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Manual Chapter : Compressing HTTP Responses

Applies To:

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BIG-IP AAM

  • 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP APM

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP Analytics

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP Link Controller

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP LTM

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP PEM

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP AFM

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP DNS

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0

BIG-IP ASM

  • 16.1.3, 16.1.2, 16.1.1, 16.1.0, 16.0.1, 16.0.0, 15.1.8, 15.1.7, 15.1.6, 15.1.5, 15.1.4, 15.1.3, 15.1.2, 15.1.1, 15.1.0, 15.0.1, 15.0.0
Manual Chapter

Compressing HTTP Responses

Overview: Compressing HTTP responses

An optional feature of the BIG-IP system is the system’s ability to off-load HTTP compression tasks from the target server. All of the tasks that you need to configure HTTP compression, as well as the compression software itself, are centralized on the BIG-IP system. The primary way to enable HTTP compression is by configuring an HTTP Compression type of profile and then assigning the profile to a virtual server. This causes the system to compress HTTP content for any responses matching the values that you specify in the
Request-URI
 or
Content-Type
 settings of the HTTP Compression profile.
If you want to enable HTTP compression for specific connections, you can write an iRule that specifies the HTTP:compress enable command. Using the BIG-IP system HTTP compression feature, you can include or exclude certain types of URIs or files that you specify. This is useful because some URI or file types might already be compressed. F5 Networks does not recommend using CPU resources to compress already-compressed data because the cost of compressing the data usually outweighs the benefits. Examples of regular expressions that you might want to specify for exclusion are
.*\.pdf
,
.*\.gif
, or
.*\.html
.

Task summary for load balancing to IPv6 nodes

When you configure IPv4-to-IPv6 load balancing, you must create a pool for load balancing traffic to IPv6 nodes, and then create an IPv4 virtual server that processes application traffic.

Creating a customized HTTP compression profile

If you need to adjust the compression settings to optimize compression for your environment, you can modify a custom HTTP compression profile.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Acceleration
    Profiles
    HTTP Compression
    .
    The HTTP Compression profile list screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New HTTP Compression profile screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the profile.
  4. From the
    Parent Profile
     list, select one of the following profiles:
    • httpcompression
      .
    • wan-optimized-compression
      .
  5. Select the
    Custom
     check box.
  6. Modify the settings, as required.
  7. Click
    Finished
    .
The modified HTTP compression profile is available in the
HTTP Compression
 list screen.

Creating a virtual server for HTTP compression

You can create a virtual server that uses an HTTP profile with an HTTP compression profile to compress HTTP responses.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Local Traffic
    Virtual Servers
    .
    The Virtual Server List screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The New Virtual Server screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a unique name for the virtual server.
  4. For the
    Destination Address/Mask
     setting, confirm that the
    Host
     button is selected, and type the IP address in CIDR format.
    The supported format is address/prefix, where the prefix length is in bits. For example, an IPv4 address/prefix is
    10.0.0.1
     or
    10.0.0.0/24
    , and an IPv6 address/prefix is
    ffe1::0020/64
     or
    2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64
    . When you use an IPv4 address without specifying a prefix, the BIG-IP system automatically uses a
    /32
     prefix.
    The IP address you type must be available and not in the loopback network.
  5. In the
    Service Port
     field, type
    80
    , or select
    HTTP
     from the list.
  6. Select
    http
     in the
    HTTP Profile
     list.
  7. From the
    HTTP Compression Profile
     list, select one of the following profiles:
    • httpcompression
    • wan-optimized-compression
    • A customized profile
  8. In the Resources area of the screen, from the
    Default Pool
     list, select the relevant pool name.
  9. Click
    Finished
    .
The virtual server with an HTTP profile configured with an HTTP compression profile appears in the Virtual Server list.
After you have created a custom HTTP Compression profile and a virtual server, you can test the configuration by attempting to pass HTTP traffic through the virtual server. Check to see that the BIG-IP system includes and excludes the responses that you specified in the custom profile, and that the system compresses the data as specified.
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