OpenLiteSpeed automates ACME certificates in WordPress vhost creation

LiteSpeed released a guide on 19 October that reduces the creation of an OpenLiteSpeed virtual host with automatic SSL certificate and WordPress installation to a single command. For anyone managing multiple domains on a single OLS server, this means skipping manual vhost generation, certificate issuance with Certbot and file uploads.

How it works

The mechanism relies on the ACME function built into OpenLiteSpeed, introduced in version 1.9. Starting in OpenLiteSpeed version 1.9 you can have LiteSpeed generate certificates for you using the Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) certifier protocol, without requiring much new and honouring existing certificates. Under the hood runs the open source acme.sh script.

Activation requires two steps, executed only once on the server:

sudo /usr/local/lsws/admin/misc/install_acme.sh

Then, from the WebAdmin Console, in Server Configuration > Tuning > SSL Global Settings, set AutoCert with ACME to On and apply with a Graceful Restart. From that point on, every vhost attached to a listener receives the certificate automatically.

To create a new vhost complete with WordPress, the command is:

/bin/bash <( curl -sk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/litespeedtech/ls-cloud-image/master/Setup/vhsetup.sh ) -d example.com -f -w

The script generates the vhost, the certificate and installs WordPress, also adding the HTTPS enforcement rule.

Requirements to verify first

The feature is not universal. It only works for OpenLiteSpeed servers on Linux running as root, with active internet connectivity and configuration to send and receive requests on the standard HTTP port (80) and on a secure port (typically 443, but can be different).

For wildcard certificates an additional step is required: configuring the vhost with a specific DNS type for the ACME API and modifying the listener mapping, described in the official documentation on wildcard certificates.

Versions involved

ACME support is not new as of today: it appeared in version 1.9.0 of 22 April 2026, along with the new WebAdmin interface and SCGI/uWSGI support. Version 1.9.1, released on 30 June 2026, fixed ACME Auto Cert-specific bugs as well as general code hardening. The current stable release is 1.9.3 of 29 September 2026, with hardening of CGI execution and proxy protocols, websocket, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3: those still using 1.8.x must upgrade before relying on this automation.