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ClassicPress

If you’re looking for performance and a lightweight, fully-featured CMS, then OpenLiteSpeed + ClassicPress is the ideal combination. ClassicPress is a fork of WordPress and its look and feel will be familiar to WordPress users everywhere. It does, however, have two key differences. Firstly, it retains the popular “classic” TinyMCE editor (no Gutenberg block editor). Secondly, it is built with performance in mind and is measurably faster than WP.

The OpenLiteSpeed ClassicPress One-Click app is based on a standard ClassicPress image but includes several other great performance enhancements, including LiteSpeed’s popular LSCache optimization plugin.

This Classicpress + OpenLiteSpeed + LSCache image therefore offers performance that should more than meet most demands.

OpenLiteSpeed ClassicPress One-Click automatically installs OpenLiteSpeed, LSCache, ClassicPress and any dependences. It also automates initial setup for components like Object Cache and PHP OPCache to reduce the time it takes to optimize a web server

Quick Start

Step 1.

Use the "OpenLiteSpeed ClassicPress 1-Click app" to create a Droplet with any plan you want. Click here to create an account and get a $100 Digital Ocean credit.

Step 2.

From a terminal on your local computer, connect to the server as root, like so:

ssh root@use_your_server_ip

Be sure to substitute the server’s public IP address for use_your_server_ip.

Note

If you try to visit the server's IP address before you SSH to the server, you’ll see a LiteSpeed landing page.

Step 3.

An interactive script that runs will prompt you for your domain or subdomain:

Please input a valid domain:
Please verify it is correct. [y/N]

Enter your root domain only. The system will automatically add the www subdomain as well.

Note

You can press CTRL+C and continue to SSH, but the prompt will open again the next time you log in. It will continue to do so until you finish the whole setup.

If your domain is already pointed to this server, you will have the option of automatically applying Let's Encrypt SSL. Enter y and your email address to complete the process:

Do you wish to issue a Let's encrypt certificate for this domain? [y/N]
Please enter your E-mail:
Please verify it is correct: [y/N]

Once finished, you should see Certificate has been successfully installed...

You can force HTTPS rules to be applied:

Do you wish to force HTTPS rewrite rule for this domain? [y/N]

Complete the process by pressing Y:

Do you wish to update the system which include the web server? [Y/n]

You should not be prompted to initiate this setup again.

Step 4.

Visit the Server’s IP or Domain in your browser to finish the classicpress installation

cpapp 1

cpapp 2

Your system is installed and ready to use!

Tip

OpenLiteSpeed and LSCache are a powerful combination for your ClassicPress site, right out of the box. In addition, LSCache offers a variety of optimization features that can contribute to a superior PageSpeed score for your site. These features are disabled by default, but we encourage you to explore and experiment! Learn more about the LSCache plugin's settings.

Components

The OpenLiteSpeed One-Click Image installs several packages and performs other actions on your system.

Package Installation

Component Version
Linux Ubuntu 20.04
OpenLiteSpeed Latest from LiteSpeedtech Repo
MariaDB Latest from APT
PHP Latest from LiteSpeedtech Repo
phpMyAdmin Latest from phpMyAdmin
LiteSpeed Cache Latest from WordPress.org
memcached Latest from APT
redis Latest from APT
Certbot Latest from Certbot’s PPA
Postfix Latest from APT

Other Actions

  • Enables the UFW firewall to allow only SSH (port 22, rate limited), HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) access.
  • Sets the Unix Socket to Object Cache for better performance.
  • Sets the MySQL root password, runs mysql_secure_installation, and creates a ClassicPress user with the necessary permissions.
  • Creates the initial ClassicPress configuration file to set up salt keys and allow the ClassicPress instance to connect to the database.
  • Modifies some PHP settings to increase the maximum filesize and execution time.
  • Enables the OpenLitespeed context to rewrite the .htaccess file so the ClassicPress permalink feature will work.
  • Tunes OpenLiteSpeed Web Server for better connectivity

