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LiteHTTPD

Basic Configuration

OpenLiteSpeed uses a plain-text configuration file at /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf. Most settings can also be managed through the WebAdmin GUI at https://your-server-ip:7080.

Configuration File Structure

Section titled “Configuration File Structure”

The main config file is organized into several blocks:

httpd_config.conf
  serverName
  user / group
  tuning { }
  accessControl { }
  listener(s) { }
  vhostMap { }
  module(s) { }

Key Server Settings

Section titled “Key Server Settings”

Server Identity

Section titled “Server Identity”
serverName                your-hostname.example.com
user                      nobody
group                     nobody

The user and group determine the OS user under which worker processes run. Use a non-root, unprivileged user.

Tuning

Section titled “Tuning”
tuning {
    maxConnections            10000
    maxSSLConnections         10000
    connTimeout               300
    maxKeepAliveReq           10000
    keepAliveTimeout          5
    sndBufSize                0
    rcvBufSize                0
    maxReqURLLen              32768
    maxReqHeaderSize          65536
    maxReqBodySize            2047M
    maxDynRespHeaderSize      32768
    maxDynRespSize            2047M
    maxCachedFileSize         4096
    totalInMemCacheSize       20M
    maxMMapFileSize           256K
    totalMMapCacheSize        40M
    useSendfile               1
    fileETag                  28
    SSLCryptoDevice           null
}

Important tuning parameters:

  • maxConnections — Maximum concurrent connections.
  • connTimeout — Idle connection timeout in seconds.
  • maxKeepAliveReq — Requests allowed per keep-alive connection.
  • keepAliveTimeout — How long to wait for the next request on a keep-alive connection.
  • maxReqBodySize — Maximum upload size. Increase for large file uploads.

Access Control

Section titled “Access Control”
accessControl {
    allow                     ALL
}

This controls server-level IP access. Use allow and deny with IP addresses or CIDR ranges.

Listeners

Section titled “Listeners”

Listeners define which addresses and ports the server binds to. They are covered in detail in Listeners.

listener Default {
    address                   *:8088
    secure                    0
}

Virtual Host Mapping

Section titled “Virtual Host Mapping”

Virtual hosts are mapped to listeners:

vhostMap Default {
    vhost                     Example
    domain                    *
}

See Virtual Hosts for full vhost configuration.

Module Configuration

Section titled “Module Configuration”

Modules are loaded in the module block:

module cache {
    ls_enabled                1
    checkPrivateCache         1
    checkPublicCache          1
    maxCacheObjSize           10000000
    maxStaleAge               200
    qsCache                   1
    reqCookieCache            1
    respCookieCache           1
}

To load the LiteHTTPD module for .htaccess support:

module ols_htaccess {
    ls_enabled                1
}

WebAdmin GUI

Section titled “WebAdmin GUI”

The WebAdmin interface at port 7080 provides a graphical way to manage all these settings. Changes made through WebAdmin are written back to the config files.

To restart the server after manual config file edits:

Terminal window
/usr/local/lsws/bin/lswsctrl restart

Or perform a graceful restart (zero-downtime):

Terminal window
kill -USR1 $(cat /tmp/lshttpd/lshttpd.pid)

Configuration Validation

Section titled “Configuration Validation”

Before restarting, test your configuration:

Terminal window
/usr/local/lsws/bin/lshttpd -t

This checks for syntax errors without restarting the server.

Next Steps

Section titled “Next Steps”