Disable unnecessary and unused PHP versions (FPM pools) - Rocketeers app

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Disable unnecessary and unused PHP versions (FPM pools)
=======================================================

### [\#Hosting](https://rocketeersapp.com/knowledge/hosting)

Hosting your application optimally means you need to take care of the valuable server resources. PHP FPM can keep memory occupied even when not actively used.

 Published by [Mark van Eijk](https://rocketeersapp.com/author/mark-van-eijk) on August 24, 2022 · 1 minute read

1. [Stop unused PHP versions (FPM pools)](#content-stop-unused-php-versions-fpm-pools)
2. [Prevent PHP versions from starting on boot](#content-prevent-php-versions-from-starting-on-boot)

When running PHP applications it's a common mistake to forget to turn off unused PHP versions. This mostly happens when you install a new PHP version and forget to uninstall or disable the previous PHP versions.

It is no problem to keep multiple PHP versions installed on your server. But it could be a problem to keep it running on your server. Likely this happens when using PHP FPM, which has a default www pool per PHP version that isn't turned off when it's not in use anymore.

So it could be running forerver and keeps precious server memory occupied.

[\#](#content-stop-unused-php-versions-fpm-pools "Permalink")Stop unused PHP versions (FPM pools)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stopping the processes for a PHP FPM pool is easy, using this command for your unneeded PHP version (e.g. 7.4):

 ```
sudo service php7.4-fpm stop

```

[\#](#content-prevent-php-versions-from-starting-on-boot "Permalink")Prevent PHP versions from starting on boot
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To prevent the PHP version from starting when you reboot your server, disable the service all together:

 ```
sudo systemctl disable php7.4-fpm

```

> Using [Rocketeers](/) you won't have this problem. When changing PHP versions, Rocketeers will detect which sites and applications are running which versions and will disable all unused versions on your server.

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