How to Access the Installed Software

phpMyAdmin Access

wpapp 3

Connect to phpMyAdmin at the following URL:

https://example.com/phpmyadmin

Get the MySQL root password:

sudo sed -n 1p .db_password
sudo sed -n 1p /home/ubuntu/.db_password
sudo sed -n 1p /home/ubuntu/.db_password

Get the MySQL classicpress user password:

sudo sed -n 2p .db_password
sudo sed -n 2p /home/ubuntu/.db_password
sudo sed -n 2p /home/ubuntu/.db_password

Web Server Control Panel Access

Get the WebAdmin admin password:

cat .litespeed_password

Visit https://use_your_droplet_ip:7080 to access WebAdmin in a browser.

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By default, WebAdmin uses port 7080. To allow access to 7080 from your IP(e.g. 1.2.3.4):

ufw allow from 1.2.3.4 to any port 7080
You can also allow all IPs access to port 7080:
ufw allow 7080
We suggest turning this port off once you've finished setup:
ufw delete allow 7080

Benchmark Comparison

Use the following command to test from a $5 plan server(ab) to a $5 plan server(DOMAIN)

ab -n 10000 -k -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate" -c 10 http://DOMAIN/

Requests per Second (The larger the number, the better)

Apache Openlitespeed+LSCache
47 14750

Optional Setup

Enable HTTPS

Setting up an SSL certificate enables HTTPS on the web server, which secures the traffic between the server and the clients connecting to it. Certbot is a free and automated way to set up SSL certificates on a server.

Step 1. Register Domain

To use Certbot, you’ll need a registered domain name and DNS records:

  • An A record from the domain (e.g., example.com) to the server’s IP address

  • An A record from the domain prefaced with www (e.g., www.example.com) to the server’s IP address.

Step 2. Add Domain to Listener

Navigate to OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin Console > Listeners, and add Your Domain to HTTP/HTTPS.

listener 1

Step 3. Certbot

Once the DNS records are set up, you can generate the SSL certificate. Be sure to substitute the correct domain name in the following command:

certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/html/ -d example.com -d www.example.com
If certificate verification is a success, you should find your certificate files stored in /etc/letsencrypt/

Step 4. Set SSL for HTTPS

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Navigate to OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin Console > Listeners > SSL, and edit the following three items:

  • Private Key File = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
  • Certificate File = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
  • Chained Certificate = Yes

Save and perform a Graceful Restart.

Now your server should support TLS1.1, TLS 1.2, and TLS 1.3.

Step 5. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS

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HTTPS traffic on port 443 is already allowed through the firewall. After you set up HTTPS, you can optionally rewrite all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

Add the following rules to OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin Console > Virtual Hosts > Rewrite > Rewrite Rules

RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://example.com/$1 [R,L]

Method for Uploading Files

You can serve files from the web server by adding them to the web root using SFTP or other tools.

Methods for Migrating ClassicPress

If you already have a ClassicPress site elsewhere, you can migrate it using one of the following methods.

Single-Site by Duplicator Plugin

  1. Install and activate the Duplicator plugin on the ClassicPress site you’re copying from.
  2. Navigate to Duplicator > Packages, then click the Create New button.
  3. Go through the wizard. When you see "Package Completed," click the One-Click Download link to download two files.
  4. Move the two files (installer.php and a zip file) into the folder you’ll want the ClassicPress site in.
  5. Visit installer.php in a web browser and you should see a wizard screen.
  6. Click I have read and accept all terms & notices and Next
  7. You’ll need to have a database ready. Enter the database name, user, and password.
  8. Click the Site Login button and log in to your ClassicPress site using the same username and password as you have on the remote site.

Multi-Site by Duplicator Plugin

  1. Install plugin.
  2. Network activate plugin.
  3. On site 1, perform the backup. That will capture the entire site into a package.
  4. Restore the site in the new location just as in the Single Site procedure.

