I have a Wordpress installation in a machine which runs Cpanel WHM.

I believe that Apache is way too heavy and isn't delivering the speed I'd like to see on my site, so I was considering to give lighttpd a try.

The problem is that while I know how to install lighttpd on a machine without cpanel, I don't know how to install it when cpanel is simbiotically integrated with apache. I'm afraid this could crash my site leaving it offline.

Anyone knows of a howto to install lighttpd in my machine? Should I install it manually or should I do it through the cpanel "install rpm" menu?

It depends on what you are looking at doing.

I would recommend compiling it from source, then when you compile php make sure to put it on a different path so that it does not break your main system php. THAT is the biggest concern with doing this as the php for lighttpd is not compatible with php cpanel runs for apache. Aside from that you can just stop apache and start lighttpd to switch over. Note cPanel is not going to be integrated at all so you will have to manually setup the config.

Another option is easyapache 3 supports apache 2.2 which is much better then apache 1.3 and is still fully supported within cPanel.

Finally there is litespeed httpd which is a 3rd party application you have to pay for but faster then all of the above. It also integrates into cPAnel.

Thanks eth00, I'll have to think more on this matter.

I had this issue, I hired a company called PlatinumServerManagement.com formly known as FastServerManagement. PSM offers fully managed cpanel servers for $29 a month for your first server and $19 for your other servers. They have been in business for over 7 years and also a member of the BBB in New Jersey.

Tryu giving them a shot