ISPCONFIG server migration with apache to litespeed webserver

I would like to add some experiences with that from my days working for a webhosting company here in the NL;
We hosted websites that were accessed by schoolstudents all over the country every week-day around the same time-slots, so we needed to build for high-availability during peak-hours. The site required parts to be in PHP though, so we had to work with that requirement. After lots of testing we ended up with many options, but by far the best performing option was a HA-proxy cluster of servers with NGINX as the actual webserver, with php-fpm. Apache soon became a bottleneck in many situations, as did other webserver software we tried. We even used LiteSpeed, but it was too limited in its featureset at the time. Either way, I don't think LiteSpeed will win from NGINX with the right config, this has often been benchtested by others too, and for me there's no reason to doubt the power of nginx, especially if you have logins, stateful cookies, 'large' file uploads, CORS requirement, header-tweaks and such. Nginx is by far the easiest to config for heavy usage websites, if you'd ask me. An often overlooked feature within NGINX is the *order* of putting stuff in the conf files, if you switch things around (from top to bottom etc.) this can change entire functionality, and often also makes all the difference in performance for serving HA websites.

Anyway, for my limited personal use, I will probably go try use ISPconfig, after having tried many other control panels I'm going back to try ispconfig again. As far as I can see, this CP is the only one combining nginx with postfix, rspamd and unbound, while fully supporting IPv6! And one feature for me to try out with this CP is that I'm using cloudflare for dns as well as LetsEncrypt certification. I don't think that should be too hard to implement. Advantage of running cloudflare dns is that you can use their api for LetsEncrypt entries, and then run wildcard certs (*.domain.tld) for all your domains and update them easily through using their api. If I can contribute creating an interface between ispconfig and cloudflare for certs, I will try and help.

 

Already tested and it works great with CF. I did actually share the tips for wildcard certs via CF but using certbot. Should be easier if one use acme.sh but I did not have time to test and write on that.

 

Nginx can´t work with PHP...

 

really... hmm.. ispconfig is written in php.. wordpress is writen in php. there's a lot of members of this site using those bits of software on servers running nginx.. care to explain to them exactly how their servers can't work?

wordpress seem to think php can work with nginx... https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/nginx/
as do ionos.. https://www.ionos.co.uk/digitalguide/hosting/blogs/wordpress-nginx/
and digital ocean... https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/php-fpm-nginx

 

Eeh, you may want to try it sometime.. https://hackr.io/blog/nginx-vs-apache#conclusion

 

Someone with a TommyBoy handle, with different numbers tacked on, wanted me to build them a functionally complete copy of eBay/Amazon/etc, with thousands of curated product listings, for $2k a couple of years ago. That person's understanding of the relevant technology was about like what I'm reading from this guy. He told me I didn't understand, and that I wasn't using "the best software" to build websites, which is why I couldn't give him TommyBay™ without a team of developers on generous salaries.

I did not know the first thing about Linux/Ubuntu/Debian or LAMP/LEMP when I first ran across ISPConfig many years ago. I knew I wanted to though, and so did the work to learn. I got the manual, chose to donate monthly and have continued to do so all this time, spent time on this forum and anywhere else generous people are willing to help with respectful questions. I learned it all to a very comfortable level.

Specifically, the thing that helped me the most was to write my own private "How to Perfect Server", revising, adjusting, adding, removing, clarifying over and over again. It was my self-educated version of taking notes in class, then re-writing them when I studied.

Don't know how to add lite-speed, but think it absolutely must be part of ISPConfig? Learn how to contribute or pay someone else to do it. Stop talking about the community having a duty to "demand" features. Impatience demands the impossible. It asks for a reward without the burden of earning it.