LiteSpeed Cache Engine Setup

These services include caching itself as well as the ESI and Crawler functions available with our WordPress LSCache Plugin. By disabling the cache globally and enabling it for a particular virtual host, shared hosting providers have different levels of control and may offer LSCache as an add-on service to their customers.

Note

esi and crawler are disabled by default during the initial installation and you will need to enable them specifically.

Note

The default LiteSpeed Cache settings work well with most caching scenarios. Don't change any of the Server Level default cache policy settings. Leave them as Not Set.

Cache Root Setup

You may set up the Cache Root in one of three ways:

  • WHM Plugin (Preferred)
  • Command Line Script
  • Manually from the Command Line

Via WHM Plugin

The preferred way to set up the needed cache root for each vhost is through the WHM plugin. Detailed steps on how to do this can be found here.

Command Line Script

You may use the command line instead of the WHM plugin. Simply run the following script, which will set server level and virtual host level cache roots and cache policies: 

bash <(curl https://www.litespeedtech.com/packages/lscache/set_cache_root_policy.sh)

This script does not enable cache lookup for users. You can either use the LiteSpeed WordPress Cache Management tools in the LiteSpeed WHM Plugin to manage this in bulk, or add the CacheLookup directive to .htaccess files for individual users manually. This can be done by either the server administrator or the user by adding the following lines: 

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
  CacheLookup on
</IfModule>

Set Server-Level Cache Root Manually

Add the following lines to the Apache file /etc/apache2/conf.d/includes/pre_main_global.conf.

Note

It is recommended that you set the server level cache root to /home/lscache/ or a disk partition with enough space.

Set Virtual-Host-Level Cache Root for all Virtual Hosts Manually

Create a lscache_vhosts.conf file in the Apache directory

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/

If these directories do not exist, create them. Your lscache_vhosts.conf file should contain the following lines: 

<IfModule Litespeed>
  CacheRoot lscache
</IfModule>
This is done to set each virtual host's cache directory to its home directory (/home/<user>/lscache).

Note

You only need to run this command once and it will activate for all users, including new users created later by WHM. There is no need to edit the cPanel skeleton file.

Set Virtual-Host-Level Cache Root for a Single VHost Manually

Example: Apache 2.4 installations with an HTTP site

Create a file named lscache_vhost.conf in the Apache directory

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/a/std/2_4/<user>/<domain>/

If your site supports HTTPS (SSL), please also change that working directory to:

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/<user>/<domain>/

If this directory does not exist, create it. Add the following lines to the file: 

<IfModule Litespeed>
CacheRoot lscache
</IfModule>
This will set the cache directory for this virtual host to /home/<user>/lscache. Apply these changes to this virtual host by running the ensure_vhost_includes script with the following flag: 
/scripts/ensure_vhost_includes --user=$user

Note

If different vhosts share the same document root, these vhosts have to share the same vhost-level cache root directory.

Add the following Apache-style configuration directive in your application level document root .htaccess file to enable cache lookup. 

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
  CacheLookup public on
</IfModule>

After applying your cache storage settings, perform a graceful restart of LiteSpeed Web Server to have these changes take effect. LiteSpeed Web Server will automatically create cache root directories with proper permissions. Users don't need to manually create any cache root directories themselves. 

service lsws restart

Advanced Cache Root Setup

Setting Cache Root to a Secondary Disk (with CageFS)

In some environments, you might run with normal hard drives for /home, but you want to place your lscache data on SSDs, such as /ssdcache/lscache. This requires a bit of special configuration both within your CacheRoot setting as well as CageFS. Make sure that your secondary disk is mounted on /ssdcache and that the directory lscache exists.

Within /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/lscache_vhosts.conf, you'll have to add the following content: 

<IfModule Litespeed>
  CacheRoot /ssdcache/lscache/$vh_user
</IfModule>
The above three lines will tell LiteSpeed that the vhost-level cache corresponds to a dynamic LSCache folder which matches the user of the VirtualHost. This will ensure that the cache for each customer gets separated. If you're using CageFS, you also need to expose this within the caged environment. Luckily, it's rather easy to do!

In your /etc/cagefs/cagefs.mp file, you can add the line: 

%/ssdcache/lscache
By using % in front of the path, it utilizes the "split by username" functionality added in CageFS 5.3.1, so what will be exposed within CageFS will be /ssdcache/lscache/$user. To apply the above changes, we first rebuild the httpd configuration in cPanel and restart LiteSpeed: 
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf
/scripts/restartsrv_httpd
Afterwards, we have to remount CageFS for all users, so the new path becomes available within CageFS: 
cagefsctl --remount-all
Your LSCache data will now be stored on the SSD instead!

Crawler

Since LSWS v5.1.16+, there are four different approaches you can take to crawling on your server:

  • You can disable it for the entire server
  • You can disable it for the entire server, and selectively enable it for specific vHosts
  • You can enable it for the entire server
  • You can enable it for the entire server, and selectively disable it for specific vHosts

Enabling the Crawler and ESI

To enable the crawler, you need to add the "Crawler Snippet" below to the appropriate Apache file:

Server Level

/etc/apache2/conf.d/includes/pre_main_global.conf

Global Virtual Host Level

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/

Individual Virtual Host Level

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/<user>/<domain>/

If your site supports HTTPS (SSL), please also change that working directory to:

/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/<user>/<domain>/

Here's the snippet: 

<IfModule Litespeed>
  CacheEngine on crawler
</IfModule>
Here it is with both crawler and ESI enabled : 
<IfModule Litespeed>
  CacheEngine on esi crawler
</IfModule>

After you've added the Crawler Snippet in the appropriate location, you should gracefully restart the server. 

service lsws restart

Limiting the Crawler

Currently LiteSpeed Web Server supports the following variables:

  • CRAWLER_USLEEP puts a minimum allowed value on the Delay field.
  • CRAWLER_LOAD_LIMIT sets a default for the Server Load Limit field.
  • CRAWLER_LOAD_LIMIT_ENFORCE sets a maximum allowed value on the Server Load Limit field.

To use these variables, add them one per line to the apache configuration file. For example: 

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
  CacheEngine on crawler
  SetEnv CRAWLER_USLEEP 1000
  SetEnv CRAWLER_LOAD_LIMIT 5.2
</IfModule>

Disabling the Crawler

For LSWS v5.3.5+ and later, you can add CacheEngine -crawler to the Apache virtual host configuration, like so, to disable the crawler: 

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
  CacheEngine -crawler
</IfModule>