How to enable http compression on a Plesk server?

What is http compression and which module to use for http compression?

Compressing data before transmitting to the browsers and then uncompressing the data before displaying. The module that is responsible for http compression is called mod_deflate.The main advantage of mod_deflate is that it saves a lot of bandwidth and loads the pages faster.

On a Plesk server, the mod_deflate module is installed by default, however it may be disabled in the Apache configuration file. To enable the mod_deflate module in Plesk edit the Apache configuration file

# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Search the line that says,

#LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so

and uncomment it i.e. remove the ‘#’ mark

LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so

Now, create a /etc/httpd/conf.d/deflate.conf file. Apache reads all the .conf files from the /etc/httpd/conf.d directory on a Plesk server.

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/deflate.conf

and place the following code in it

<Location />
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI  \
\.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary
</Location>

Save the file and restart Apache.

# service httpd restart

This compression code will compress all the files except the .gif, .jpe, .jpeg and .png files before sending them to the browser. To test the compression, use the tool

http://www.whatsmyip.org/mod_gzip_test/

To enable compression for a specific directory or domain, specify the directory path in the <Location> directive in deflate.conf and restart the Apache server.

 

Related URLs:
Enable http compression on a Plain Linux server

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 and is filed under Plesk Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “How to enable http compression on a Plesk server?”

  1. JM
    December 3rd, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    You wouldn’t believe the convoluted answers to this question that are floating around the ‘net.

    Thanks for this easy and great solution!

  2. Carlos
    February 25th, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Hi!

    I have just ordered a Plesk Server (I have never worked with Plesk before). How can I install/load mod_file_cache apache module in Plesk 10?

    Thank You.

  3. admin
    February 25th, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    Hello,

    To enable the mod_file_cache, you need to edit the Apache Configuration file at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and look for the following

    #IfModule mod_disk_cache.c>
    # CacheEnable disk /
    # CacheRoot “/var/cache/mod_proxy”
    #/IfModule>

    Remove the comments (i.e. #) from the start of every line, save the file and restart the httpd service. That will enable the cache. For more details, refer:
    http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_cache.html

  4. ethan
    May 27th, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    another suggestion, use the below deflate.conf instead, because compressing these other types of files will be pointless and wasteful, as well as cause issues…

    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:exe|t?gz|zip|bz2|sit|rar)$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.pdf$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.avi$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mov$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp3$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.mp4$ no-gzip dont-vary
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.rm$ no-gzip dont-vary

  5. admin
    May 31st, 2011 at 6:23 am

    Thank you for your suggestion. It will surely help.