Standalone Installation¶

This guide shows you how to install LiteSpeed Web Server in any non-control-panel, Apache-based environment.

LiteSpeed Web Server Installation¶

Depending on your environment, these steps may disable some panel features–most likely the PHP-related features–as this installation will have its own LSPHP.

This guide was made and tested on CentOS 7.X. Please change the commands or values to your system's equivalent.

Download¶

In this example, you will be installing the Linux x86 version of LiteSpeed Web Server v6.3.4. Download the package from LiteSpeed:

wget https://www.litespeedtech.com/packages/6.0/lsws-6.3.4-ent-x86_64-linux.tar.gz

Unpack it:

tar xzvf lsws-6.3.4-ent-x86_64-linux.tar.gz
cd lsws-6.3.4

Save your license key, being sure to replace YOUR_LICENSE_KEY with the actual key:

echo "YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" > serial.no

Stop Apache before beginning LSWS installation:

systemctl stop httpd

Install LSWS¶

Install LSWS:

./install.sh

During the installation, there are several options that need to be configured. Most options can be left as the default. Only the following need to be set:

• Hosting control panel: None
• User: apache
• Group: apache
• HTTP port: 80

Install PHP¶

Install the LiteSpeed repository for PHP:

rpm -Uvh http://rpms.litespeedtech.com/centos/litespeed-repo-1.1-1.el7.noarch.rpm

Install your preferred PHP version. PHP 7.0 is used below as an example:

yum install lsphp70*

Complete Configuration in WebAdmin Console¶

You may log into the WebAdmin Console at https://YOUR_SERVER_IP:7080. If you are unable to access WebAdmin, please verify that your firewall is not blocking it.

Use the username and password you were asked to set during the install script. If you need to reset these, please run the following command:

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

Navigate to Configuration > Server > Using Apache Configuration File and set the following:

• Load Apache Configuration: Yes
• Auto Reload On Changes: Use Apache binary wrapper`
• Apache Binary Path: Use which httpd to locate
• Apache Configuration Path: Generally located in /etc/httpd or /etc/apache2
• Apache Port Offset: 0
• Apache IP Offset: 0
• PHP suEXEC: Yes
• PHP suEXEC Max Conn: Number of concurrent PHP process a single site can have

Navigate to Configuration > Server > HT Access and set the following:

• Allow Override: Select every box except None
• Access File Name: .htaccess

Restart LSWS for the configuration to take effect.

Configure PHP¶

Add the following to .htaccess, replacing XX with the PHP version you installed earlier:

<IfModule Litespeed>
AddHandler application/x-httpd-phpXX .php
</IfModule>

Access a test page to check the result:

As you can see from the paths, we are running PHP 7.0. Additionally, note that it shows Server API LiteSpeed V7.2.

Changing the PHP Version¶

Install the new PHP version you need, for example 7.3:

yum install lsphp73*

Restart LSWS so it can detect the new PHP versoin, and add following content to .htaccess:

<IfModule Litespeed>
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php73 .php
</IfModule>

Check phpinfo, and you will see from the paths that it's PHP 7.3 now:

So it is the same for other PHP versions, like 7.2:

Compiling PHP Extensions¶

Let's say you want compile the PHP extension timezonedb for PHP 7.3.

Install dependencies:

yum install -y lsphp73-devel make gcc glibc-devel

Compile it:

/usr/local/lsws/lsphp73/bin/pecl install timezonedb

Add it to the configuration file:

echo "extension=timezonedb.so" > /usr/local/lsws/lsphp73/etc/php.d/20-timezone.ini

Switching Back to Apache¶

Stop LSWS to release 80/443 port:

/usr/local/lsws/bin/lswsctrl stop

Start Apache again:

systemctl start httpd

As the screenshot demonstrates, the Server API has changed to CGI/FastCGI.

Convert Standalone Apache to LiteSpeed¶

Now we will show how to set up LSWS on a server that already has a working Apache installation but no control panel.

Install LiteSpeed Speed Web Server¶

Download¶

Download LSWS tarball from the LiteSpeed Technologies website.

Run the following commands from SSH as root

cd /root
wget http://www.litespeedtech.com/packages/5.0/lsws-5.3.8-ent-x86_64-linux.tar.gz

Unpack¶

tar zxfv  lsws-5.3.8-ent-x86_64-linux.tar.gz

Run the installation script¶

Make sure to put the license file (trial.key or paid license serial.no file) in the unpacked folder.

cd lsws-5.3.8
./install.sh

The installer will ask you a number of questions (covered in detail here). Choose the default setting when in doubt, but you have to set the same username and groupname as Apache for the LiteSpeed process to run as (choosing LiteSpeed default setting nobody:nobody may create file permission problem):

  * LiteSpeed target install directory (/usr/local/lsws).
  * Assign the same username and group as Apache for LSWS to run as (You need to check with Apache configuration or Apache running process. It maybe nobody:nobody, apache:apache or www-data:www-data etc.)
  * Listen port (8088)(8088 is for sample testing site only. LSWS will automatically check Apache configuration for Listening port if "Load Apache Configure" selected as instructed below).
  * Default Web Admin Port:7080
  * Assign a username and password for LSWS web admin console.
  * Your email address as the Administrators email.

