The quick‑install guide shows how to bring OpenLiteSpeed up on Linux in under ten minutes, stressing its lighter footprint compared to the usual Apache stack. It walks you through grabbing the installer with wget or downloading an MSI, checking that the lsws service is active, opening the web console at localhost:7080, and setting a simple password before adding your domain as a virtual host. After restarting the server you can verify the change by curling localhost, noting the Server header switches from Apache to LiteSpeed, and you even read about how the author swapped a crashing Ubuntu 16.04 Apache for OpenLiteSpeed after a driver update, cutting load times dramatically. The final steps add an optional self‑signed certificate, enable HTTPS, and provide a stats page where you can monitor CPU, RAM, and connections, so by the end you have a lean, efficient server that may need a tunnel if your ISP blocks port 7080.

OpenLiteSpeed Quick‑Install Guide – Faster Than a Coffee Break

Want a web server that actually responds faster than your neighbor’s Wi‑Fi? OpenLiteSpeed is the answer. It’s free, open source, and lighter on resources than most heavy‑weight Apache setups.

1. Grab the Installer

wget -O - https://openlitespeed.org/packages/ols.repo | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/ols.repo && \
sudo yum install -y openlitespeed

The wget line pulls the repo file straight from OpenLiteSpeed’s servers. That means you’re installing the latest official build, not some third‑party fork that might drop a broken module.

2. Verify the Package

sudo systemctl status lsws

If you see “active (running)”, your server is alive. If it’s inactive, something went wrong during installation—most likely a missing dependency or a bad repository entry. A quick yum update often fixes that.

3. Open the Web Console

Navigate to http://localhost:7080. The first time you hit it, you’ll be prompted for a password—use something snappy, like “open123”. Once inside, tweak the server’s performance settings without touching code.

4. Point It at Your Site

In the console, go to Virtual Hosts > Add. Fill in:

• Host Name: yourdomain.com
• Document Root: /var/www/html or C:\OpenLiteSpeed\www

That tells OpenLiteSpeed where to look for files when someone types your domain. If you’re running a local test, set the host name to localhost and watch it serve pages in milliseconds.

5. Restart and Test

sudo systemctl restart lsws
curl -I http://localhost

The HTTP headers should return quickly; you’ll notice the Server: LiteSpeed line instead of Apache’s. That means OpenLiteSpeed is handling requests, not a background daemon that hogs memory.

6. Keep It Secure

OpenLiteSpeed ships with a default firewall rule that blocks most common attacks. Still, set up HTTPS:

sudo openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out /opt/lsws/conf/certs/server.crt \
     -keyout /opt/lsws/conf/certs/server.key

Then point the console to those cert files under SSL settings. Your site will be encrypted without needing a separate Let's Encrypt wrapper.

7. Monitor and Adjust

Use the built‑in Stats page ( http://localhost:7080/stats) to watch CPU, RAM, and active connections. If you notice a spike, tweak the worker thread count under Engine > Server—more threads = more concurrency, but not at the expense of memory.

Done! Your Web Server Is Ready

You now have a lean, mean OpenLiteSpeed machine that’s easier to maintain than an Apache farm. The installer took less than 10 minutes, and you’re already seeing performance gains. Happy hosting—unless your ISP starts blocking port 7080, then you’ll need a tunnel.