Automatic Updater

This page describes a feature available in version 7.0 and above

The Automatic Update utility allows admin users to update WHMCS quickly and easily in just a few clicks.

System Requirements

For updates to be able to be completed successfully, the following requirement must be met:

• At least 250 MB of free disk space
• PHP setting allow_url_fopen enabled
• PHP max_execution_time in excess of 60 seconds
• PHP Zip Extension or the proc_open PHP function enabled
• PHP setting open_basedir to include entire WHMCS docroot

Checking for Updates

New updates are checked for automatically at periodic intervals.

When an update becomes available, a notification will appear in the top left corner of admin area.

In addition, you can check for updates on-demand by navigating to Utilities > WHMCS Update and clicking the Check for Updates button.

If a newer version is available, the Latest Version display will update to show the version available to update to. The status of the update check will also be displayed top right as a notification.

Performing an Update

To perform an update, navigate to Utilities > Update WHMCS and click the Update Now button (pictured above).

You will then be guided through the update process. The update process can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes to complete.

Please note this option will only show if an update is available based on your current Update Channel Preferences.

Providing you have followed the recommended methods for customising things such as templates, WHOIS servers, Additional Domain Fields and Countries, your customisations will be preserved through the update process.

Before beginning an update, it is strongly recommended to take a full backup of your current installation (files and database).

We also recommend that you review the release notes before updating to ensure you are aware of any changes that may affect you.

Configuring Your Update Settings

Choosing an Update Channel

The WHMCS automatic updater allows you to choose an update channel that defines the type of updates you will receive.

For most users, we recommend choosing the Stable channel which will only apply Stable updates to your installation.

Channel	Description
Stable	Recommended for most installations of WHMCS, the Stable channel will track the latest stable version that has been released.
Release Candidate	Subscribing to the Release Candidate channel will allow you to receive releases after beta testing but before they are released to the Stable tier.
Beta	Subscribing to the Beta release channel will allow you to receive the very latest versions of WHMCS. This tier should only be selected for development and test based installations.
Current Version	Subscribing to this channel will restrict you to only receiving maintenance updates for the major/minor version that is currently installed. For example if the installed version of WHMCS is 7.0.0-GA, admins will be offered upgrades to 7.0.1-GA and 7.0.2-GA, but not 7.1.0.

Setting a Temporary Update Path

A temporary path is required for staging of files during an update. For security reasons it is recommended that this directory be located outside the public doc root, similar to the attachments, downloads and templates_c directories. The path must be an absolute path (i.e. /home/whmcsuser/tmp instead of ~/tmp) and must be writable by the user that is running PHP.

Setting a Maintenance Message

This option can be used to set a message that will be displayed to both other admin and client users whenever an update is in progress.

Modifying the update configuration requires the Modify Update Configuration administrator role permission, which is separate from the "Update WHMCS" permission.