How to Enable the PageSpeed Module on LSWS
IMPORTANT!! Disabling PageSpeed module in full is now recommended. We have seen that the PageSpeed module can be a little buggy where it may cause stability issues and this won't be addressed since it hasn't been maintained for years. Also there is not enough performance benefits we can see to make up for it consuming a lot of server resources. It may possibly break some of the LiteSpeed cache solutions, such as LiteMage etc. as explained below.
Mod_pagespeed is a web server module that was developed by Google. It automatically applies chosen filters to pages and associated assets (stylesheets, JavaScript, and HTML files), as well as to images and website cache requirements. It does not require modifications to existing content or workflow, meaning that all internal optimizations and changes to files are made on the server side, presenting modified files directly to the user.
Since version 5.2, LSWS provides PageSpeed support. It is possible to enable both PageSpeed and LSCache together in theory, but we don't recommend it.
PageSpeed and LSCache (including LiteMage and all other full page caches) should never be used together in a real production environment. LSCache is recommended to boost your site performance. When a page is cached, it can no longer be run through PageSpeed for HTML improvements, though the PageSpeed optimizations to CSS, JS, and image files will be in effect. Most importantly, when PageSpeed is used, it generates different output for different browsers, which means that the output is not cache friendly.
Requirements
- LiteSpeed Web Server 5.2+
- 64-bit Linux
Notes
- PageSpeed must be enabled via Apache configuration or LiteSpeed Web Server native configuration.
- VPS users cannot enable or disable mod_pagespeed from the web admin. Access to the console is required.
- LSWS's PageSpeed binary is installed at
$SERVER_ROOT/modules/modpagespeed.so
.
How PageSpeed and LSCache Work Together
PageSpeed and LSCache can be enabled at the same time. One thing to note: PageSpeed can do in-place optimization (no URL change) for images, CSS, JS ,etc (these are static files and won't be cached by LSCache), but the cached HTML pages won't go through the PageSpeed filter to be optimized. PageSpeed optimization for HTML is based on browser signature and applies different filters to different browsers. PageSpeed is anti-caching and the optimized result cannot be easily cached.
In other words, when a page is loaded, you will see HTML improvements due to the full-page caching of LSCache, and you will see CSS, JS, image and other static file optimization due to PageSpeed. Together these will reduce the page load time. The catch is that PageSpeed is very resource intensive.
Using a Control Panel in a Shared Hosting Environment
For a control-panel server, PageSpeed must be enabled on LiteSpeed Admin console first since it is master switch to turn this feature on. Then you will also need to write a directive ModPageSpeed On
in Apache configuration.
To enable PageSpeed, loadModule
and FileCachePath
are required at the server level. ModPagespeedFileCachePath
should not be set at the virtual host level. Enabling independent PageSpeed file cache for each vhost is very costly. It takes a lot of resources and should be avoided in shared hosting environments. ModPageSpeed On
at the server level will turn on PageSpeed server wide. This is not recommended for shared servers, as PageSpeed can be resource heavy and may negatively impact performance.
We recommend setting ModPageSpeed unplugged|off
at the server level, and ModPageSpeed on
for the vhosts or directories which need it.
ModPageSpeed unplugged
bypassesmod_pagespeed
hooks.ModPageSpeed off
goes throughmod_pagespeed
hooks with PageSpeed turned off.
You can set ModPagespeed off
in the Apache main configuration and you can use ModPageSpeed On
to turn it on via virtual host configuration or a .htaccess
file.
Enabling PageSpeed for LSWS Using cPanel
Install PageSpeed Through Existing cPanel RPM Package
Installing the cPanel EA4 package ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed
will enable PageSpeed for Apache and LiteSpeed at the same time. ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed
package is in EA4 Experimental repo at the time of this writing so you will need to enable EA4 Experimental repo firstly. Some server may not have EA4-experimental.repo installed on the server, you can create one.
cd /etc/yum.repos.d vi EA4-experimental.repo
[EA4-experimental] name=EA4 Experimental ( EasyApache 4 ) mirrorlist=http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/ea4-experimental-c$releasever-$basearch-mirrorlist gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/cPanelPublicRPMKey.asc enabled=1 cost=50
yum install ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed
Install PageSpeed Through ''rpm-build''
For CentOS:
yum install rpm-build cpio ea-apache24-mod_version wget https://github.com/pagespeed/cpanel/raw/master/EA4/ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed-latest-stable.src.rpm rpmbuild --rebuild ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed-latest-stable.src.rpm rpm -ivh /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed*.rpm
If you get an error on rpmbuild
step, then run this command and then run rpmbuild
command again.
cat <<EOF>/etc/rpm/macros.apache2 %_httpd_mmn 20120211x8664 %_httpd_apxs /usr/bin/apxs %_httpd_dir /etc/apache2 %_httpd_bindir %{_httpd_dir}/bin %_httpd_modconfdir %{_httpd_dir}/conf.modules.d %_httpd_confdir %{_httpd_dir}/conf.d %_httpd_contentdir /usr/share/apache2 %_httpd_moddir /usr/lib64/apache2/modules EOF
Check the PageSpeed File
The package includes the PageSpeed binary for Apache modules/mod_pagespeed.so
and conf files such as conf.modules.d/456_pagespeed.conf
vi /etc/apache2/conf.modules.d/456_pagespeed.conf
Make sure pagespeed_module
is loaded and On
and also ModPagespeedFileCachePath
is set.