Manually by ClassicPress

  1. Back up ClassicPress
  2. Back up the database
  3. Move the directories

Install LSCache After Migration

This step is only necessary if you have migrated a ClassicPress installation or it's a fresh ClassicPress installation.

lscache 21

To benefit from high performance and a nice page score, don't forget to install the LSCache Plugin

Improve Your Page Score

Switch Object Cache Method

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By default we have Memcached enabled. To switch to Redis is easy. Just copy the Redis socket path to LSCache Plugin > Settings > Advanced > Object Cache and save:

  • Memcached: /var/www/memcached.sock
  • Redis: /var/run/redis/redis-server.sock

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I Reset my Web Server WebAdmin Password?

If you forget your password, you may run the following command to reset it:

/usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh

It will ask for the WebAdmin username, which should be admin. Then, enter your new password.

How do I Create Additional Virtual Hosts?

This method will automatically set up Listener/VirtualHost/Force SSL/Let's Encrypt/ClassicPress.

Interactive mode

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/vhsetup.sh
chmod +x vhsetup.sh
bash vhsetup.sh
Or just run the script without downloading it:
/bin/bash <( curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/vhsetup.sh )

CLI mode

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/vhsetup.sh
chmod +x vhsetup.sh
bash vhsetup.sh -D www.example.com -LE admin@example.com -F -C</code></pre>
Or just run the script without downloading it:
<pre><code>/bin/bash <( curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/vhsetup.sh ) -D www.example.com -LE admin@example.com -F -C

  • Please be sure that your domain is already pointing to the server when using -LE YOUR_EMAIL

  • Please be sure that your environment has php/sql service/sql root password when using -C

By default, OpenLiteSpeed has an example virtual host already created. You can create more virtual hosts if you like. See Create Virtual Hosts on OpenLiteSpeed.

How to upgrade to LSWS?

This script will:

  1. Generate an Apache config file from OpenLiteSpeed config

  2. Uninstall OpenLiteSpeed

  3. Install LiteSpeed and read the Apache config file

/bin/bash <( curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/ols2ent.sh ) -L
Note

Do not run this script on a production server or critical site without running it on a test site first. Get help by using the -H parameter for more information including how to revert back to OpenLiteSpeed if needed.

How do I Verify if Cache is Working?

Visit your website using Chrome. Navigate to Chrome menu > More tools > Developer tools > Network, or simply use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I to bring it up. The test page may contain many requests, but you can just click your main domain to check the header. You might see X-LiteSpeed-Cache: miss or X-LiteSpeed-Cache: hit. Normally the first visit to a page is a miss, but subsequent visits should be a hit.

How Certbot's Auto Renew Script Works?

Image comes with cert auto renew by default in /etc/cron.d/certbot. This cron job would get triggered twice every day to renew certificate. Line certbot -q renew will check if certificate is getting expired in next 30 days or not. If it is getting expired then it will auto renew it quietly without generating output and auto restart web server by hook. If certificate is not getting expired then it will not perform any action. While renewing certificate it will use same information provided during certificate creation such as email address, domain name, web server root path etc.

How do I fix Object Cache test fail issue?

Sometimes system upgrade may cause config file being updated. So first thing you can do is to check user permission For Memcached:

vi /etc/memcached.conf  
Make sure -u www-data

For Redis:

vi /lib/systemd/system/redis-server.service
Make sure Group=www-data

How do I Create Additional Databases?

Log into MySQL as root:

mysql -u root -p
Add a new database wordpress2 and user newuser with password password:
create database wordpress2;
grant all privileges on wordpress2.* to 'newuser'@'localhost' identified by "password";
Flush priveleges;
exit

How do I Install Postfix?

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt -y \
-o Dpkg::Options::='--force-confdef' \
-o Dpkg::Options::='--force-confold' install postfix
yum -y install postfix

How do I Reconfigure Postfix?

