LiteSpeed Technologies
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DOCUMENTATION

Installation/Uninstallation

Minimum system requirements
  • Operating System:
       Linux(x86_64): kernel 2.6 and above
       FreeBSD(x86_64): 8.0 and above

  • CPU:
       Intel: 80486 and above
       Sun: UltraSPARC and above
       PowerPC: PowerPC G4

  • Memory:
       32MB and above

  • Disk:
       Installation: 10MB
       Runtime: 20MB and above, swapping space depends on usage

Installation Steps

Installation must be performed in a command line terminal. For testing purpose, LiteSpeed Load Balancer can be installed into your home directory as a non-privileged user. For production use, it should be installed into a system directory. Under Mac OS X, root user is disabled by default; it can be enabled by using the NetInfo Manager Application in /Applications/Utilities folder. If you don't want to enable root user, you can use "sudo" to install LiteSpeed Load Balancer into a system directory as well.

  1. decompress the package into a convenient location:
    tar xvfz lslb-xxxx.tar.gz or gunzip -c lslb-xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -

  2. Install license key or serial number.
    • Install trial license. Trial license is for evaluation purpose and is only good for around 30 days. It will be sent to you in the confirmation email if you request to evaluate our product. Please copy trial.key to the installation directory.
      If you are switching from a trial license to a formal license, please follow the steps below to get your permanent license key and run installer again to update your license.

    • Our production licensing procedure is:
      1. Each production license is assigned with one serial number.
      2. The serial number(s) will be sent to you as attachment in the confirmation email after you order has been successfully processed.
      3. A license key request should be generated by the Installer based on the serial number and your server's hardware signatures.
      4. After we receive the request, a permanent production license key will be assigned and sent to you.

      Please be aware that the license key is associated with the serial number and the server's hardware signature. A new key is required if changes of hardware signature is detected. We will update your license key for a small license migration fee.
      For users without the production license key, the serial number (named as serial.no) should be copied to the installation directory before starting the Installer.
      If the production license key is available, please also copy it (should be named as license.key) to the installation directory.

  3. Go to the installation directory cd lslb-xxxx and run command ./install.sh
    "root" user can install the server into a system directory; non-root user should install it to somewhere under his home directory.
    Mac OS X user can install the server into a system directory with command sudo ./install.sh

  4. Read the End User License Agreement and type "Yes" to confirm your agreement.

  5. Generate license request.
    If the Installer only finds serial number but no valid license key, it will prompt to generate a license request. The installer will exit after generating the request.
    The generated request lic_req.bin should be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A new license key will be sent back to you in email shortly after we receive you request, please save it to the installation directory and run the Installer again.

    Note: Installation will continue only if there is a valid/trial license.


  6. Follow the instructions on the screen.
    The following questions will be asked:
    1. User and group that the server process run on behalf of.
    2. Destination directory where the server should be installed.
    3. If an installed copy exists, choose either Update or Reinstall.
      Update will keep your current configuration.
    4. Administrator's username and password for the administration web interface.
    5. TCP port for normal web service.
    6. TCP port for web administration interface.
    7. "root" user has option to enable "chroot". The installer will setup the initial chroot environment automatically. We strongly recommend not enabling it unless you are familiar with "chroot". You can always enable it later with an upgrade installation.
    "root" user can also choose to run LiteSpeed Load Balancer as a service which starts automatically at system startup.
    Server can be started by the installer once it is installed successfully.

Testing Installation
  1. There are a couple of ways to control the server process. For detail information please see Administration Guide. To start the server, simply run [your_install_dir]/bin/lslbctrl start.

  2. If the default port for normal web service was not changed during installation, point your browser to http://[address]:8090/, otherwise replace "8090" with actual port used. "[address]" should be the IP address or domain name of Load Balancer machine. Use "localhost" if it is accessed from the same machine. Load Balancer will try to route request to a default LiteSpeed Web Server installation on localhost, port 8088, if it does not work, try next step.

  3. If the default port for web administration interface is not changed during installation, point your browser to http://[address]:7090/, otherwise replace "7090" with actual port used. "[Address]" should be the IP address or domain name of your load balancer machine. Use "localhost" if it is accessed from the same machine.
    The welcome page of administration interface should be loaded, click "Log on" link and use the administrator's username and password specified during installation to log on. For detailed information regarding configuration, please refer to our Configuration Guide, or click "help" link on top of each page.

  4. If your server uses firewall, please make sure that localhost is trusted. For instance, Linux with IPTables should include a rule ALLOW INPUT from LO.

  5. If the web administration interface is inaccessible either, please take a look at the error log - [your_install_dir]/logs/error.log
    • If it is because of TCP port confliction with other server applications, the load balancer should be reinstalled with an available port.
      The following command can be used to find an available port:
      netstat -an | grep XXXX
      XXXX is the port number. If the port is available, no output should be produced.

    • If it is because swapping directory is not writable, you can either grant write permission of swapping directory to the user whom the web server running as, or change the swapping directory manually.
      The swapping directory is configured in the server's XML configuration file located at [your_install_dir]/conf/lslbd_config.xml, default value is /tmp/lslbd/swap. Search for <swappingDir>.
If you still have problem with installation, please post your problem on our support Forum.

Upgrade

There are a few scenarios that you need to update the server software or license.

  • A new release is available
  • Upgrade from a trial license to production license
  • Upgrade production license from N CPU to M CPU license.

To upgrade to another release, just run install.sh again and select 'upgrade', your current configuration will be kept.
The built-in update agent will check new release periodically and automatically download new package and send email notification about the new release. Server upgrade can be performed via the web admin interface by clicking the upgrade link in the version management page.

For license upgrade, you can manually copy "serial.no" and "license.key" to [your_install_dir]/conf/ directory then restart, it is recommended to backup your old license key first.

Version Management
  • Multiple versions of LiteSpeed Load Balancer can be installed and easily switched from one to another by using the version management utility provided [your_install_dir]/admin/misc/mgr_ver.sh.
    • To switch to version A, for example 1.0, just run [your_install_dir_current_version]/admin/misc/mgr_ver.sh 1.0
    • To remove previous installed files for version A, for example 1.0, just run [your_install_dir_current_version]/admin/misc/mgr_ver.sh -d 1.0
  • Version management is also available from WebAdmin interface under "Service Manager - Server - Version Management". It will list all the installed versions and available new releases. You can install new release or switch between different versions by just a click.
Uninstallation Steps
  1. Simply run [your_install_dir]/admin/misc/uninstall.sh and follow the instructions on the screen.

  2. The following questions will be asked:
    • whether to keep the log directory
    • whether to keep the configuration directory

  3. All the directories that are not created by the Installer will not be touched, even they are under [your_install_dir]. But all the files created by the installer will be removed.

  4. [your_install_dir] will be removed as well if it is empty.