How to Enable the PageSpeed Module on LSWS

Mod_pagespeed is a web server module developed by Google, which automatically applies chosen filters to pages and associated assets, such as 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. PageSpeed and LSCache can be enabled together and work at the same time. However, when a page gets cached, it can no longer be run through PageSpeed for HTML improvements. The PageSpeed optimizations to CSS, JS, and image files will still be in effect.

• LiteSpeed Web Server 5.2+
• 64-bit Linux

• 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.

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.

For a control-panel server, PageSpeed must be enabled through Apache configuration. Enabling through LSWS Web Admin will only impact the virtual hosts that were created through the LSWS native configuration. By design, it will not affect any virtual hosts set up through 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 which need it.

ModPageSpeed unplugged bypasses mod_pagespeed hooks. ModPageSpeed off goes through mod_pagespeed hooks with PageSpeed turned off.

You can set ModPagespeed off in the Apache main configuration, then, you can turn it on via virutal host configuration or .htaccess.

Installing the cPanel EA4 package ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed will enable PageSpeed for Apache and LiteSpeed at the same time.

yum install ea-apache24-mod_pagespeed

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

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.

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.

If you use this method, you don't need to install any packages, and it will work on LSWS.

Create a file named pagspeed.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 pagspeed.conf file should contain the following:

<IfModule Litespeed>
 LoadModule pagespeed_module /usr/local/lsws/modules/modpagespeed.so
 ModPagespeedFileCachePath  /var/pagespeed/cache/
 ModPagespeed on
</IfModule>

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

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>

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

• Navigate to WebAdmin Console > Configuration > Server > PageSpeed
• Set Activate PageSpeed to Yes
• Set Enable PageSpeed to Yes
• Set PageSpeed Settings to pagespeed FileCachePath /tmp/lshttpd/pagespeed;

• For more rule settings, please see Rewrite level

Once you have enabled mod_pagespeed optimization, we can verify it works by either browser developer tools, page source, or third party tools.

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

View page source by opening the browser and then pressing “Ctrl+U”

1. Without PageSpeed, an image in HTML will look like this:
   wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hero.jpg
2. With PageSpeed, an image in HTML will look like this:
   wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hero.jpg.pagespeed.ce.xzcpK71Gsf.jpg

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.