Run the following command:

dpkg-reconfigure postfix 

Configure the settings as follows:

  • General type of mail configuration? Internet Site

  • System mail name: example.com (not mail.example.com)

  • Root and postmaster mail recipient: ubuntu (your user name)

  • Other destinations to accept mail for: <OK> (to use default value)

  • Force synchronous updates on mail queue? No

  • Local networks: 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128

  • Mailbox size limit: 0

  • Local address extension character: +

  • Internet protocols to use: all

Configure Postfix to Send Mail Using Gmail

How do I Rename the Database from phpMyAdmin?

  1. Log into phpMyAdmin
  2. Click the Operations tab
  3. Under the field Rename database to: enter the new database name.
  4. Click the Go button and press OK.

How do I secure phpMyAdmin?

  • Navigate to WebAdmin > Virtual Hosts > Context
  • Change URI from /phpmyadmin to (for example) /secure
  • Navigate to WebAdmin > Virtual Hosts > Context > phpmyadmin
  • Change Access Allowed from * to (for example) 1.2.3.4 and set Access Denied to *

Please substitute 1.2.3.4 with your IPs/subnets

  • Log into SSH console and create a password file:

    $ sudo touch /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS
    $ sudo chown lsadm:lsadm /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS
    
  • Navigate to WebAdmin > Virtual Hosts > Security

  • Click + under Realm List then set Realm Name = example, and User DB Location = /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS

  • Click /usr/local/lsws/conf/PASS to create a user/password

  • Navigate to WebAdmin > Virtual Hosts > Context > phpmyadmin

  • Set Realm to example

How do I Update phpMyAdmin?

The image comes with the latest phpMyAdmin version already, so you shouldn't need to update it. If you do need to update it, you can run the following commands:

cd /var/www/; mv phpmyadmin phpmyadmin.bak
wget https://www.phpmyadmin.net/downloads/phpMyAdmin-latest-all-languages.zip
unzip phpMyAdmin-*.zip; rm -f phpMyAdmin-*.zip
mv phpMyAdmin-* phpmyadmin
cp phpmyadmin.bak/config.inc.php phpmyadmin
chown -R www-data:www-data phpmyadmin

How do I Update MariaDB?

The only reliable way to update MariaDB to a new version is to make a full backup, restore from that backup, and start the new version of MariaDB.

Back up the DB:

mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > databasedump.sql

Update /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb_repo.list with the version you want to install.

Reinstall MariaDB:

apt update && apt upgrade
apt remove mariadb-server
apt install mariadb-server -y

How do I Change PHP Parameters?

Edit the following file to configure PHP parameters:

vi /usr/local/lsws/lsphp74/etc/php/7.4/litespeed/php.ini

NOTE: We are using LSPHP 7.4 as example. If you are using a different version, please adjust the number in the URL accordingly. To increase the allowed file size, for example, you would make the following edits:

upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M

Other parameters in the file may also be changed, if needed.

OpenLiteSpeed come with php detached mode by default, so need to restart php with command killall -9 lsphp to make settings take effect

How do I Apply a Wildcard Certificate?

Please refer to this guide, click the Wildcard tab, and start from the 5. Install correct DNS plugin section.

You cannot simply get a wildcard certificate (with *.domain.com) by simply typing commands. It requires DNS verification no matter where your DNS nameserver is.

How do I Apply an ECC certificate?

Download the script to the /opt folder:

cd /opt/; wget -q  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/scripts/generate_ecc.sh
chmod +x generate_ecc.sh

Run the script with parameters. Once the DNS records are set up, you can generate the SSL certificate. Be sure to substitute the correct domain name, email and document root in the following command:

bash generate_ecc.sh -d 'example.com' -e 'john@email.com' -w '/var/www/html/'
If certificate verification is a success, you should find your certificate files stored in /etc/letsencrypt/.

Add the certificate to the virtual host. Navigate to OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin Console > VirtualHost > SSL, and edit the following three items:

  • Private Key File = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/ecc.key
  • Certificate File = /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/0001_chain.pem
  • Chained Certificate = Yes

Save and perform a Graceful Restart.

