Enable dynamic compression on an external web server

This topic provides details on how to enable dynamic compression if you use an external web server.

When to enable dynamic content compression

Wide area networks (WANs) often have both low bandwidth and high latency (delays in network data processing), which significantly degrade network performance. Users who access applications over a WAN experience poorer response times than users who access the same applications through a local area network (LAN).

PPM leverages application content compression to minimize the performance overhead imposed by operating in a WAN environment. Rather than compress content within the application code, PPM uses the compression capabilities of both the Tomcat Web container and the compression capabilities in third-party Web servers (Microsoft Internet Information Services, Apache-based Web server, or Sun Java System Web Server).

If you deploy PPM without an external Web server, the application content is compressed by default, and no additional configuration is required. If, however, you deploy an external web server as the web tier, then you must enable compression for that web server. Otherwise, application content is delivered uncompressed, which results in poor response times for users over the WAN.

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Enable dynamic content compression on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 and 7.5

Follow the steps below to enable dynamic content compression on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 and 7.5:

  1. Open the IIS Manager window and go to the level you want to manage.

  2. In Features View, double-click Compression.

  3. On the Compression page, select the box next to Enable dynamic content compression.

  4. Click Apply in the Actions pane.

For more information, see the Microsoft TechNet Web site.

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Enable dynamic content compression on Apache-Based web servers

This section provides information on how to enable dynamic compression on an Apache-based Web server that either has been compiled with the mod_deflate module enabled or that can load the dynamic module. Apache Web server installation documentation provides instructions on how to enable modules within the application server. If mod_deflate is not loaded in Apache, the following steps cannot enable content compression.

  1. Go to the <Apache_Home>/conf directory and open the httpd.conf file in a text editor.

  2. Add the following to the httpd.conf file.

    # gzip config begin
    LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
    <Location/itg>
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
    BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
    BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
    BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
    SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \
        \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary
    Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
    </Location>
    # gzip config end

  3. Save and close the httpd.conf file.

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Enable dynamic content compression on Sun Java System web server

  1. On the machine running the Sun Java System web server, go to the <Sun_Home>/https-<Web_Server_Name>/config directory, and open the obj.conf file.

    During the initial Sun Java System web server configuration, installation of jk_service required that the following text be added to the obj.conf file (after </Object>).

    <Object name="ppm_servlet">
    Service fn="jk_service" worker=<Load_Balancer>
    </Object>

  2. Modify that text, as follows.

    <Object name="ppm_servlet">
    Service fn="jk_service" worker=<Load_Balancer>
    Output fn="insert-filter" filter="http-compression"
    vary="off" compression-level="6"
    </Object>

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