From LSWS Enterprise to LiteHTTPD

Why Migrate?

LSWS Enterprise provides full .htaccess support but requires a paid license. LiteHTTPD (Full edition) achieves 90%+ compatibility on the free, open-source OpenLiteSpeed — without license fees. This page covers replacing LSWS with LiteHTTPD-Full, which includes the patched OLS binary for RewriteRule execution and php_value support.

Feature Comparison

| Feature | LSWS Enterprise | LiteHTTPD (OLS) | |---------|----------------|-----------------| | .htaccess compatibility | 100% | 90%+ | | Static RPS (no .htaccess) | 24,786 | 22,104 | | Static RPS (200-line .htaccess) | 20,306 | 21,960 | | .htaccess overhead | -18.1% | -0.7% | | Baseline memory | 819 MB | 676 MB | | License | Paid (from $0/mo free tier to $65/mo) | Free (GPLv3) | | Source code | Proprietary | Open source | | LSCache built-in | Yes | Via OLS cache module | | Admin GUI | Yes | OLS WebAdmin (free) | | cPanel/Plesk integration | Yes | No (manual config) |

Note

LiteHTTPD actually has lower .htaccess parsing overhead than LSWS Enterprise (-0.7% vs -18.1%) thanks to its fingerprint-based directive caching.

Migration Steps

1. Install OpenLiteSpeed

   # AlmaLinux / Rocky
   rpm -Uvh https://rpms.litespeedtech.com/centos/litespeed-repo-1.3-1.el9.noarch.rpm
   dnf install openlitespeed
   
   # Install the patched version (LiteHTTPD-Full, recommended)
   dnf install ./openlitespeed-litehttpd-*.rpm

2. Install LiteHTTPD module

   cp litehttpd_htaccess.so /usr/local/lsws/modules/

3. Migrate configuration

   LSWS uses XML config (httpd_config.xml), OLS uses plaintext (httpd_config.conf). Key mappings:

   | LSWS (XML) | OLS (plaintext) | |-----------|----------------| | <listener><address>*:80</address></listener> | listener Default { address *:80 } | | <virtualHost><vhRoot>/var/www</vhRoot></virtualHost> | virtualHost Example { vhRoot /var/www } | | <allowOverride>255</allowOverride> | allowOverride 255 | | <docRoot>$VH_ROOT/html/</docRoot> | docRoot $VH_ROOT/html/ |

4. Copy document roots

   Your website files and .htaccess files need no changes. Just point OLS vhosts to the same directories:

   docRoot /var/www/html
   allowOverride 255
   autoLoadHtaccess 1

5. Configure PHP

   LSWS uses its built-in lsphp. For OLS, install lsphp separately:

   dnf install lsphp84 lsphp84-mysqlnd lsphp84-xml
   ln -sf /usr/local/lsws/lsphp84/bin/lsphp /usr/local/lsws/fcgi-bin/lsphp

   For production performance, configure the worker pool:

   extProcessor lsphp {
       env PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=10
       env PHP_LSAPI_MAX_IDLE=300
   }

6. Enable the module

   module litehttpd_htaccess {
       ls_enabled 1
   }

7. Stop LSWS, start OLS

   # Stop LSWS
   /usr/local/lsws/bin/lswsctrl stop
   
   # If OLS is installed to the same prefix, just start it
   /usr/local/lsws/bin/lswsctrl start
   
   # If separate prefix, adjust paths accordingly

Features Not Available in LiteHTTPD

| LSWS Feature | Status in LiteHTTPD | Alternative | |--------------|--------------------|----| | Built-in page cache (LSCache) | Not in module | Enable OLS cache module + LiteSpeed Cache plugin | | cPanel/Plesk integration | Not supported | Manual OLS config or use CyberPanel | | QUIC/HTTP3 | Supported by OLS natively | No change needed | | ModSecurity | Supported by OLS natively | No change needed | | ESI (Edge Side Includes) | Not supported | — | | GeoIP | Not in module | Use OLS native GeoIP |

SSL Certificate Migration

Copy your existing SSL certificates and update the OLS listener:

listener SSL {
    address *:443
    secure 1
    keyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem
    certFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem
}