LoadModule pagespeed_module modules/mod_pagespeed_ap24.so ModPagespeed on ModPagespeedFileCachePath "/var/mod_pagespeed/cache/"
Restart LSWS
service lsws restart
Note: Turning on PageSpeed through 456_pagespeed.conf
will turn on PageSpeed globally, which is not recommended for a shared hosting environment. We recommend turning off PageSpeed on a global level and only enabling it for the virtual hosts that need it.
Enabling PageSpeed for LSWS Using Plesk
Method1: Install PageSpeed Through LSWS build-in module
For server level PATH:
Access to /etc/httpd/conf.d/
For single vhost PATH:
Access to /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/conf/
Create pagespeed.conf
with following command:
<IfModule Litespeed> LoadModule pagespeed_module /usr/local/lsws/modules/modpagespeed.so ModPagespeedFileCachePath /var/pagespeed/cache/ ModPagespeed on </IfModule>
Restart LSWS
service lsws restart
Method2: Install PageSpeed Through Existing RPM Package
Install the module by pulling the pre-built packages via yum from Google.
cat <<EOF>/etc/yum.repos.d/google-mod-pagespeed.repo [google-mod-pagespeed] name=google-mod-pagespeed baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/mod-pagespeed/rpm/stable/$basearch enabled=1 gpgcheck=0 EOF yum install mod-pagespeed
Restart LSWS
service lsws restart
Default PageSpeed module settings are enabled.
Enabling PageSpeed for LSWS Through Apache's Configuration on Plesk
If you use this method, you don't need to install any packages, and it will work on LSWS.
Set Server Level PageSpeed File
Create a file named pagespeed.conf
in the following directory depending upon your system:
- For CentOS, the
/etc/httpd/conf.d/
directory - For Debian, the
/etc/apache2/conf.d/
directory - For Ubuntu, the
/etc/apache2/conf-enabled
directory
This pagespeed.conf
file should contain the following:
<IfModule Litespeed> LoadModule pagespeed_module /usr/local/lsws/modules/modpagespeed.so ModPagespeedFileCachePath /var/pagespeed/cache/ ModPagespeed on </IfModule>
Enabling PageSpeed on LSWS Using DirectAdmin
There is no PageSpeed module available in the DirectAdmin repo at the time of this writing, but you can enable PageSpeed for LSWS through Apache's configuration
Set Server-Level PageSpeed File
You can set the server-level PageSpeed setting at /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-includes.conf
.
<IfModule Litespeed> LoadModule pagespeed_module /usr/local/lsws/modules/modpagespeed.so ModPagespeedFileCachePath /home/pagespeed/ ModPagespeed on </IfModule>
Set Virtual-Host-Level PageSpeed File for all Virtual Hosts
Create a /usr/local/directadmin/data/templates/custom/cust_httpd.CUSTOM.2.pre
file with: link here.
<IfModule Litespeed> ModPagespeedFileCachePath lspagespeed ModPagespeed on </IfModule>
This is done to set each virtual host's PageSpeed directory to its user home directory (/home/<user>/lspagespeed
).
Apply these changes to all virtual hosts by running the following command:
cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild ./build rewrite_confs
Note: It is recommended that you set the server-level PageSpeed directory to /home/lspagespeed/
or to a disk partition with enough space.
Restart LSWS
service lsws restart
Enabling PageSpeed Module Without a Control Panel Environment
Activate PageSpeed at Server Level & Set PageSpeed File Path
- Navigate to WebAdmin Console > Configuration > Server > PageSpeed
- Set Activate PageSpeed to
Yes
- Set Enable PageSpeed to
Yes
(optional since could also enable per virtual host) - Set PageSpeed Settings to
pagespeed FileCachePath /tmp/lshttpd/pagespeed;
and add any additional rule settings on separate lines
Enable PageSpeed at Virtual Host Level
- Navigate to WebAdmin Console > Configuration > Virtual Hosts > View/Edit > PageSpeed
- Set Enable PageSpeed to
Yes
- Add additional rule settings to PageSpeed Settings section
Verify PageSpeed is Enabled
Once you have enabled mod_pagespeed optimization, we can verify it works by either browser developer tools, page source, or third party tools.