Install PHP¶

Enable the LiteSpeed repository and download LSPHP from our repository. See instructions here. You may have a default php.ini file installed through RPMs and you just need to make some changes to match it to the existing Apache PHP. Check both phpinfo pages for any differences.

Load Apache Configuration in LSWS¶

Open the LiteSpeed WebAdmin Console and, under Configuration > Server > General, change configurations in Using Apache Configuration File table, like so:

• Load Apache Configuration: Yes
• Auto Reload On Changes: Use Apache Binary Wrapper
• Apache Configuration File: /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
• Apache Port Offset: 2000 (Try LiteSpeed on port 2080 and 2443 first, change to 0 later, do NOT use 8088 or 8008)
• Apache IP Offset: 0
• PHP suEXEC: Yes (Run PHP in suEXEC mode)
• PHP suEXEC Max Conn: 5 (The maximum PHP processor each account can have)

You may have environment parameters like these set in your Apache conf file in /etc/apache2/envvars or other locations:

User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}
...

These must be included in WebAdmin Console > Apache Environment > Using Apache Configuration File, like so:

APACHE_RUN_USER=www-data
APACHE_RUN_GROUP=www-data
APACHE_PID_FILE=/var/run/apache2.pid
APACHE_RUN_DIR=/var/run/apache2

LiteSpeed may run into an "absolute path" problem like this:

[/etc/apache2/apache2.conf:250] Failed to get absolute path for [/usr/local/apache/ports.conf]!
2015-07-06 12:37:03.282 ERROR [/etc/apache2/apache2.conf:267] Failed to get absolute path for     [/usr/local/apache/conf.d/]!
2015-07-06 12:37:03.282 ERROR [/etc/apache2/apache2.conf:270] Failed to get absolute path for   [/usr/local/apache/sites-enabled/]!
2015-07-06 12:37:03.582 ERROR HttpListener::start(): Can't listen at address 127.0.0.1:80: Address already in use!
2015-07-06 12:37:03.582 ERROR HttpServer::addListener(127.0.0.1:80) failed to create new listener
2015-07-06 12:37:03.882 ERROR HttpListener::start(): Can't listen at address 63.247.170.35:80: Address already in use!
2015-07-06 12:37:03.883 ERROR HttpServer::addListener(63.247.170.35:80) failed to create new listener
2015-07-06 12:37:03.883 ERROR [:5] Listener for default is not available!
2015-07-06 12:37:16.601 ERROR [ADMIN] authentication failed!
2015-07-06 12:38:12.156 ERROR [ADMIN] authentication failed!

This means that your apache2 configuration may have some relative path problems. You can clear the above errors by setting ServerRoot in that apache2 configuration, like so:

ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"

Most of the time, LSWS will load your Apache configuration without any error.

Test and switch to LiteSpeed¶

If your application, such as WordPress or Magento, doesn't allow you to run offset port for LSWS you won't be able to test LiteSpeed with Apache is running at the same time. You will need to stop Apache and start LSWS.

If your application allows it, you can set a port offset such as 2000. Start LSWS and test your websites on offset port 2080. Test secured sites on port 2443. This way you may run both Apache (port 80 or 443) and LiteSpeed (port 2080 or 2443) at the same time.

If there are any problems, they are probably PHP issues. Check LiteSpeed's error log, stderr log or PHP errors log for details. Server error log and stderr log are set to the following location by default unless you customize them:

/usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log
/usr/local/lsws/logs/stderr.log

PHP error logs are normally located in the directories where the PHP scripts run. Use the following command from your server's document root to find them:

find . -name php_errors.log

Check the appropriate php_errors.log and try to clear the errors. Sometimes the problem is as simple as an undefined date.timezone in php.ini.

If all sites work properly, stop Apache, change "Apache Port Offset" to 0, and restart LSWS. All hosted website will be powered by LiteSpeed now.

 chkconfig httpd off

 chkconfig lsws on

update-rc.d -f apache2  remove
update-rc.d lsws defaults

Monitor¶

If you have a script that monitors for the web server process, remember to update it to reflect the location of LSWS.