Manual Chapter :
Compressing HTTP Responses
Applies To:
Show Versions
BIG-IP AAM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP APM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP GTM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP Link Controller
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP Analytics
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP LTM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP AFM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP PEM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
BIG-IP ASM
- 11.5.10, 11.5.9, 11.5.8, 11.5.7, 11.5.6, 11.5.5, 11.5.4, 11.5.3, 11.5.2, 11.5.1
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.
Tip: 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
To configure HTTP data compression, you need to create an HTTP compression type of profile, as well as a virtual server.
Task list
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.
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.
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.