Add a cronjob to run/renew the certificate automatically:

0 0 1 */2 * bash /opt/generate_ecc.sh -d 'example.com' -e 'john@email.com' -w '/var/www/html/'

How do I Fix a Too Many Open Files Issue?

The default system value is 1024. To increase the value to e.g. 65535, please append following content to the /etc/security/limits.conf file:

* soft     nproc          65535    
* hard     nproc          65535   
* soft     nofile         65535   
* hard     nofile         65535
root soft     nproc          65535    
root hard     nproc          65535   
root soft     nofile         65535   
root hard     nofile         65535
Then, add the following to the /etc/pam.d/common-session file:
session required pam_limits.so
To verify, run the ulimit -n command. Output should read 65535.

NOTE: 65535 is an example. Feel free to use a different value.

How do I use lsphp81?

Install PHP 8.1 and commonly used PHP extensions:

apt install lsphp81 lsphp81-common lsphp81-mysql lsphp81-memcached lsphp81-redis lsphp81-opcache lsphp81-curl lsphp81-imagick -y

Navigate to WebAdmin Console > Server Configuration > External App > lsphp, then update the following value:

  • Command: lsphp81/bin/lsphp

OpenLiteSpeed comes with PHP detached mode enabled by default. Restart PHP with command killall -9 lsphp to make these settings take effect.

How do I Set Up Virtual-Host-Specific PHP?

By default virtual hosts inherit the version of PHP that is set at the server level. You may wish to use a different PHP version for certain virtual hosts. Follow the steps below to set up virtual-host-level PHP. Here we will use the PHP version 7.4 as an example.

Install PHP 7.4 and commonly used PHP extensions:

apt install lsphp74 lsphp74-common lsphp74-curl lsphp74-imagick lsphp74-imap lsphp74-json lsphp74-memcached lsphp74-mysql lsphp74-opcache lsphp74-redis -y

Navigate to WebAdmin console > Server Configuration > External App > Add > Type > LiteSpeed SAPI App to set up a server-level external application. Set the following values:

  • Name: lsphp74
  • Address: uds://tmp/lshttpd/lsphp74.sock
  • Max Connections: 35
  • Environment: LSAPI_AVOID_FORK=200M
  • Initial Request Timeout (secs): 60
  • Retry Timeout (secs): 0
  • Command: /usr/local/lsws/lsphp74/bin/lsphp
  • Instances: 1

Navigate to WebAdmin console > Virtual Hosts > your vhost > Script Handler > Add to add a virtual-host-level PHP handler. Set the following values:

  • Suffixes: php
  • Handler Type: LiteSpeed SAPI
  • Handler Name: [Server Level]:lsphp74

OpenLiteSpeed comes with PHP detached mode enabled by default. Restart PHP with command killall -9 lsphp to make these settings take effect.

How do I upgrade to LiteSpeed Enterprise?

This script will:

  1. Generate LiteSpeed Enterprise config file from OpenLiteSpeed config

  2. Backup OpenLiteSpeed config and uninstall OpenLiteSpeed

  3. Install LiteSpeed and load the config file

/bin/bash <( curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/ols2ent-v2.sh )

Note

We recommend you to run and test this script on a test server first. Get help by using the -H parameter for more information including how to revert back to OpenLiteSpeed if needed.

API Creation

In addition to creating a Droplet from the Openlitespeed ClassicPress 1-Click application using the control panel, you can also use the DigitalOcean API.

The following example creates an Openlitespeed WP 18.04 Droplet called “My-Droplet” in the NYC3 datacenter, with 1 GB RAM:

curl -X POST "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets" \
    -d'{"name":"My-Droplet","region":"nyc3","size":"s-1vcpu-1gb","image":"litespeedtechnol-openlitespeedcla-18-04"}' \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json"
Not Support yet

Note

This request, like any other request that makes a change to your account, requires that your token has “write” scope assigned to it.


Last update: October 16, 2023