What's installed on your OpenLiteSpeed server?
- OpenLiteSpeed web server, installed by the official ols1clk script without Docker
- LSPHP and MariaDB: the installer's current defaults are LSPHP 8.4 and MariaDB 11.8
- WebAdmin console on port 7080, with the login admin
- Site root at /var/www/html, on a virtual host that reads .htaccess rewrite rules
- Let's Encrypt certificate for the site and WebAdmin; the server restarts itself after renewal
- fail2ban and automatic Ubuntu security updates
- Firewall with ports 22, 80, 443 and 7080 open
What size do you need for OpenLiteSpeed?
OpenLiteSpeed's installation docs give no RAM figure, because the site you put on it decides what it needs. As a rule of thumb, 1 GB is a start for one small PHP site. Look at 2 GB for several virtual hosts or a content management system, and 4 GB for sites that lean heavily on the database. If it isn't enough, you can grow RAM, CPU and disk separately from your panel, and your data and IP address stay the same.
| Use | Size | Price | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| New site | 1 GB RAM · 1 vCore · 25 GB NVMe | $2.58/mo | |
| Growing site | 2 GB RAM · 1 vCore · 40 GB NVMe | $4.01/mo | |
| Busy site | 4 GB RAM · 2 vCore · 60 GB NVMe | $6.89/mo |
Who is it for?
- Developers who want their PHP site on OpenLiteSpeed
- Anyone who wants a web server they can manage from a web console
- Sites moving over with Apache-style rewrite rules
- People managing several sites from one place with virtual hosts
- Sites with visitors in Turkey that should run on a server in Istanbul
What happens after you order?
- Set the size and complete your payment.
- Your server starts and the stack installs itself. This took about 5 minutes in our real-server tests.
- In your panel, open your server from My servers. On the Overview tab, the Panel address row opens WebAdmin and the Site address row opens your site.
- Log in to WebAdmin with the Login and Password rows. The login is admin.
- Upload your files to /var/www/html over SFTP, using the root user and password shown in the panel. You can delete the welcome page, index.php.
- Connect over SSH and run chown -R nobody:nogroup /var/www/html to give the files the right owner.
With every server
- Daily backups included in the price
- Unlimited traffic
- Full root access
- Scale RAM and CPU up or down later, and grow the disk
- Location: Istanbul · IST-1.
Good to know
- WebAdmin's port 7080 is open to the internet. LiteSpeed's documentation advises keeping it open to administrative IPs only, so restrict it to your own IP address with ufw.
- The password in the panel is for WebAdmin only. The MariaDB root password is separate and is in /usr/local/lsws/password. Create a separate database and user for your site.
- After changing a rule, run systemctl restart lsws. OpenLiteSpeed only applies new .htaccess rules after that.
- Ubuntu security updates install by themselves. Updates to OpenLiteSpeed, LSPHP and your site's code are your responsibility.
- If a certificate can't be issued, the site opens over http on your IP address, and WebAdmin stays at https://IP:7080 with a browser certificate warning.
OpenLiteSpeed questions and answers
What is OpenLiteSpeed?
OpenLiteSpeed is the open-source edition of LiteSpeed Web Server, distributed under GPLv3 with no license fee. It reads Apache-compatible rewrite rules, is managed through a web console and runs PHP with LSPHP.
How much RAM does OpenLiteSpeed need?
OpenLiteSpeed's installation docs give no RAM figure. As a rule of thumb, 1 GB is a start for one small PHP site, and 2 GB for several virtual hosts or a content management system. If it isn't enough, you scale up from your panel.
How do I log in to OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin?
Use the Panel address link on your panel's Overview tab or click Open app. The address is on port 7080. The login is admin, and the password is in the Password row. The Username and Password rows further down are for SSH.
Does OpenLiteSpeed support .htaccess?
Partly. OpenLiteSpeed reads only Apache rewrite rules from .htaccess and ignores other directives. On this server the files load automatically, and you restart the server after changing a rule.
Can I install WordPress on an OpenLiteSpeed server?
Yes. Unpack WordPress into /var/www/html, create a separate database and user in MariaDB and finish the setup. If you'd rather have a server with WordPress and LSCache already installed, have a look at the WordPress LiteSpeed option.
How do I connect my own domain to OpenLiteSpeed?
Point the A record at your IP address and add your domain to the listener and virtual host settings in WebAdmin. Over SSH, run certbot certonly --webroot -w /var/www/html -d yourdomain.com, change the keyFile and certFile paths in /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf, then run systemctl restart lsws.