therefore, there's no straightforward yum/dnf update that you can use to upgrade the HTTPD package.

Whatever you do, unless you've substantially tweaked Apache, the configuration files included from /etc/httpd/conf.d/* will be the prime files you'll need to carry forward.

One option might be to download the latest httpd RPM for an alternative Linux distribution, logically Fedora (Google is you friend), extract the package files somewhere and then selectively update your local files accordingly.

You can use 'rpm -ql package' to list the files from a named installed package (e.g. httpd.x86_64), and 'rpm -qlp file.rpm' to list the files from a downloaded rpm file. If you compare (diff) the two you can work out the differences and update accordingly.

There's no guarentee this approach will work (there may be shared library compatiblity issues and the like), but it's an option nonetheless.

Let us know how you get on.

[man_of_culture]

Thank you for your reply. It helped me make the decision not to try anything, as there is software that has been in use since 2020 that is very specific. The operating system and most of the installed packages won't be able to be updated because the 'specific software' hasn't been updated for a while because of a matter of contracts between institutions and companies, but it is still used. I wanted to try to mitigate vulnerabilities by updating Apache and other packages, but I can see that it's too risky. I'll think about it more, thanks.

[tangent]

This is not an uncommon problem. Over time I've come across a number of applications hosted on legacy platforms that can't be updated any more.

The best solution I can recommend is to set up another instance of Apache on a supported platform, configured as a reverse proxy to your legacy application. Sure, you'll have to update DNS to point the application service to the proxy, but that's simple enough, once the proxy route has been thoroughly tested.

[man_of_culture]

Thanks for your reply, I now have an idea of what can be done.