Web servers

A web-server handles user requests to websites on the server with ISPmanager.

ISPmanager supports the following web-servers:

• Nginx — handles static content;
• Apache — handles static and dynamic content. 

We recommend that you use both servers. Apache’s .htaccess file gives it an edge for those in need of shared hosting, while Nginx has the upper hand with dynamic content and more elaborate features. 

Web-servers can work with several WWW-domains on a single IP address. To do so Apache uses virtual hosts (VirtualHost) and Nginx uses several sections server in the configuration file. The configuration files of the web-servers contain all parameters for website management. Those parameters are configured according to the information specified for a WWW-domain. Learn more in Add a WWW-domain.

To select an Apache version go to Cluster settings → Policy and select one of the following variants in the Apache mode field:  

• Apache MPM-Prefork — this method implements a non-threaded web-server. That means that each Apache child process contains a single thread and handles one request at a time.  As long as the number of requests is fewer than the number of processes, Apache Prefork is very fast.  The processes run with the permissions of the user that runs Apache. Therefore, it is less secure than Apache MPM-ITK and requires more permissions on website files;  
• Apache MPM-ITK — It allows you to run each of your vhost under a separate uid and gid, so it is more isolated. Apache ITK helps avoid issues with accessing files of the user website.