WordPress

Prerequisites

• OpenLiteSpeed installed and running
• PHP 8.1+ with required extensions (see Install PHP)
• MySQL or MariaDB server
• A configured virtual host (see Virtual Hosts)

Database Setup

mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
CREATE USER 'wpuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strong_password_here';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO 'wpuser'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Install WordPress

Using WP-CLI (Recommended)

# Install WP-CLI
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar
chmod +x wp-cli.phar
mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp

# Download WordPress
cd /var/www/example.com
wp core download --allow-root

# Configure
wp config create --allow-root \
  --dbname=wordpress \
  --dbuser=wpuser \
  --dbpass=strong_password_here \
  --dbhost=localhost

# Install
wp core install --allow-root \
  --url=https://example.com \
  --title="My Site" \
  --admin_user=admin \
  --admin_password=admin_password_here \
  [email protected]

# Set ownership
chown -R nobody:nobody /var/www/example.com

Manual Download

cd /var/www/example.com
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
tar xzf latest.tar.gz --strip-components=1
rm latest.tar.gz
chown -R nobody:nobody .

Virtual Host Configuration

virtualhost example {
  vhRoot                  /var/www/example.com
  configFile              conf/vhosts/example/vhconf.conf
  allowSymbolLink         1
  enableScript            1
  restrained              1

  docRoot                 $VH_ROOT/

  index {
    indexFiles             index.php, index.html
  }

  scripthandler {
    add                   lsapi:lsphp  php
  }

  # Enable .htaccess processing
  rewrite {
    enable                1
    autoLoadHtaccess      1
  }
}

WordPress Permalink Rewrite Rules

OLS needs rewrite rules for WordPress pretty permalinks. There are two approaches:

Option A: OLS Native Rewrite (in vhconf.conf)

rewrite {
  enable                  1
  autoLoadHtaccess        1

  rules                   <<<END_rules
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
  END_rules
}

Option B: .htaccess (with LiteHTTPD)

WordPress automatically creates a .htaccess file. With the LiteHTTPD module loaded, OLS processes it natively:

# WordPress default .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

LiteSpeed Cache Plugin

The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is the primary advantage of running WordPress on OLS. It provides server-level full-page caching without any additional configuration.

Install the Plugin

wp plugin install litespeed-cache --activate --allow-root

Or install from the WordPress admin dashboard: Plugins > Add New > search “LiteSpeed Cache”.

Enable OLS Cache Module

In httpd_config.conf, ensure the cache module is loaded:

module cache {
  ls_enabled              1

  checkPublicCache        1
  checkPrivateCache       1
  maxCacheObjSize         10000000
  maxStaleAge             200
  qsCache                 1
  reqCookieCache          1
  respCookieCache         1
  ignoreReqCacheCtrl      1
  ignoreRespCacheCtrl     0

  storagePath             /usr/local/lsws/cachedata
}

Recommended Plugin Settings

After activation, go to LiteSpeed Cache > General:

• Enable LiteSpeed Cache: On
• Guest Mode: On (serves cached pages to first-time visitors)
• Guest Optimization: On

Under LiteSpeed Cache > Cache:

• Cache Logged-in Users: Off (for most sites)
• Cache Commenters: Off
• Cache REST API: On
• Cache Mobile: On (if using a responsive theme, use same cache as desktop)

Cache Purge

# Purge all cache via WP-CLI
wp litespeed-purge all --allow-root

# Or via the admin bar in WordPress dashboard

WordPress Multisite

Subdirectory Multisite

The default .htaccess rewrite rules work for subdirectory multisite. WordPress generates:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

# Add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

Subdomain Multisite

For subdomain multisite, configure a wildcard listener in OLS and use the same virtual host with wildcard ServerName:

listener Wildcard {
  address                 *:443
  secure                  1
  map                     example     *.example.com, example.com
}

Security Hardening

Block PHP Execution in Uploads

With the LiteHTTPD module, add to wp-content/uploads/.htaccess:

<FilesMatch "\.php$">
  Require all denied
</FilesMatch>

Or via OLS context in vhconf.conf:

context /wp-content/uploads/ {
  allowBrowse             1
  location                $VH_ROOT/wp-content/uploads/

  phpIniOverride {
    php_admin_flag engine off
  }
}

Restrict wp-login.php

Using .htaccess with the LiteHTTPD module:

<Files wp-login.php>
  Require ip 192.168.1.0/24
</Files>

Disable XML-RPC

<Files xmlrpc.php>
  Require all denied
</Files>

Performance Tuning

Recommended php.ini for WordPress

memory_limit = 256M
upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 5000

; OPcache
opcache.enable = 1
opcache.memory_consumption = 256
opcache.max_accelerated_files = 10000
opcache.revalidate_freq = 60

OLS Tuning for WordPress

extprocessor lsphp {
  type                    lsapi
  ...
  env                     PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=20
  env                     LSAPI_MAX_REQS=5000
  env                     PHP_LSAPI_MAX_IDLE=300
  memSoftLimit            2047M
  memHardLimit            2047M
}

Troubleshooting

White screen of death:

• Enable WP_DEBUG in wp-config.php: define('WP_DEBUG', true);
• Check /usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log

Permalink 404 errors:

• Verify rewrite is enabled in the virtual host
• Check that autoLoadHtaccess is 1 or that rewrite rules are in vhconf.conf
• Flush rewrite rules: Settings > Permalinks > Save Changes

LiteSpeed Cache not working:

• Verify the OLS cache module is enabled in httpd_config.conf
• Check the X-LiteSpeed-Cache response header (should be hit or miss)
• Ensure storagePath directory is writable

Next Steps

• LiteSpeed Cache — advanced cache configuration
• Security Headers — add security headers via OLS or .htaccess