LiteSpeed Web Server Users' Manual
Version 4.2 Rev. 5
Virtual Host General
Table of Contents
Document Root | Administrator Email | Enable GZIP | Enable IP Geolocation |
Use Server Log | File Name | Log Level | Rolling Size |
Log Control | File Name | Piped Logger | Log Format | Log Headers | Rolling Size | Keep Days | Bytes Log | Compress Archive |
Use Server Index Files | Index Files | Auto Index | Auto Index URI |
Error Code | URL | Action |
Suffix | Type | Handler Name |
Document Root  |
| Description: Specifies the document root for this virtual host. $VH_ROOT/html is recommended. This directory is referred to as $DOC_ROOT in contexts. |
| Syntax: A path which can be absolute, or relative to $SERVER_ROOT, or relative to $VH_ROOT. |
Administrator Email |
| Description: Specifies email addresses of the administrators of this virtual host. |
Enable GZIP |
| Description: Specifies whether to enable GZIP compression for this virtual host. This setting is effective only when server-level GZIP compression is enabled. The virtual host can only turn off compression enabled at the server level. Compression settings are configured at the server level (in Tuning-GZIP). |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
| See Also: Enable Compression, Compression Level (Static Content), Enable Dynamic Compression, Compression Level (Dynamic Content) |
Enable IP Geolocation |
| Description: Enterprise Edition Only Specifies whether to enable IP geolocation lookup. It can be set at server-, virtual host-, or context-level. |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
| See Also: Use Client IP in Header, DB File Path, DB Cache Type |
Use Server Log |
| Description: Specifies whether to put log messages from this virtual host into the server log file instead of creating its own log file. |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
File Name |
| Description: Specifies the path for the log file. |
| Syntax: File name which can be an absolute path or relative to $SERVER_ROOT. |
| Tips: [Performance] Place the log file on a separate disk. |
Log Level |
| Description: Specifies the level of logging. Available levels (from high to low) are ERROR, WARNING, NOTICE, INFO, and DEBUG. Only messages with a level higher than or equal to the current setting will be logged. If you want to set it to DEBUG, you must set the server log level to DEBUG as well. The level of debugging is controlled solely at the server level by Debug Level. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
| Tips: [Performance] Unless Debug Level is set to a level other than NONE, DEBUG log level does not have any performance impact and is recommended. |
| See Also: Debug Level |
Rolling Size |
| Description: Specifies when the current log file needs to be rolled over, also known as log rotation. When the file size is over the rollover limit, the active log file will be renamed to log_name.mm_dd_yyyy(.sequence) in the same directory and a new active log file will be created. The actual size of the rotated log file once it is created will sometimes be a little bigger than this size limit. Set to 0 to disable log rotation. |
| Syntax: Integer number |
| Tips: Append "K", "M", "G" to the number for kilo-, mega- and giga- bytes. |
Log Control |
| Description: Specifies where to write the access log. There are three options: 1. Write to the server's access log; 2. Create an access log for this virtual host; 3. Disable access logging. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
File Name |
| Description: Specifies the file name of the access log file. |
| Syntax: File name which can be an absolute path or relative to $SERVER_ROOT. |
| Tips: [Performance] Put access log file on a separate disk. |
Piped Logger |
| Description: Specifies the external application that will receive the access log data sent by LiteSpeed through a pipe on its STDIN stream (file handle is 0). When this field is specified, the access log will be sent only to the logger application and not the access log file specified in previous entry. The logger application must be defined in External Application section first. Server-level access logging can only use an external logger application defined at the server level. Virtual host-level access logging can only use a logger application defined at the virtual host level. The logger process is spawned in the same way as other external (CGI/FastCGI/LSAPI) processes. This means it will execute as the user ID specified in the virtual host's ExtApp Set UID Mode settings and will never run on behalf of a privileged user. LiteSpeed web server performs simple load balancing among multiple logger applications if more than one instance of a logger application is configured. LiteSpeed server always attempts to keep the number of logger applications as low as possible. Only when one logger application fails to process access log entries in time will the server attempt to spawn another instance of the logger application. If a logger crashes, the web server will start another instance but the log data in the stream buffer will be lost. It is possible to lose log data if external loggers cannot keep up with the speed and volume of the log stream. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
