This post shows students and new users the steps to install and use OpenLiteSpeed on Ubuntu Linux. OpenLiteSpeed is an open source web server developed by LiteSpeed Technology. It is designed to be lightweight, it comes with an administration portal to easily manage the server from your favorite web browser.
The administration portal that is installed with OpenLiteSpeed makes it easy for new users and students to manage the server. From the administration portal, you can configure advanced web server settings, manage users, and restart services.
The steps below will also show you how to install MariaDB, PHP8.0 to enable a dynamic to create a dynamic website that can run popular open source content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
If you are looking for an alternative web server, you should consider OpenLiteSpeed.
To start installing OpenLiteSpeed on Ubuntu Linux, follow the steps below:
How to install OpenLiteSpeed on Ubuntu from the repository
You can build and compile the OpenLiteSpeed server on Ubuntu Linux. However, the easiest way to install it on Ubuntu Linux is to add its repository and then install it from there. When you add the repository, the new updates will be available automatically to update your system.
To add the repository, run the following commands:
The above command will also import the OpenLiteSpeed GPG key into Ubuntu and activate it. You can then run the following commands to install OpenLiteSpeed.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openlitespeed
After installing OpenLiteSpeed, the following commands can be used to stop, start, and enable the OpenLiteSpeed services to start automatically when the server starts.
To see if the OpenLiteSpeed service is running, run the following commands.
sudo systemctl status lshttpd
That should generate lines similar to the ones shown below:
lshttpd.service - OpenLiteSpeed HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/lshttpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2021-09-11 17:43:24 CDT; 13s ago
Main PID: 5773 (litespeed)
CGroup: /system.slice/lshttpd.service
├─5773 openlitespeed (lshttpd - main)
├─5783 openlitespeed (lscgid)
├─5813 openlitespeed (lshttpd - #01)
└─5814 lsphp
Sep 11 17:43:22 ubuntu2004 systemd[1]: Starting OpenLiteSpeed HTTP Server...
Sep 11 17:43:22 ubuntu2004 lswsctrl[5745]: [OK] litespeed: pid=5773.
How to configure OpenLiteSpeed on Ubuntu Linux
Once OpenLiteSpeed is installed, it is automatically assigned port 8080 for the administrator panel. Port 80 is a default port for the web server, so we will want to change OpenLiteSpeed to listen on port 80.