Install OpenLiteSpeed on Ubuntu 16.04

In this guide we will teach you how to install and configure OpenLiteSpeed on your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS. OpenLiteSpeed is a lightweight, open source HTTP server which was developed and copyrighted by LiteSpeed Technologies, Inc. It provides a user friendly web interface and supports several operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS, SunOS, and FreeBSd. It’s pretty simple to install OpenLiteSpeed on an Ubuntu 16.04 VPS.

Step 1: Logging in via SSH

To begin, we will first need to login to the Ubuntu 16.04 VPS via SSH as user root:

ssh root@IP_address

At first, we will recommend to initiate a screen session by running the command below:

screen -U -S openlitespeed

Update the system by running the command below:

apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade

Ensure that your server is always up to date.

Step 2: Installing the required packages:

apt-get install build-essential libexpat1-dev libgeoip-dev libpcre3-dev zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libxml2-dev rcs libpng-dev

Download and extract the latest stable version of OpenLiteSpeed on your server. At the time this guide was made, the latest stable version was OpenLiteSpeed 1.4.26.

cd /opt && wget http://open.litespeedtech.com/packages/openlitespeed-1.4.26.tgz
tar -xvzf openlitespeed-1.4.24.tgz
cd openlitespeed-1.4.24

We will now execute the command below in order to configure the software and compile it. This should install the entirety of the OpenLiteSpeed system within the /usr/local/lsws location:

./configure
make
make install

Step 3: Installing MariaDB

In order to install MariaDB, we will need to execute this command:

apt-get install -y mariadb-server

Once the installation is done, execute the command below to secure your installation:

mysql_secure_installation

Configure it like shown below:

Enter current password for root (enter for none): Enter
Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
New password:
Re-enter new password:
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y

Configure an administrative username and password for the OpenLiteSpeed’s web interface by executing this command:

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

You will be prompted to give a username for the administrative user. If you simply press on ENTER, the username “admin” is going to be chosen. You will then be prompted to choose and confirm a new password for the account.
Once the username and password is setup, we will execute the command below to initiate the web server:

/etc/init.d/lsws start

Accessing OpenLiteSpeed

OpenLiteSpeed should be available on HTTP port 8080 bon default, and the admin login uses port 7080. Open your web browser of choice and point to http://your-domain-name.com:8080, you should see the default OpenLiteSpeed web page. You may also access the administrative interface by pointing to http://your-domain-name.com:7080 on your web browser. You will be prompted to provide the administrative username and password. Once the authentication is successful, you will be redirected to the admin section.
This is it, The OpenLiteSpeed installation is now done.