Litespeed - upgrading the server

Litespeedtech are very good at releasing updated versions of the free and commercial webserver.

This article will take you through the two methods of upgrading to the latest version: automatic and manual upgrades.

As with any Litespeed administration, log into the Admin Area using the port you defined when installing Litespeed:

https://123.45.67.890:31000

If you haven't installed Litespeed then have a look at the install article and the Admin security article to ensure you are using an SSL connection to the Admin Area.

If there is a newer version available, it will be shown in the welcome page:

Click on the 'available' link. This will take you to the 'Version Management' screen where previous versions (if any), the installed version and upgrade versions are shown:

Note from the two images shown above that, depending on where you installed Litespeed, you will be presented with one of two options under the 'Actions' box: upgrade or download.

Why the differences? Well, it depends where you installed Litespeed. If you followed the install article on this site then you would have installed Litespeed in /usr/local/lsws. As you will know, folders in /usr/local are owned by root and, as such, Litespeed does not have permission to install code there - hence we will need to upgrade manually.

If you installed Litespeed to your home folder (~/lsws), then Litespeed will have permission to write to those folders so the automatic upgrade option is given.

Before we split the article into the automatic and manual upgrade sections, let's look at the information available to us:

Referring to the images above, you'll see that the previous version was 3.0.1, the active version (i.e. the version being used) is 3.0.2 and the upgradable version is 3.0.3-std.

Note the option of removing the previous version completely or to switch back to it. A useful feature in case something went wrong with an upgrade.

It is always a good idea to keep one or two previous versions for just that reason - it may be that my rewrite rules no longer work with the new version or some other reason, but the option of switching back to an older version is always useful.

As it is, we want to upgrade to the new 3.0.3 version. Have a read of the release notes that are available via the 'Notes' link. From the version numbers it is unlikely anything major has changed but it's good server admin practice to read the notes before action!

Now we'll split the article in two. Click on one of the two links below to scroll to the relevant section.

Automatic 'upgrade'

Manual 'download'

Automatic upgrade

To complete the automatic upgrade, click on the 'Upgrade' link in the 'Actions' box.

The Litespeed server will automatically download and install the update. It will then gracefully restart itself and you will be back at the welcome screen. The current version is always shown on the welcome screen:

As you can see, the current version is now 3.0.3.

That's it. Automatic upgrades are very simple indeed.

Manual upgrade

Although manual upgrades aren't quite as easy as the automatic option, they aren't difficult.

It follows a very similar procedure to the original install so we need to login to the server via SSH and move to the 'sources' directory.

cd ~/sources

Download the source code for the upgrade, unpack it and move to the new directory:

wget http://www.litespeedtech.com/packages/3.0/lsws-3.0.3-std-i386-linux.tar.gz
tar xvfz lsws-3.0.3-std-i386-linux.tar.gz
cd lsws-3.0.3

Just like the original install, issue the 'install' command:

sudo ./install.sh

Agree to the license and answer the questions appropriately - the first question asks where you want to install Litespeed. Ensure you enter the same directory used for the initial install:

Destination [/opt/lsws]: /usr/local/lsws

Would you like to Upgrade, Reinstall or Change directory [U/r/c]? U

Would you like to reset the login password for Administration Web Interface [y/N]? N

Would you like to change PHP opcode cache setting [y/N]? N

Would you like to install AWStats Add-on module [y/N]? N

Would you like to import Apache configuration [y/N]? N

Would you like to restart it right now [Y/n]? Y

Before you enter the answer to each question, a few lines are given explaining what will happen - for example the AWStats install clearly explains that if already installed then there is no need to reinstall them.

Once finished you will see:

LiteSpeed Web Server started successfully! Have fun!

Lastly, reload/refresh the Litespeed Admin area to be presented with this screen:

As you can see, the current version is now 3.0.3.

That's it. Automatic upgrades may be easier, but that wasn't difficult was it?

Next, we'll configure Litespeed and start to serve our domains.

PickledOnion.

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