python - How can I get shell_exec to run on my server?

So I know there are plenty of similar questions on the site, but I can't find any answers that explain clearly enough a solution to my problem. Hopefully a clear answers to this could help many others!

I've got two files, test.php and test.py.

test.php

<?php
  $output = shell_exec('test.py');
  echo $output;
?>
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test.py

print("hello, world")
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PHP prints "hello, world" on localhost, but not on the server (Unix, I think), where everything is blank. I can successfully run test.py on the server with the command line, and have checked function_exists('shell_exec') in PHP, which it does.

I understand that I might need to give the server permission to use shell_exec, but this is where I get a bit confused. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you!

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