Knowledgebase

Lighttpd is a web server and load balancer optimized for speed-critical environments products while remaining standards-compliant, secure and flexible. It is used by many high-traffic websites, including Youtube. Lighttpd supports dynamic HTTP content such as PHP scripts using the FastCGI interface.

Core Features:

• Base distribution: TurnKey 12.1 based on Debian 6.0.7 (Squeeze), TurnKey 13 based on Debian 7.1 (Wheezy)
• Smart backups (TKLBAM): automated backup and restore, with system migration capabilities
• Secure and easy to maintain: auto-updated daily with latest security patches
• Dynamic DNS (hubdns): associates your IP with a custom domain or the free *.tklapp.com domain
• Logical Volume Management (LVM): instead of installing to a fixed size partition, a Logical Volume is first created by default, and this may later be expanded, even across multiple physical devices
• AJAX web shell (shellinabox) - secure command line access from any web browser
• Web management interface (Webmin)
  • Listens on port 12321 (uses SSL)
  • Mac OS X themed
  • Network modules
    • Firewall configuration (with example configuration)
    • Network configuration
  • System modules
    • Backup and migration (TKLBAM)
    • Configure time, date and timezone
    • Configure users and groups
    • Manage software packages
    • Change passwords
    • System logs
  • Tool modules
    • Text editor
    • Shell commands
    • Simple file upload/download
    • File manager (needs support for Java in browser)
    • Custom commands
  • Hardware modules
    • Partitions on local disks
    • Logical volume management
• Simple configuration console (confconsole)
  • Displays basic usage information
  • Configure networking
• First boot initialization
  • Prompt user for passwords
  • Regenerates SSL and SSH cryptographic keys
  • Installs latest security updates, unless user chooses to defer this for later
  • Uses GeoIP to automatically configure closest APT package archive for maximum network performance
• Command line power tools
  • Smart, programmable bash shell completion: helps you get more done with fewer keystrokes.
  • Support for $HOME/.bashrc.d shell hooks
  • Persistent environment variables (see $HOME/.bashrc.d/penv):

penv-set pydoc /usr/share/doc/python2.6/html
exit

# later...
cd $pydoc

• Automatic time synchronization with NTP

Distribution Features:

• Lighttpd configurations:
  • Lighttpd configured with FastCGI PHP support.
  • All components installed and maintaiend through the package management system.
• TurnKey Web Control panel with links to useful references and resources.
• SSL support out of the box
• PHPMyAdmin administration frontend for MySQL (listening on port 12322 - uses SSL)
• Postfix MTA (bound to localhost) to allow sending of email (e.g., password recovery)
• Webmin modules for configuring PHP, MySQL and Postfix.