Choose the Right LiteSpeed suEXEC for Your Shared Hosting

LiteSpeed Web Server’s numerous PHP suEXEC options offer great flexibility. Our new documentation makes it easier to decide which is right for your shared hosting service.

With the release of LSWS 4.2.5, we introduced the new PHP ProcessGroup mode to allow for even more powerful suEXEC opcode caching and customization. There are now three different suEXEC modes for LiteSpeed Web Server: suEXEC Daemon, suEXEC ProcessGroup, and suEXEC Worker (previously referred to in some documentation as “server managed mode”). We realize that, with so many choices, it may be difficult for hosts to choose which setup to use on their VPS or dedicated server. To help with this decision, we have released more detailed documentation and a comparison of the different suEXEC setups.

Basic Differences in PHP suEXEC Setups

All three suEXEC setups create new processes when needed to meet demand for PHP content (as well as providing suEXEC security, of course). The main difference is how these processes are created.

suEXEC Worker: Each process is spawned brand new as a standalone process.

suEXEC Daemon: The server has one constantly running daemon process which spawns new child processes when needed.

suEXEC ProcessGroup: Each ProcessGroup user gets one parent process which spawns child processes for that user when needed.

These different methods of controlling process creation lead to better opcode caching for suEXEC Daemon and ProcessGroup and the use of custom php.ini files with suEXEC Worker and ProcessGroup. More detailed information can be found in the comparison.

Make the jump to LiteSpeed!

Note: For a brief period after its release, we referred to ProcessGroup as WorkerGroup. We have changed the name to make difference clearer. We hope this has not caused too much confusion.