Older 32-Bit PHP & PASE Apps Can Break in IBM i 7.5

This alert was originally published in Seiden Group’s July 2023 Support Bulletin.
Seiden PHP+ fully supports IBM i 7.5.

IBM i 7.5 includes OpenSSL 1.1.1, an upgrade that can disable older PASE applications that were tied to 1.0.2 or earlier.

Common Symptoms of incompatible OpenSSL versions:

  • Jobs keep ending and restarting, using a huge amount of CPU, showing the function PGM-execerror
  • Error messages in the Apache error log or other logs may include:
  • 0509-036 Cannot load program /usr/local/ZendSvr6/bin/php-cgi.bin
  • Symbol resolution failed for libcurl.a
  • References to libcrypto.a or libssl.a

What is affected:

The original 5733-OPS distribution of Node.js, Ruby, and older 32-bit Zend Server PHP (PHP 5.5 and earlier, but some PHP 5.6 releases, too), which have all been out of support for several years.

What to do:

  • Best: install 64-bit open source releases based on RPMs before moving to IBM i 7.5. Remove any older, unused applications to prevent them from starting accidentally.
  • Temporary fix: we do have a workaround that can usually let older applications function until you can upgrade them.

We encourage our support clients to let us know when they plan to upgrade IBM i releases so we can advise on issues like this and be ready to help.

As noted above, Seiden Group’s license-free CP+ PHP fully supports IBM i 7.5.  If you’re not already running our license-free CP+ PHP, our $995 Install & Learn service can get you up and running quickly, usually within a few hours.

For more information on IBM i 7.5, see the memo to users.

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