Rare case: Install OLS as Non-Root User from source code

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OpenLiteSpeed will normally be installed through the root user on the production server. If there is some case you do want to install OLS as a non-root user, you can.  The following provides an example to install OLS from source code as a non-root user. The dependencies package may still need the root user to perform.

Dependencies

OpenLiteSpeed requires pcre, expat, openssl, geoip, udns, and zlib to be installed before you run the configure command.

Below you will find instructions for installing the packages depending on your system. If you do not have permission to check, please ask your system administator.

CentOS 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

You may need to enable EPEL repository to get access to some of these packages.

yum install epel-release
yum install gcc gcc-c++ make autoconf glibc rcs
yum install pcre-devel openssl-devel expat-devel geoip-devel zlib-devel udns-devel

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install rcs libpcre3-dev libexpat1-dev libssl-dev libgeoip-dev libudns-dev zlib1g-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev libpng-dev openssl

FreeBSD

Use pkg_add or ports. Here are some examples using ports.

cd /usr/ports/devel/pcre; make install clean; rehash;
cd /usr/ports/devel/rcs; make install clean; rehash;
cd /usr/ports/net/GeoIP; make install clean; rehash;
cd /usr/ports/dns/udns; make install clean; rehash;
cd /usr/ports/textproc/expat2; make install clean; rehash;
cd /usr/ports/security/openssl; make install clean; rehash;

Mac OS X

sudo port install pcre expat openssl rcs libgeoip zlib libudns

Installation Steps

      1. Download the package into a convenient location and decompress it.
      2. Go to the installation directory, compile, and install the package:
cd openlitespeed-1.x.x
./configure --prefix=/home/$USER1/lsws
make && make install

Notes:

  • A number of options and settings can be configured pre-installation. Use ./configure --help to see the configurable options.
  • By default, the Installer will install a sample site on port 8088 and set the WebAdmin console (the LiteSpeed GUI) to port 7080. (user: admin password: 123456 for the earlier version, and “admin” and randomly generated password from v1.6.5 and v1.5.11)
  • On newer versions of OS X, you may have to use ./configure CPPFLAGS=-I/opt/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/opt/local/lib --with-openssl=/opt/local as recent versions of OS X have deprecated usage of the OpenSSL library.
  • Check here on how to enable HTTP2 support during the configure.

Post Installation Steps

Start the Server

To start the server, simply run /home/$USER1/lsws/bin/lswsctrl start. (To stop it, run /home/$USER1/lsws/bin/lswsctrl stop.)

A sample site should be running on the server.

Access the Site

To access your site, point your browser to http://[address]:8088/, [address] being the IP address or domain name of your web server machine. Use localhost if the server is on the machine you are using. By default, OpenLiteSpeed runs on port 8088.

A congratulations page linked to other testing pages should load into the browser when pointed to the above address. If not, try testing the WebAdmin interface.

Testing WebAdmin

The default port for the WebAdmin console is 7080.

Plug https://[address]:7080/, into your browser to go to the WebAdmin interface.

Remember the ,code>https://</code,> and that for [address] you can use localhost if you’re currently using the machine the server is on.

A login page should load. The defaults for the administrator’s user name and password are “admin” and “123456” for the earlier version, and “admin” and randomly generated password from v1.6.5 and v1.5.11.

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

For detailed information regarding configuration, please refer to our Configuration Guide, or click the “Help” link at the top of each page.

Possible Issues

If your website and the WebAdmin console are inaccessible, please take a look at the error log /home/$USER1/lsws/logs/error.log.

If there is a TCP port conflict with other server applications, you will need to stop the application currently running on port 7080. The following command can be used to check port 7080: netstat -an | grep 7080. If the port is available, the command will produce no output.

If the swapping directory is not writable, you can either grant writing permission for the swapping directory to the user whom the web server is running as, or change the swapping directory’s configurations manually. The swapping directory is configured in the server’s XML configuration file: /home/$USER1/lsws/conf/httpd_config.xml. Search the XML file for “swappingDir”. The default location for the swapping directory is /tmp/lshttpd/swap.

If you still have problems with installation, please check the OpenLiteSpeed Development Group.

Uninstallation Steps

      1. Stop OpenLiteSpeed if it is running: /home/$USER1/lsws/bin/lswsctrl stop
      2. Remove the install directory: rm -rf /home/$USER1/lsws

Upgrading

You can change your OpenLiteSpeed version by simply installing a different version of OpenLiteSpeed. Re-installing will not affect your configuration files.