Method 1: Dev Tool
After enabling the PageSpeed module, you can verify that it is enabled by reviewing the response headers though your browser's developer tools:
You can also check headers by curl command:
curl -s --head http://example.com | grep -i pagespeed >>> X-LS-Pagespeed: 2.1-1.11.33.4 curl -s --insecure --head https://example.com | grep -i pagespeed >>> X-LS-Pagespeed: 2.1-1.11.33.4
Method 2: Page source
View page source by opening the browser and then pressing “Ctrl+U”
- Without PageSpeed, an image in HTML will look like this:
wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hero.jpg
- With PageSpeed, an image in HTML will look like this:
wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hero.jpg.pagespeed.ce.xzcpK71Gsf.jpg
Method 3: 3rd party tool
Perform some testing by a 3rd party data-testing online tool such as GTmetrix. It will give you insight into how well your site loads and will provide actionable recommendations.
How to check where the pagespeed configuration file?
You may see pagespeed header and want to locate where the pagespeed was enabled. You may try the case-insensitive grep from apache configuration.
For example, under cpanel EA 3 or EA 4 envirnment, go to /usr/local/apache (EA3) or /etc/apache2/ (EA4):
grep -r -i --exclude-dir=logs pagespeed * root@uniform [/usr/local/apache/conf]# grep -r -i pagespeed * httpd.conf:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.bak:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-make-install,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.ea-orig:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf.easyapache_save:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" httpd.conf,v:Include "/usr/local/apache/conf/pagespeed.conf" pagespeed.conf: LoadModule pagespeed_module modules/mod_pagespeed.so pagespeed.conf: LoadModule pagespeed_module modules/mod_pagespeed_ap24.so pagespeed.conf:<IfModule pagespeed_module> pagespeed.conf: # Turn on mod_pagespeed. To completely disable mod_pagespeed, you pagespeed.conf: ModPagespeed off pagespeed.conf: # Direct Apache to send all HTML output to the mod_pagespeed pagespeed.conf: AddOutputFilterByType MOD_PAGESPEED_OUTPUT_FILTER text/html pagespeed.conf: # The ModPagespeedFileCachePath and pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedGeneratedFilePrefix directories must exist and be pagespeed.conf: ModPagespeedFileCachePath "/var/mod_pagespeed/cache/" pagespeed.conf: # Override the mod_pagespeed 'rewrite level'. The default level pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedDisableFilters and ModPagespeedEnableFilters pagespeed.conf: # directives, below. Valid values for ModPagespeedRewriteLevel are pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedRewriteLevel PassThrough pagespeed.conf: # conjuction with ModPagespeedRewriteLevel. For instance, if one pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedDisableFilters. This directive contains a pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedDisableFilters rewrite_images pagespeed.conf: # conjuction with ModPagespeedRewriteLevel. For instance, filters pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedEnableFilters rewrite_javascript,rewrite_css pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedEnableFilters collapse_whitespace,elide_attributes pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedDomain pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedDomain cdn.myhost.com pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedFileCacheSizeKb 102400 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedFileCacheCleanIntervalMs 3600000 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedLRUCacheKbPerProcess 1024 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedLRUCacheByteLimit 16384 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedCssInlineMaxBytes 2048 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedImgInlineMaxBytes 2048 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedJsInlineMaxBytes 2048 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedCssOutlineMinBytes 3000 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedJsOutlineMinBytes 3000 pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedImgMaxRewritesAtOnce 8 pagespeed.conf: # When Apache is set up as a browser proxy, mod_pagespeed can record pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedSlurpDirectory ... pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedSlurpReadOnly on pagespeed.conf: # mod_pagespeed circumvents this limitation, but if you employ pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedMaxSegmentLength 250 pagespeed.conf: # Uncomment this if you want to prevent mod_pagespeed from combining files pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedCombineAcrossPaths off pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedLogRewriteTiming on pagespeed.conf: # added that sends latency beacons to /mod_pagespeed_beacon. These pagespeed.conf: # statistics can be accessed at /mod_pagespeed_statistics. You must also pagespeed.conf: # enable the mod_pagespeed_statistics and mod_pagespeed_beacon handlers pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedEnableFilters add_instrumentation pagespeed.conf: # You can use a different location by adding the ModPagespeedBeaconUrl pagespeed.conf: <Location /mod_pagespeed_beacon> pagespeed.conf: SetHandler mod_pagespeed_beacon pagespeed.conf: # ModPagespeedStatistics off pagespeed.conf: # This page lets you view statistics about the mod_pagespeed module. pagespeed.conf: <Location /mod_pagespeed_statistics> pagespeed.conf: SetHandler mod_pagespeed_statistics
the you can locate /usr/local/apache/pagespeed.conf
.