Below are the steps I have used to update PHP version from 5.3 to 5.6 in Amazon Linux
Steps (Use sudo only if required)
1) Remove OLD Apache
sudo service httpd stop
sudo yum erase httpd httpd-tools apr apr-util2) Remove OLD PHP
sudo yum remove php-*3) Install PHP 5.6 (Apache 2.4 will be automatically installed with this)
sudo yum install php564) Make sure all the required PHP extensions are installed
yum list installed | grep php5) If not then install them using
sudo yum install php56-xml php56-xmlrpc php56-soap php56-gd6) To list the other available php extensions
yum search php567) PHP 5.6 MySQL extension (Assume you have already installed MySQL)
sudo yum install php56-mysqlnd (NOTE: it is not php56-mysql)
8) Start / Restart Apache
sudo service httpd start
sudo service httpd restart9) Check the version
php -v
httpd -v