What Is Installed on Your xCloud Server?

When you create a server with xCloud or connect one from Vultr, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, Hetzner, AWS or any other Ubuntu provider, you choose a stack under Choose Web Server: NGINX, OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) or Plain, which has no web server. xCloud installs a shared base on every server, then the software for the stack you chose. PHP and some tools are not installed with the server. They are added when you create a site that needs them.

To compare the stacks side by side, including the Agentic stack for AI agent platforms, see Available Server Stacks in xCloud.

Installed on every server

Every stack, including Plain, gets the same operating system setup:

• Security: the UFW firewall, Fail2Ban for SSH, password login turned off with key-only root login, kernel security fixes and automatic security updates
• System setup: all packages upgraded, a 1 GB swap file, hostname, timezone, DNS resolvers, the xcloud user with your SSH keys and a cleanup job for old xCloud task files and large logs
• Base packages:
  • build-essential, gcc, g++, make, pkg-config
  • git, curl, zip, unzip, file, gpg
  • python3, python3-pip
  • supervisor (keeps processes running)
  • ufw, fail2ban
  • zsh, ncdu, acl, whois, uuid-runtime, lsb-release, software-properties-common
  • libmcrypt4, libpcre-dev, libpng-dev

NGINX Web Server (LEMP Stack)

When you select NGINX, xCloud installs the following on top of the shared base:

• Nginx from the official nginx.org repository
• Database: the one you pick when you create the server (MySQL 8.0, MySQL 8.4, MariaDB 10.6 or MariaDB 11), or none
• Redis (redis-server) for object caching
• Docker, installed the first time you deploy a Docker-based one-click app
• xCloud server monitoring

Added when you create a site (NGINX)

• PHP-FPM in the version the site needs, with these extensions: cli, fpm, dev, mysql, pgsql, sqlite3, gd, curl, mbstring, xml, zip, bcmath, soap, intl, readline, igbinary, gmp, imagick, redis, memcached, imap and msgpack. PHP 8.5 leaves out memcached, imap and msgpack.
• Composer, with the first PHP version
• WP-CLI, when you create a WordPress site
• Node.js, when you create a Node.js site or app

Each new PHP version is installed alongside the others, so sites on the same server can run different versions.

OpenLiteSpeed (OLS) Web Server

When you select OpenLiteSpeed, xCloud installs the following on top of the shared base:

• OpenLiteSpeed web server, with the WebAdmin console
• Database: the one you pick when you create the server (MySQL 8.0, MySQL 8.4, MariaDB 10.6 or MariaDB 11), or none
• Redis (redis-server) for object caching
• xCloud server monitoring

Added when you create a site (OpenLiteSpeed)

• LiteSpeed PHP (LSPHP) in the version the site needs, with these extensions: common, dev, mysql, pgsql, sqlite3, curl, opcache, intl, imagick, redis, memcached, imap, msgpack and igbinary. On PHP 8.5, OPcache is built into PHP, so it is not a separate package.
• Composer, with the first PHP version
• WP-CLI, when you create a WordPress site
• Node.js, when you create a Node.js site or app

For the admin console, see How to Access OpenLiteSpeed WebAdmin in xCloud.

Plain Server (No Web Server)

When you select Plain, xCloud installs only the shared base above. There is no web server, PHP, database, Redis, Docker or xCloud monitoring agent.

You can install NGINX or OpenLiteSpeed on a Plain server later from Management, then Install Web Server. That step installs the web server and starts monitoring. It does not add a database or Redis; install those from the server’s settings when you need them. See How to Create a Plain Server with xCloud.

Need more information regarding xCloud servers? Contact our dedicated support team for assistance.