In early 2019, he decided to try Web Servers (LSWS) as the primary web server instead of Apache. it is a drop-in replacement for Apache with .htaccess file support.
Compared to Apache, it has some advantages:
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
hPanel
it is fully compatible with the most popular panels of hosting providers, such as WHM/cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk and others.
However, it uses a custom hosting panel – hPanel – which has dynamic vhost based management and + custom LUA scripts. Here’s how it works: vhost data is stored in Redis. Openresty retrieves this data when a web request is received. It is then passed to the Apache web server.
Originally, LiteSpeed is configured by configuration files. However, we wanted to implement a fully dynamic management, which did not need to reload the services to update the configuration, as we did with the Openresty configuration. We contacted the LiteSpeed support team and explained our current setup and the fact that we wanted it to be managed dynamically.
We were lucky because they were already developing the version 5.4 from LiteSpeed. They were happy to help us and implement it in the development branch. That was great news for us as we didn’t have to re-implement our current problem management process. vhost.
So not only have we replaced Apache, but we’ve also removed Openresty, reducing the amount of software used to process requests, which also improves performance.
development rate
When we planned the migration to LiteSpeed, we thought it would take about a month. After discussing how it would be implemented, LiteSpeed engineers developed a working version with dynamic data management. vhost in about a week, which is really fast for this type of software. We install it in our development environment and prepare the migration tools to replace Apache.
Redis support was added to LSWS 5.4RC3. Unfortunately for us, we did not realize the number of changes planned and already made in LSWS 5.4RC3. The release date of the stable version was still unknown to us. The RC4 was also on the way with additional changes to be tested. Here at we often experience bad traffic coming to our clients’ websites, so it was a good means of catching all the unexpected bugs. After the first release on our production server, we started getting bug reports. From that moment on, the bug hunt began. For almost two months since the first release, we started reporting bugs to LiteSpeed engineers every day. The good news is that when the LSWS crashes for any reason, only the crashed visitor is affected, as the LSWS generates a core file and resumes easily in next to no time. LiteSpeed engineers focused on fixing those bugs and we got a new version out within hours after reporting these bugs daily. When we stopped receiving crash reports from the first server, we increased the set of servers running LiteSpeed, and then new crashes appeared. After about three months of these tests, verifying, reporting and fixing bugs, a week came without reports of crashes and we could say that the stable version finally arrived.
The result
After implementing LiteSpeed, we saw a noticeable improvement in performance compared to our old setup. Most of our clients use it as a content management system, so we tested it with LiteSpeed on our servers. We saw a big improvement in the (TTFB) compared to Apache.
LiteSpeed cache plugin
LiteSpeed engineers have developed their own for WordPress. With this plugin installed the TTFB got even better by a big margin.
To learn more about how the LiteSpeed cache plugin works, you can read this .
On the other hand, the latest version of LiteSpeed 5.4 has huge improvements in SSL/TLS, QUIC, and built-in security features that are enabled by default on all servers.
After seeing this performance improvement, we decided to install the for all users who install via the auto installer from . We also encourage all users using WordPress or other popular CMS to install the LiteSpeed Cache plugin to reap its benefits.
LiteSpeed has developed caching plugins for the most popular CMS like WordPress, Magento, Joomla, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Drupal and more. See the full list.
At we always strive to provide the best experience for our users by allowing them to use the latest technology. We want to make it easy for customers to set up, use, and maintain their websites.
Carlos is a professional in digital marketing, eCommerce and website builders. He loves helping businesses grow online through his tips. In his free time, he is surely singing or practicing martial arts.
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