Log Format |
| Description: Enterprise Edition Only Specifies the log format for the access log. When log format is set, it will override the Log Headers setting. |
| Syntax: String. The syntax of log format is compatible with Apache 2.0's custom log format. |
| Example: Common Log Format (CLF) "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" Common Log Format with Virtual Host "%v %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" NCSA extended/combined log format "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\" Log cookie value of Foobar "%{Foobar}C" |
| See Also: Log Headers |
Log Headers |
| Description: Specifies whether to log HTTP request headers: Referer, UserAgent, and Host. |
| Syntax: Select from checkbox |
| Tips: [Performance] Turn this off if you do not need these headers in the access log. |
| See Also: Log Format |
Keep Days |
| Description: Specifies how many days the access log file will be kept on disk. Only rotated log files older than specified number of days will be deleted. The current log file will not be touched regardless how many days' data it contains. If you do not want to auto-delete stale and very old log files, set this value to 0. |
| Syntax: Integer number |
Bytes Log |
| Description: Specifies the path to the bandwidth bytes log file. When specified, a cPanel compatible bandwidth log will be created. This will log the total bytes transferred for a request including both the request and reply body. |
| Syntax: File name which can be an absolute path or relative to $SERVER_ROOT. |
| Tips: [Performance] Put the log file on a separate disk. |
Compress Archive |
| Description: Specifies whether to compress rotated log files in order to save disk space. |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
| Tips: Log files are highly compressible and this is recommended to reduce disk usage for old logs. |
Use Server Index Files |
| Description: Specifies whether to use the server's index file settings. If set to Yes, only the server's settings will be used. If set to No, the server's settings will not be used. If set to Addition, additional index files can be added to server's index file list for this virtual host. If you want to disable index files for this virtual host, you can set the value to No and leave the index files field empty. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
Index Files |
| Description: Specifies names of index files that will be searched sequentially when a URL is mapped to a directory. You can customize it at the server, virtual host, and context level. |
| Syntax: Comma delimited list of index file names. |
| Tips: [Performance] Only set index files that you need. |
Auto Index |
| Description: Specifies whether to generate a directory index on the fly when index files listed in Index Files are not available in a directory. This option is customizable at the virtual host and context level, and is inherited along the directory tree until it is explicitly overridden. You can customize the generated index page. Please check online wiki How-tos. |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
| Tips: [Security] It is recommended to turn off Auto Index wherever possible to prevent revealing confidential data. |
| See Also: Index Files, Auto Index URI |
Auto Index URI |
| Description: Specifies the URI that will be used to generate the index page when index files listed in Index Files are not available in a directory. LiteSpeed web server uses an external script to generate the index page providing the maximum customization flexibility. The default script produces an index page with same look as Apache's. To customize the generated index page, please read online wiki How-tos. The directory to be indexed is passed to the script via an environment variable "LS_AI_PATH". |
| Syntax: URI |
| See Also: Index Files, Auto Index |
Customized Error Pages |
| Description: Whenever the server has a problem processing a request, the server will return an error code and an html page as the error message to the web client. Error codes are defined in the HTTP protocol (see RFC 2616). LiteSpeed web server has a built-in default error page for each error code, but a customized page can be configured for each error code. error pages can also be further customized to be unique for each virtual host. |
Error Code |
| Description: Specifies the HTTP status code for the error page. Only the selected HTTP status code will have this customized error page. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
URL |
| Description: Specifies the URL of the customized error page. The server will forward the request to this URL when the corresponding HTTP status code has returned. If this URL refers to a non-existing resource, the built-in error page will be used. The URL can be a static file, a dynamically generated page, or a page on another web site (a URL starting with "http(s)://"). When referring to a page on another web site, the client will receive a redirect status code instead of the original status code. |
| Syntax: URL |
Action |
| Description: To change the error page setting, click "Edit". To remove this customized error page, click "Delete". |
Suffix |
