HTTP compression in Apache reverse proxy

apache-2.4compressiongzipPROXYreverse-proxy

I have an App server where Apache httpd is installed which serves the requests. We have another Proxy machine which redirects the requests to this App Server httpd using proxy pass.

When I apply gzip in App Server level its working fine. But, When I try to implement the same on the other Proxy machine httpd, at the same time removing gzip code from App Server httpd, the gzip is not Working.

I am trying to implement gzip in the other proxy machine than the one it resides on(App Server) because when the content is served to the front end its giving mixed content error as its being served over http rather than https

The content we are serving is relative path but when compressed its becoming absolute path thats why we are getting mixed content error. Anyway we can tackle this problem? If then , i can implement it on my app server level itself

Can anyone help? If needed anymore info please let me know.

Best Answer

It's a relatively basic configuration -- just load mod_deflate and configure it (SetOutputfilter, AddOutputFilterByType, etc) as the manual for mod_deflate describes.

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Tomcat – HTTP compression in IIS 6.0 causing problems with certain users

Ok, I think we've figured it out...

On the client side, Squid 2.5 and earlier doesn't understand "Transfer-encoding: chunked", so it delivers each chunk as the entire client request. Since it's only 1 chunk of the entire compressed request, it's invalid data and can't be read by the browser. (Not sure if this is an issue with other proxies)

On the server side, IIS always sends chunked encoding for Dynamic Compression (since IIS doesn't cache application responses, it has to compress each response on the fly, hence the chunked encoding).

The only way we can think of to fix this is to completely disable compression for HTTP 1.0 clients and only compress for HTTP 1.1 responses. The drawback is that anyone behind a proxy that sends 1.0 requests won't get compressed data and the site will load 0.5 - 1 second slower for those users.

Changes made in the metabase.xml file:

<IIsCompressionSchemes            Location ="/LM/W3SVC/Filters/Compression/Parameters"
...
HcDoOnDemandCompression="TRUE"
HcNoCompressionForHttp10="TRUE"
...
</IIsCompressionSchemes>

If anyone has a better solution, please let me know!

Apache Compression – Content-Length Not Sent When Gzip Enabled

Addition to Martin Fjordvalds answer:

Apache uses chunked encoding only if the compressed file size is larger than the DeflateBufferSize. Increasing this buffer size will therefore prevent the server using chunked encoding also for larger files, causing the Content-Length to be sent even for zipped data.

More Information is available here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_deflate.html#deflatebuffersize

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Tomcat – HTTP compression in IIS 6.0 causing problems with certain users

Apache Compression – Content-Length Not Sent When Gzip Enabled

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