Guides - Deploy OpenLiteSpeed WordPress through the Linode Marketplace

This Marketplace App installs the OpenLiteSpeed web server, WordPress, the LiteSpeed caching plugin for WordPress, as well as other necessary software. Together, these applications provide an accelerated hosting platform for WordPress. OpenLiteSpeed is the open source edition of the LiteSpeed web server. It combines speed, security, scalability, optimization, and simplicity in one friendly open-source package.

Deploying a Marketplace App

The Linode Marketplace allows you to easily deploy software on a Compute Instance using the Cloud Manager. See Get Started with Marketplace Apps for complete steps.

1. Log in to the Cloud Manager and select the Marketplace link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Complete the form by following the steps and advice within the Creating a Compute Instance guide. Depending on the Marketplace App you selected, there may be additional configuration options available. See the Configuration Options section below for compatible distributions, recommended plans, and any additional configuration options available for this Marketplace App.

4. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Compute Instance has been provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail.

To verify that the app has been fully installed, see Get Started with Marketplace Apps > Verify Installation. Once installed, follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section to access the application and start using it.

Configuration Options

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• Suggested minimum plan: All plan types and sizes can be used.

OpenLiteSpeed WordPress Options

• Email address (required): Enter the email address you wish to use when configuring the WordPress admin user, generating SSL certificates, and optionally creating DNS records for a custom domain.

• WordPress Admin Username (required): Username for your WordPress admin user account. Defaults to admin if no username is entered.

• WordPress Database Username (required): MySQL username for the WordPress database user. Defaults to wordpress if no username is entered.

• WordPress Database Name (required): Name for the WordPress MySQL database. Defaults to wordpress if no database name is defined.

• Website Title: Enter a title for your WordPress site.

  Note

  The passwords for the WordPress Admin User, WordPress Database User and MySQL root user are automatically generated and provided in the file /home/$USERNAME/.credentials when the WordPress deployment completes.

Limited Sudo User

You need to fill out the following fields to automatically create a limited sudo user, with a strong generated password for your new Compute Instance. This account will be assigned to the sudo group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the sudo prefix.

• Limited sudo user: Enter your preferred username for the limited user. No Capital Letters, Spaces, or Special Characters.

  Locating The Generated Sudo Password

  A password is generated for the limited user and stored in a .credentials file in their home directory, along with application specific passwords. This can be viewed by running: cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials

  For best results, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user that is deploying the instance, and select that user as an authorized_user in the API or by selecting that option in the Cloud Manager. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both root and the limited user.

• Disable root access over SSH: To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. You can still switch to the root user once logged in, and you can also log in as root through Lish.

  Accessing The Instance Without SSH

  If you disable root access for your deployment and do not provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the authorized_user, you will need to login as the root user via the Lish console and run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view the generated password for the limited user.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish to automatically configure a custom domain, you first need to configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers. This is typically accomplished directly through your registrar. See Use Linode’s Name Servers with Your Domain. Once that is finished, you can fill out the following fields for the Marketplace App:

• Linode API Token: If you wish to use the Linode’s DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain, create a Linode API Personal Access Token on your account with Read/Write access to Domains. If this is provided along with the subdomain and domain fields (outlined below), the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. See Get an API Access Token. If you do not provide this field, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
• Subdomain: The subdomain you wish to use, such as www for www.example.com.
• Domain: The domain name you wish to use, such as example.com.

Getting Started After Deployment

Log in to your Compute Instance over SSH, using the root user or the sudo user created during deployment. See Connecting to a Remote Server Over SSH for assistance. Once logged in, you should see Message of the Day output which includes OpenLiteSpeed HTTPS URLs:

cat /etc/motd

*********************************************************
Akamai Connected Cloud OpenLiteSpeed Wordpress Marketplace App
App URL:
* The Wordpress site: https://example-domain.tld/
* The Wordpress admin login site: https://example-domain.tld/wp-login.php
* The phpMyAdmin site: https://example-domain.tld/phpmyadmin
* The LiteSpeed admin site: https://example-domain.tld:7080/login.php
Credentials File: /home/$SUDO_USERNAME/.credentials
Documentation: https://www.linode.com/marketplace/apps/linode/openlitespeed-wordpress/
*********************************************************

The file /home/$SUDO_USER/.credentials includes chosen usernames and strong generated passwords for WordPress, OpenLiteSpeed and PHPMyAdmin users. It also includes passwords for the generated sudo user and MySQL root user.

Accessing the WordPress Admin Dashboard

1. Open your web browser and navigate to https://[domain]/wp-admin/, where [domain] can be replaced with the custom domain you entered during deployment or your Compute Instance’s rDNS domain (such as 192-0-2-1.ip.linodeusercontent.com). You can also use your IPv4 address, though the connection will not be secure. See the Managing IP Addresses guide for information on viewing IP addresses and rDNS.

   Note

   A TLS/SSL certificate is automatically generated for your custom domain, enabling you to connect to the site over the https protocol. If you did not enter a custom domain, a TLS/SSL certificate is configured on the rDNS domain instead. Connections using your IP address are not secured and will use the http protocol.

2. Within the login page that appears, enter the username (admin username) that you created when you deployed this instance and the associated password that was automatically generated. Then click the Log In button.

3. Once logged in, the WordPress Admin Dashboard appears. From here, you can create new posts, add users, modify the theme, and adjust any settings.

4. You can also access the OpenLiteSpeed Admin page for cache and webserver specific settings at https://[domain]].tld:7080/login.php.

   

5. PHPMyAdmin Web UI is available at https://[domain]/phpmyadmin.

   

Going Further

Now that OpenLiteSpeed WordPress has been fully deployed, you can begin adding content and modifying the sites. The following support documents are available:

• See the Linode tab at: https://docs.litespeedtech.com/cloud/images/wordpress/
• WordPress Support: Learn the basic workflows for using WordPress.
• Securing WordPress: Advice on securing WordPress through HTTPS, using a secure password, changing the admin username, and more.
• WordPress Themes: A collection of thousands of WordPress themes.
• Marketplace Apps Repository: Review the deployment Ansible playbooks.

Software Included

The OpenLiteSpeed WordPress Marketplace App installs the following required software on your Linode:

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• OpenLiteSpeed Quick Start guide
• OpenLiteSpeed Knowledge Base
• OpenLiteSpeed Forum