LiteSpeed Server Appliance

Overview

The LiteSpeed Server Appliance is a fast, modern web server environment built on:

OpenLiteSpeed for blazing-fast HTTP/3-powered web serving
MariaDB for robust, MySQL-compatible databases
PHP 8.3 and essential extensions
Redis, GZIP, and Brotli for performance and caching
Self-signed SSL out of the box, with Let's Encrypt support via Certbot

It's perfect for hosting WordPress or other high-performance websites and apps on low-powered hardware such as Raspberry Pi.

⚡ Why OpenLiteSpeed?

OpenLiteSpeed is a next-generation web server built for performance, efficiency, and scalability making it the clear choice over platforms like Apache in 2025.

🚀 Blazing Fast: OpenLiteSpeed serves dynamic PHP content up to 6× faster than Apache and 2× faster than NGINX, thanks to its event-driven architecture and LSAPI.
🔋 Low Resource Usage: Designed with modern workloads in mind, OpenLiteSpeed can handle high traffic on modest hardware with a fraction of the CPU and memory usage of traditional servers. Did someone say Raspberry Pi?
🔄 Effortless Scalability: Handles thousands of concurrent connections with ease! No need for complex tuning or reverse proxy layers.
🔒 Built-in HTTP/3, QUIC, and Brotli: Stay ahead with cutting-edge protocols and compression for superior speed and SEO.
🧩 Compatible with .htaccess & Apache-style Configs: Easily migrate sites from Apache without rewriting your code or server configs.
🧠 Smart Caching and Optimization: Especially when paired with LSCache (see below) OpenLiteSpeed delivers ultra-fast load times even under heavy load.

Whether you're running a small VPS or scaling to enterprise traffic, OpenLiteSpeed delivers unmatched performance with minimal overhead and it's 100% open source.

Web Server Performance

Serving a 10 KB PHP page (SSL LABS latency test, 50 concurrent requests)

Web Server	Requests per Second
Apache 2	5.5
NGINX	16.1
OpenLiteSpeed	34.2

🧪 Numbers vary slightly based on configuration, caching, and hardware. These values are approximate based on benchmark tests from LiteSpeedTech and real-world tests from server comparison blogs (2023–2025).

🔧 Enabling LSCache via `.htaccess`

OpenLiteSpeed includes support for LSCache by default. LSCache is a high-performance, server-level cache engine that significantly improves website speed and reduces server load.

To enable LSCache for your site:

Create or edit a .htaccess file in your document root (e.g., /var/www/html/.htaccess)

Add the following LSCache rules:

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
    CacheEnable public /
    CacheEnable private /
    CacheExpiresActive On
    CacheExpiresByType text/html A300
</IfModule>

Restart OpenLiteSpeed to apply the changes:
```
systemctl restart lsws
```

Note: This configuration example caches both public and private content and sets a default expiration of 300 seconds (5 minutes) for HTML content. You can customize these values to suit your needs. You may wish to disable caching during active development, as it can prevent you from seeing changes immediately.

Default Settings

Web Root: /var/www/html
WebAdmin Panel: https://your-server-ip:7080
- Set admin password: /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh (as root)
Web View: https://your-server/
UFW Firewall: Enabled (Ports 22, 80, 443, 7080 allowed)
php.ini is located at /usr/local/lsws/lsphp83/etc/php/83/litespeed/php.ini

SSL Setup

✅ Configured Out-of-the-box

A self-signed SSL certificate is preinstalled and active for your site on port 443.
This lets you test HTTPS immediately with a browser security exception.

🔒 Upgrade to Let's Encrypt SSL (Recommended)

Let's Encrypt certbot is already installed and ready.
Ensure your domain points to this server.

Run:

certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/html -d yourdomain.com

Update LiteSpeed's config to use the real cert:

certFile                 /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem
keyFile                  /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem

Restart LiteSpeed:
```
systemctl restart lsws
```

Notes

The appliance does not include WordPress or any CMS by default. Install your web site or CMS to /var/www/html/
All configuration happens during the build phase. End users can begin using the server immediately.
File uploads, rewrite rules, caching behavior, and database settings can be optimized, but editing of defaults via LiteSpeed WebAdmin or php.ini is entirely open.

Support & Licensing

This appliance is open source and released under the Apache 2.0 license. Use at your own risk. Contributions and forks are welcome.

5.1 KiB Raw Blame History Unescape Escape