Did myISP upgraded my VPS and forgot to install json?

Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (dreamhost shared)
Php 7.1.22
ZC 5.5.1f
MySQL 5.67

This is a shared hosting service from Dreamhost. ZC admin page does not load and spews undefined Json_encode error in the log.(see below)
URL directed to login.php?camefrom=index.php and gives me a blank page.
Is it me or did they forgot to install php-services-json/trusty 1.0.3-1 ?

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function json_encode() in /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/PLACEHOLDER-ADMIN/includes/classes/class.admin.zcObserverLogEventListener.php:81
Stack trace:
#0 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/pearl/includes/classes/class.admin.zcObserverLogEventListener.php(55): zcObserverLogEventListener::prepareLogdata('POST', NULL)
#1 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/includes/classes/class.base.php(103): zcObserverLogEventListener->updateNotifyAdminActivityLogEvent(Object(notifier), 'NOTIFY_ADMIN_AC...', 'POST', NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL)
#2 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/pearl/includes/init_includes/init_admin_history.php(13): base->notify('NOTIFY_ADMIN_AC...', 'POST')
#3 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/includes/autoload_func.php(48): require('/home/PLACEHOLDER/s...')
#4 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/pearl/includes/application_top.php(171): require('/home/PLACEHOLDER/s...')
#5 /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/pearl/login.php(9): require('/home/PLACEHOLDER/s...')
#6 {main}
thrown in /home/PLACEHOLDER/PLACEHOLDER.com/pearl/includes/classes/class.admin.zcObserverLogEventListener.php on line 81

Looking at the packages.. json interface seems to be installed for a lot of stuff, but not PHP?

$ apt list --installed | grep -i json

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface yet. Use with caution in scripts.

libjson-c2/trusty-updates,trusty-security,now 0.11-3ubuntu1.2 amd64 [installed]
libjson-perl/trusty,now 2.61-1 all [installed,automatic]
libjson-xs-perl/trusty,now 2.340-1build1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libjson0/trusty-updates,trusty-security,now 0.11-3ubuntu1.2 amd64 [installed]
python-simplejson/trusty,now 3.3.1-1ubuntu6 amd64 [installed]
ruby-json/trusty,now 1.8.0-1build1 amd64 [installed]
ruby-multi-json/trusty,now 1.8.0-1 all [installed,automatic]

$ apt search json | grep -i php

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface yet. Use with caution in scripts.

libarc-php/trusty 2.2.4-1 all
Flexible RDF system for semantic web and PHP practitioners
php-services-json/trusty 1.0.3-1 all
PHP implement######## of json_encode/decode
php5-json/trusty 1.3.2-2build1 amd64
JSON module for php5

i'm a little confused; are you on a shared server as you state? or a virtual private server?

according to dreamhost, json is installed on all their shared servers:

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/217141627-Supported-and-unsupported-technologies

if you are running php7.1; you would need php7.1-json.

hope that helps.

carlwhat:

i'm a little confused; are you on a shared server as you state? or a virtual private server?

according to dreamhost, json is installed on all their shared servers:

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/217141627-Supported-and-unsupported-technologies

if you are running php7.1; you would need php7.1-json.

hope that helps.

Apparently that's what actually happen. Took them a day to get around to it.. :/
Weird how something this commonly got left out
I'm actually surprised there aren't that many people complaining about it on their support desk.