LiteSpeed Web Server 5.0 RC 1 Released: SPDY/3.1, ESI Support, and More!

The release of LiteSpeed Web Server 5.0 will be a major jump for HTTP servers, making new levels of functionality and performance available to many sites.

Download LiteSpeed Web Server 5.0 RC1 here.

Here are the advances included in the first release candidate for LSWS 5.0:

1. SPDY/3.1 Support

Two months ago, OpenLiteSpeed was the first widely available web server to support SPDY/3.1. Now, after testing in OpenLiteSpeed, SPDY is coming to LiteSpeed Web Server Enterprise Edition. SPDY is the bridge to HTTP 2.0 and will help increase the performance of the entire Internet. Our SPDY support includes SPDY/2, 3, and 3.1.

If you haven’t already heard of SPDY, you can read up on the increased features available here.

2. ESI Support for LSCache

LSWS 5.0 introduces ESI support. ESI (Edge Side Includes) is a markup language that allows you to break a page of dynamic content up into sections which can be served differently. In particular, ESI allows for partial page caching so that parts of a page generated by a web application (Magento, for example) can be cached even if other parts of the page cannot. This improves web application performance by allowing for greater cache use. We will provide a fuller explanation in a future post.

3. WebSocket Proxying

WebSocket proxy support was first implemented in OpenLiteSpeed 1.2. WebSocket allows bidirectional communication between the server and client — instead of the client having to request content, the server also sends the client content without waiting to be asked. This enables true realtime experiences. Using LiteSpeed Web Server’s WebSocket proxy feature allows you to control WebSocket connections with LiteSpeed’s performance and security features and allows you to use LSWS to serve other kinds of content on the same page as your WebSocket application.

4. CPU Affinity

LSWS 5.0 adds a CPU Affinity setting. CPU affinity binds a process to one or more CPUs (cores). It is beneficial for a process to always use the same CPU because then the process can make use of data left in CPU cache. If the process moves to a different CPU, there is no use of CPU cache and unnecessary overhead is required. LSWS’s new CPU Affinity setting allows you to control how many CPUs your LiteSpeed Web Server processes will be bound to. It is generally best to keep this setting at “1” so that your LSWS process always uses the same CPU and thus makes the most use of CPU cache.

This Is Just the Start

This is just the first release candidate for LSWS 5.0. There is much work to do before the final release of 5.0 is ready (and there are more features planned for RC2). We encourage all interested users to download and try out 5.0. For some, it may be very useful to start the process of implementing these new features. If you have bugs to report, please let us know. We’re looking forward to officially releasing LiteSpeed Web Server 5.0 as soon as possible!