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Installing OpenLiteSpeed with WordPress on Ubuntu or Debian Linux

OpenLiteSpeed
Wordpress
Ubuntu
Bionic-Beaver
php

OpenLiteSpeed combines speed, security, scalability, optimization, and simplicity in one friendly open-source package. The source code of the project is released under the GPLv3 license and available publicly on GitHub.

The application provides a web-based administration interface, compatibility with Apache rewrite rules, as well as customized PHP processing for improved performance.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

  • A Scaleway account logged into the console
  • Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
  • An SSH key
  • An Instance running on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
  • A domain name configured and pointed to your Instance
  • sudo privileges or access to the root user

Installing OpenLiteSpeed and PHP8.1

  1. Start with installing the OpenLiteSpeed repository: 
    wget -O - https://repo.litespeed.sh | sudo bash
    Tip

    The command above works with Debian and Ubuntu.

  2. Update the package cache and install OpenLiteSpeed via apt. 
    apt update && apt install openlitespeed
  3. Install PHP8.1 from the repository using apt. 
    apt install lsphp81 lsphp81-common lsphp81-curl lsphp81-mysql lsphp81-opcache lsphp81-imap lsphp81-opcache

Setting up MariaDB

  1. Start by installing the MariaDB database server via apt.

    apt install mariadb-server -y

  2. Run the setup utility to configure the MariaDB server and set a password for its root user.

    mysql_secure_installation

  3. Connect to MariaDB as root user with the password configured in the previous step.

    mysql -u root -p

    The MariaDB shell displays.

    Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 49
Server version: 10.1.40-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu 18.04

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]>

  4. Create an SQL database for WordPress and grant it the required permissions.

    CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO wordpress@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '<a_secure_password>';

  5. Leave the MariaDB shell.

    exit;

Testing the OpenLiteSpeed installation

  1. Start OpenLiteSpeed by running the following command: 
    systemctl start lsws
  2. A test site is running at http://instance_ip:8088. Open the test site in your browser. You can run different demo applications like a CGI-script, a check of the installed PHP version, password authentication, file upload, and so on.

Accessing the OpenLiteSpeed administration interface

Open the administration interface in your web browser at https://instance_ip:7080.

Log in using the following credentials:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: A randomly generated password is stored in the /usr/local/lsws/adminpasswd file.
Important

For security reasons, it is recommended to change the admin password by running the following script: /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/admpass.sh;

The administration interface displays.

The status of OpenLiteSpeed is visible in the interface and you can configure additional settings.

Creating a virtual host in OpenLiteSpeed

  1. Enter the OpenLiteSpeed directory.

    cd /usr/local/lsws

  2. Create a directory structure for the new virtual host. You can name it as you want. In this example, it is called wordpress.example.com:

    mkdir wordpress.example.com
mkdir wordpress.example.com/html

  3. Open the OpenLiteSpeed configuration assistant in a web browser and click Virtual Hosts to enter the virtual host configuration. The virtual host list displays.

  4. Click + to create a new virtual host.

  5. Enter the details of the virtual host and click the disk icon:

    • Virtual Host Name: A unique identifier for the virtual host, i.e. WordPress
    • Virtual Host Root: The root directory of the virtual host, i.e. $SERVER_ROOT/wordpress.example.com
    • Config File: The path to the configuration file of the virtual host, i.e. $SERVER_ROOT/conf/vhosts/wordpress.example.com/vhconf.conf

  6. Click Click to create to let OpenLiteSpeed automatically generate a configuration file. As the configuration file is not yet created, OpenLiteSpeed proposes to create a new one. Click the disk icon to save.

  7. Go back to the virtual host configuration and click the General tab to configure the Document Root for the virtual host. Click the disk icon to save the configuration once set:

  8. Click the Rewrite tab in the virtual host configuration. Then activate the Enable Rewrite and Auto Load from .htaccess options and save the configuration:

Creating a listener in OpenLiteSpeed

A listener defines the port on which the application launches. To make WordPress available on the standard HTTP port (Port 80), a new listener has to be configured in OpenLiteSpeed.

  1. Enter the Listeners section of the administration panel, then click + to configure a new listener:

  2. Enter the details of the new listener:

    • Name: A name for the listener, i.e. Web
    • IP Address: Define an IP address to listen on, or select ANY to listen on all IP addresses configured on the instance.
    • Port: Set the port to listen on, i.e. 80 to listen on the standard HTTP port
    • Binding: Choose the OpenLiteSpeed child processes to bind the listener on. Leave the default value to bind the listener to all processes.
    • Secure: Select if a secured connection shall be used. A TLS/SSL certificate is required for a secure connection. Set the value to No to use plain HTTP.
    • Notes: This field can be used to add notes to a listener.

Once all values are set, save the configuration by clicking on the disk icon. 3. Map the listener to a virtual host and set the domain name by clicking on + in the Virtual Host Mappings section:

  1. Choose the Virtual Host from the drop-down list (i.e. WordPress) and enter the domain name to use for the virtual host. Once set, click the disk icon to save the configuration:
  2. Launch a graceful restart of OpenLiteSpeed by clicking on the logo, then on the corresponding button:

Downloading and installing WordPress

  1. Enter the web directory of the virtual host: 
    cd /usr/local/lsws/wordpress.example.com/html
  2. Download and unpack the latest WordPress release: 
    wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xvzf latest.tar.gz
  3. Set the ownership of the WordPress folder and the files within it to the user nobody and the group nogroup. This is required so that OpenLiteSpeed can modify files within this folder: 
    chown -R nobody:nogroup wordpress
  4. Open a web browser and go to http://instance_ip/wordpress. The WordPress installer displays. Choose the language for your blog and click Continue. WordPress displays some information about the tasks that will be performed by the automatic installer.
  5. Click Let's Go to move forward.4. Open a web browser and go to http://instance_ip/wordpress. The WordPress installer displays. Choose the language for your blog and click Continue. WordPress displays some information about the tasks that will be performed by the automatic installer.
  6. Click Let's Go to move forward.
  7. Enter the details of your blog and click Install WordPress to launch the installation:
  8. Log in to WordPress to begin writing your blog:

You now have successfully configured a basic setup of OpenLiteSpeed and installed a WordPress blog on it. For more information about OpenLiteSpeed, refer to the official documentation.

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