RHEL PHP 7.3.5 with mysqlnd and apache

Question

I'll start by stating I'm not a server admin by trade, so I've been struggling with this task.

PHP 7.3.5 was already installed on RHEL7 running Apache. I have installed MySQL successfully and now I am tasked with connecting to the MySQL DB from PHP. I have done this before on hosted services like Bluehost, but they make it easy.

I am trying to install/enable the mysqlnd/mysqli modules to absolutely no avail. phpinfo() still does not show that it's enabled. I have tried to install packages and this is what I see when I locate:

How do I enable this module so it becomes active in PHP?

Answer 1

You should not be installing PHP into /home for a variety of reasons, one of which is that SELinux absolutely will not like it at all. Use /opt or /usr/local instead. /home is for home directories.

Since you are trying to use PHP 7.3 on CentOS 7, why not use the SCL repository and install the rh-php73 packages instead, which are actually supported and get software updates.