OpenLiteSpeed WordPress Docker Container

Install a lightweight WordPress container with OpenLiteSpeed Edge or Stable version based on Ubuntu 24.04 Linux.

Prerequisites

1. Install Docker
2. Install Docker Compose

Configuration

Edit the .env file to update the demo site domain, default MySQL user, and password. Feel free to check Docker hub Tag page if you want to update default openlitespeed and php versions.

Installation

Clone this repository or copy the files from this repository into a new folder:

git clone https://github.com/litespeedtech/ols-docker-env.git

Open a terminal, cd to the folder in which docker compose.yml is saved, and run:

docker compose up

Note: If you wish to run a single web server container, please see the usage method here.

Components

The docker image installs the following packages on your system:

Component	Version
Linux	Ubuntu 24.04
OpenLiteSpeed	Latest version
MariaDB	Stable version: 11.4
PHP	Latest version
LiteSpeed Cache	Latest from WordPress.org
ACME	Latest from ACME official
WordPress	Latest from WordPress
phpMyAdmin	Latest from dockerhub
Redis	Latest from dockerhub

Data Structure

Cloned project

├── acme
├── bin
│   └── container
├── data
│   └── db
├── logs
│   ├── access.log
│   ├── error.log
│   ├── lsrestart.log
│   └── stderr.log
├── lsws
│   ├── admin-conf
│   └── conf
├── sites
│   └── localhost
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
└── docker-compose.yml

• acme contains all applied certificates from Lets Encrypt

• bin contains multiple CLI scripts to allow you add or delete virtual hosts, install applications, upgrade, etc

• data stores the MySQL database

• logs contains all of the web server logs and virtual host access logs

• lsws contains all web server configuration files

• sites contains the document roots (the WordPress application will install here)

Usage

Starting a Container

Start the container with the up or start methods:

docker compose up

You can run with daemon mode, like so:

docker compose up -d

The container is now built and running.

Stopping a Container

docker compose stop

Removing Containers

To stop and remove all containers, use the down command:

docker compose down

Setting the WebAdmin Password

We strongly recommend you set your personal password right away.

bash bin/webadmin.sh my_password

Starting a Demo Site

After running the following command, you should be able to access the WordPress installation with the configured domain. By default the domain is http://localhost.

bash bin/demosite.sh

Creating a Domain and Virtual Host

bash bin/domain.sh [-A, --add] example.com

Please ignore SSL certificate warnings from the server. They happen if you haven't applied the certificate.

Deleting a Domain and Virtual Host

bash bin/domain.sh [-D, --del] example.com

Creating a Database

You can either automatically generate the user, password, and database names, or specify them. Use the following to auto generate:

bash bin/database.sh [-D, --domain] example.com

Use this command to specify your own names, substituting user_name, my_password, and database_name with your preferred values:

bash bin/database.sh [-D, --domain] example.com [-U, --user] USER_NAME [-P, --password] MY_PASS [-DB, --database] DATABASE_NAME

Installing a WordPress Site

To preconfigure the wp-config file, run the database.sh script for your domain, before you use the following command to install WordPress:

bash bin/appinstall.sh [-A, --app] wordpress [-D, --domain] example.com

Connecting to Redis

Go to WordPress > LSCache Plugin > Cache > Object, select Redis method and input redis to the Host field.

Install ACME

We need to run the ACME installation command the first time only. With email notification:

bash bin/acme.sh [-I, --install] [-E, --email] EMAIL_ADDR

Applying a Let's Encrypt Certificate

Use the root domain in this command, and it will check for a certificate and automatically apply one with and without www:

bash bin/acme.sh [-D, --domain] example.com

Other parameters:

• [-r, --renew]: Renew a specific domain with -D or --domain parameter if posibile. To force renew, use -f parameter.

• [-R, --renew-all]: Renew all domains if possible. To force renew, use -f parameter.

• [-f, -F, --force]: Force renew for a specific domain or all domains.

• [-v, --revoke]: Revoke a domain.

• [-V, --remove]: Remove a domain.

Using mkcert for Local Development SSL

For local development domains (.test, .local, .dev, etc.), you can use mkcert to generate trusted SSL certificates without warnings.

Installing mkcert

First-time installation (Windows with Chocolatey):

bash bin/mkcert.sh --install

This will:

• Install mkcert via Chocolatey
• Create and install a local Certificate Authority (CA) in your system trust store

Generating Local SSL Certificate

After adding a domain to your environment, generate an SSL certificate:

bash bin/mkcert.sh [-D, --domain] example.test

This will:

1. Check if the domain exists in your configuration
2. Generate certificates for example.test and www.example.test
3. Create a dockerLocal template with SSL configuration
4. Copy certificates to the container
5. Move the domain from the standard template to the SSL-enabled template
6. Restart OpenLiteSpeed

Your domain will now be accessible via HTTPS with a trusted certificate at https://example.test

Removing Local SSL Certificate

To remove the SSL certificate and revert to HTTP:

bash bin/mkcert.sh [-R, --remove] [-D, --domain] example.test

This will:

1. Remove the domain from the dockerLocal template
2. Move it back to the standard docker template
3. Delete certificate files from both host and container
4. Clean up empty templates if no other domains use SSL
5. Restart OpenLiteSpeed

Important: You must add the domain to your environment first using bash bin/domain.sh --add example.test before generating certificates.

Update Web Server

To upgrade the web server to latest stable version, run the following:

bash bin/webadmin.sh [-U, --upgrade]

Apply OWASP ModSecurity

Enable OWASP mod_secure on the web server:

bash bin/webadmin.sh [-M, --mod-secure] enable

Disable OWASP mod_secure on the web server:

bash bin/webadmin.sh [-M, --mod-secure] disable

Please ignore ModSecurity warnings from the server. They happen if some of the rules are not supported by the server.

Accessing the Database

After installation, you can use phpMyAdmin to access the database by visiting http://127.0.0.1:8080 or https://127.0.0.1:8443. The default username is root, and the password is the same as the one you supplied in the .env file.

Customization

If you want to customize the image by adding some packages, e.g. lsphp83-pspell, just extend it with a Dockerfile.

1. We can create a custom folder and a custom/Dockerfile file under the main project.

2. Add the following example code to Dockerfile under the custom folder

   FROM litespeedtech/openlitespeed:latest
   RUN apt-get update && apt-get install lsphp83-pspell -y

3. Add build: ./custom line under the "image: litespeedtech" of docker-composefile. So it will looks like this

   litespeed:
     image: litespeedtech/openlitespeed:${OLS_VERSION}-${PHP_VERSION}
     build: ./custom

4. Build and start it with command:

   docker compose up --build

Support & Feedback

If you still have a question after using OpenLiteSpeed Docker, you have a few options.

• Join the GoLiteSpeed Slack community for real-time discussion
• Post to the OpenLiteSpeed Forums for community support
• Reporting any issue on Github ols-docker-env project

Pull requests are always welcome!