Table of Contents

Installation/Uninstallation

Installation

Installation must be performed in a command line terminal. For testing purposes, LiteSpeed Web Server can be installed into a home directory by a non-privileged user. For production use, it should be installed into a system directory.

You can also use the sudo command to install LSWS into a system directory without enabling the root user, but system folders will still only be manipulable by the root user. This means that every time you want to control LSWS from the command line terminal (like when you want to start or stop LSWS), you will have to use the sudo command.

Decompress

Decompress the package into a convenient location:

tar xvfz lsws-xxxx.tar.gz

or

gunzip -c lsws-xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Note: Replace xxxx in the above filenames with the correct values. It will vary based on the version of LSWS you are installing.

Install Trial License Key or Serial Number

Trial License

  1. A trial license is for evaluation purposes and is only good for 15 days after download. A trial license can be requested from the LiteSpeed website.
  2. A trial license key will be sent to you as an attachment in a confirmation email. Please save the attachment as trial.key and copy it to the installation directory.
  3. When you switch from a trial license to a production license, you can simply run the install script again after following the steps below to update your license.

Production License

  1. Licenses can be leased or purchased in the LiteSpeed store.
  2. A serial number will be sent to you in the confirmation email after your order has been successfully processed. Each serial number allows for one server installation.
  3. Save the serial number as serial.no in the installation directory (where install.sh is located). The LiteSpeed products registration server will use this file to retrieve your license key during the installation process.

Begin Installation

Run the following commands to go to the installation directory and start LiteSpeed's Installer (remember to replace xxxx with the correct value):

cd lsws-xxxx
./install.sh

Note: Only by running these commands as the root user can you install the server into a system directory. Other users should install it to somewhere under their home directory.

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

Specify the directory where you would like to install LiteSpeed Web Server. For the root user, the default is /usr/local/lsws. For non-privileged users, the default is their home directory.

Generate License Request

If the Installer only finds a serial number but no valid license key, it will prompt you to generate a license request. The installer will talk to the LiteSpeed products registration server and obtain a valid license key automatically. Upon procuring the license key, installation will proceed to the next step.

If the automatic process fails, the installer will exit and leave a license request file. In this case, you can create a ticket for the license department from the LiteSpeed store client area.

Complete Installation

Follow the instructions on the screen. The Installer will ask you to set the following:

  1. If a previously installed copy exists, the Installer will ask you to choose from upgrade, reinstall, or change directory. Upgrading will preserve your current configuration.
  2. Administrator's username and password for the WebAdmin interface.
  3. What control panel, if any, you will use with LSWS.
  4. User and group that the server process will run on behalf of.
  5. TCP port for normal web service.
  6. TCP port for WebAdmin interface.
  7. Whether to set up LiteSpeed PHP.
  8. The root user has the option to enable chroot. The installer will set up the initial chroot environment automatically. Chroot is an advanced feature and your CGI may fail without configuration tuning. We strongly recommend not enabling chroot unless you are familiar with it. You can always enable it later by performing an upgrade installation.

At the end of the installation process, the Installer will ask you if you want to install the AWStats add-on module to keep track of your web statistics. Root user can also choose to run LiteSpeed Web Server automatically at system startup as a service.

Installation is complete! The Installer can now start up the server.

Testing Installation

Note: For detailed information on controlling the server processes, please see the Administration Guide.

To start the server, simply run [your_install_dir]/bin/lswsctrl start from the terminal.

To access your site, point your browser to http://[your_domain]:8088/, [your_domain] being the IP address or domain name of your web server machine. Use localhost if the server is on the machine you are using. 8088 is the default port. If you changed the port during installation, use the port number you designated. A congratulations page should load into the browser. If not, try the WebAdmin Console.

The default port for the WebAdmin Console is 7080. Point your browser to http://[your_domain]:7080/, [your_domain] being the IP address or domain name of your web server machine. Use localhost if the server is on the machine you are using. If you changed the port for WebAdmin during installation, use that port instead. The WebAdmin Console welcome page should load. Click the 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 the Help link on top of each page.

Troubleshooting

If you still have problems with installation, please check out our wiki or post your problem on our support forum.

Upgrading

There are a few scenarios where you would need to update or upgrade the server:

Upgrade to the latest release, force reinstall, or downgrade to an old version using the command line tool lsup.sh. See detailed usage information via [your_install_dir]/admin/misc/lsup.sh --help

Uninstalling

  1. Simply run [your_install_dir]/admin/misc/uninstall.sh and follow the instructions on the screen.
  2. The Uninstaller will ask the following questions:
    • whether to keep the log directory
    • whether to keep the configuration directory
  3. Directories that were not created by the Installer will not be touched, even if they are in [your_install_dir]. All the files created by the Installer will be removed.
  4. [your_install_dir] will be removed as well, but only if it is empty.