How to install PDO on cpanel-WHM servers with centOS

PDO is a component that is used by CMS scripts like joomla, drupal etc. Most of the web servers would not have it enabled by default. For some reason, cPanel guys have decided to switch it off by default. Hence, if you are a server administrator and get a complaint from a client stating they are getting “PDO” related errors, then here are the steps that you can follow to get it installed. This tutorial assumes that you have a server with cPanel/WHM installed on it.

How to install PDO

• Login to WHM
• Find “easyapache (apache update)” from the left hand panel
• Click on “Start customizing based on profile”
• Select the Apache version you require. I would advise 2.2
• Seclect the PHP verson. I would recommend PHP 5.
• Seclect the PHP Build, I would advise 5.2.17
• Now scroll down to the bottom and select “Exhaustive Options List”
• Seclect “PDO” by checking the tick box next to it.
• Proceed with the recompile

Recompile may take anywhere between 10 to 45 minutes depending on the server’s capabilities. After it has been done, you need to execute following commands to restart the services:

/etc/init.d/cpanel restart
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Now if you refresh the pages with error, it shouldn’t be there anymroe. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or confusion.