| Description: Specifies the script file suffixes that will be handled by this script handler. Suffixes must be unique. |
| Syntax: Comma delimited list with period "." character prohibited. |
| Tips: The server will automatically add a special MIME type ("application/x-httpd-[suffix]") for the first suffix in the list. For example, MIME type "application/x-httpd-php53" will be added for suffix "php53". Suffixes after the first need to set up in the MIME Settings settings. Though we list suffixes in this field, the script handlers use MIME types, not suffixes, to decide which scripts to handle. You can thus use the Apache configuration directives "AddType" and "ForceType" (which control file MIME types) in .htaccess files to change which script handler certain files will use. For example, with the directive AddType application/x-httpd-php53 .php in a properly placed .htaccess file, you can stipulate that php files in this directory have the MIME type "application/x-httpd-php53" and thus will be handled by the script handler that uses MIME type "application/x-httpd-php53" (suffix "php53"). This then allows you to assign different script handlers, not only for different file suffixes, but also based on the locations of files. [Performance & Security] Only specify the suffixes you really need. |
Type |
| Description: Specifies the type of external application that processes these script files. Available types are: CGI, FastCGI, Web Server, LSAPI app, Load balancer, or Servlet Engine. For FastCGI, Web Server and Servlet Engine, a Handler Name needs to be specified. This is an external application name as predefined in the External Application section. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
Handler Name |
| Description: Specifies the name of the external application that processes the script files when the handler type is FastCGI, Web Server, LSAPI, Load Balancer, or Servlet Engine. |
| Syntax: Select from drop down list |
HT Access |
Description: The following directives are supported in a directory level access control file (.htaccess file).
|
Allow Override |
Description: Specifies what directives in an access control file are allowed. An access control file can be placed in a directory to control the accessibility of files under that directory.
Allow Override configuration is available at three levels: server, virtual host and context. If a configuration is not checked at the server level, the controlled directives will be disabled for the whole server whether or not it is enabled at lower levels. If something is enabled at the server level, virtual hosts will inherit same settings by default. Similarly context level settings will be inherited from virtual host settings. Lower levels can disable a setting that is enabled at an upper level, but cannot enable a setting that is disabled at an upper level. |
| Syntax: Select from checkbox |
| Tips: [Performance] If there is no need for directory level configuration customization, check None. |
Access File Name |
| Description: Specifies the name of access control files. These files will be used only if Allow Override is enabled. Default name is .htaccess. You can configure this at server level and virtual host level. Server level is the default setting, and you can override it at virtual host level. |
| Syntax: File name with ".". |
| See Also: Allow Override |
Enable Expires |
| Description: Specifies whether to generate an Expires header for static files. If enabled, an Expires header will be generated based on Expires Default and Expires By Type. This can be set at server, virtual host and context level. Lower level settings will override higher level ones, i.e. context settings will override virtual host settings and virtual host settings will override server settings. |
| Syntax: Select from radio box |
Expires Default |
| Description: Specifies default settings for Expires header generation. This setting takes effect when Enable Expires is set to "Yes". It can be overridden by Expires By Type. Do not set this default at the server or virtual host level unless you have to, since it will generate Expires headers for all pages. Most of time this should be set at the context level for certain directories that do not change often. If there is no default setting, no Expires header will be generated for types not specified in Expires By Type. |
| Syntax: A|Mseconds The file will expire after base time(A|M) plus specified seconds. Base time "A" sets the value to the client's access time and "M" to the file's last modified time. |
Expires By Type |
| Description: Specifies Expires header settings for individual MIME types. |
| Syntax: Comma delimited list of "MIME-type=A|Mseconds". The file will expire after base time (A|M) plus specified seconds. Base time "A" sets the value to the client's access time and "M" to the file's last modified time. MIME-type accepts wildcard "*", like image/*. |
Apache Style Configurations |
| Description: Specifies Apache configuration directives (supported by LiteSpeed) that you want to use in LiteSpeed native configuration file. For example, to override the default PHP configurations (php.ini entries) the server will need four directives: "php_value", "php_flag", "php_admin_value" and "php_admin_flag". |
| Syntax: Same as Apache configuration file. |