XF 2.3 XenForo + LiteSpeed + Redis + Cloudflare Optimization – Is this configuration correct?

[Can]

Hi everyone,

I recently set up a new XenForo forum (LiteSpeed + Redis + Cloudflare Free). The server belongs to me and is running AlmaLinux 10.
To achieve the best performance, I configured several caching and optimization layers.

Before going live, I would like to confirm whether the following setup is correct and conflict-free.

1. LiteSpeed Cache (.htaccess configuration)

LiteSpeed Cache for XF2 - Community

Mar 9, 2018

Quickly and easily implement high-performance page caching on your XenForo forum

• Michael A.
• add-on cache full page caching litespeed performance
• Add-ons [2.x]

I added LiteSpeed’s recommended XenForo block at the top of .htaccess

<IfModule litespeed>
    CacheLookup public on
    RewriteEngine On
    # Guest cache
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(xf_lscxf_logged_in|xf_user|xf_session_admin) [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/install/ [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [E=Cache-Control:max-age=360,E="cache-vary:xf_style_id,xf_language_id"]
    # Logged-in no cache
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} (xf_lscxf_logged_in|xf_user|xf_session_admin) [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [E=Cache-Control:vary=loggedin,E=Cache-Control:no-cache]
</IfModule>

Goal:

• Faster delivery for guests
• No HTML caching for logged-in users/admin
• Avoid breaking XenForo’s dynamic pages

2-Redis (@Xon 's add-on)
Redis is enabled only for object caching.
No full-page caching, no HTML caching.

3. Cloudflare Settings (Free Plan)
Cloudflare is configured to cache only static assets:

• CSS
• JS
• Images
• Fonts

HTML is always BYPASS.

Other Cloudflare settings:

• SSL: Full (Strict)
• Rocket Loader: OFF
• Minify: HTML + CSS ON / JS OFF
• Tiered Cache: OFF
• Early Hints: ON
• Admin / login URLs: Cache bypass
• Browser TTL: 1 day
  
  Goal of this setup
  • Keep HTML fully dynamic
  • Let Cloudflare cache only static content
  • Use Redis to reduce PHP/MySQL load for logged-in users
  • Let LiteSpeed handle optimized delivery without full-page caching
  • Ensure no conflicts between Cloudflare, LiteSpeed, and Redis
    
    
  • QUESTION
    Is this configuration considered correct and recommended for XenForo running on LiteSpeed with Redis and Cloudflare Free?
    Any conflicts or incorrect approaches that I should reconsider?
    
    Thanks in advance for your feedback.

 

[Ricsca]

if you use litespeed, why do you also use cloudflare?

 

[Can]

if you use litespeed, why do you also use cloudflare?

I use LiteSpeed, but I also prefer Cloudflare for several reasons:

• I offload static files like JS and CSS to Cloudflare.
Its CDN serves these assets from the nearest data center based on the visitor’s country, which makes delivery much faster.

• It hides my server’s real IP, adding an extra layer of security.
This prevents direct attacks on the server, so it doesn’t take unnecessary load.

• It provides DDoS protection and a smart firewall.
Cloudflare’s security layer is stronger than what LiteSpeed alone offers.

In short, I use Cloudflare for the combination of speed, CDN performance, IP masking, and enhanced security.

 

[Ricsca]

In my opinion, it all depends on the forum you have...
If you have a very large, very old forum that gets thousands and thousands of hits every day, that's fine. But if you have a relatively new forum that doesn't get who knows how many visits, using Cloudflare for the CDN is more than sufficient.
I have two fairly large forums that are about 20 years old, and I've only used Cloudflare's CDN, and so far I've never had any problems.