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NickN01_135377's avatar
NickN01_135377
Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
Apr 10, 2014

Beginner Compression Question

compression for beginners

 

Hello all,

 

I need help checking compression is working properly through the F5 BigIP LTM using V9.

 

I have setup the HTTP profile using enabling HTTP Compression using the "http-wan-optimized-compression" profile. Compression is set to "Enabled" and the include "Content list" contains...

 

text/html text/css text/plain application.javascript text/javascript image/*

 

Everything else is default from the parent profile.

 

My question is this...

 

  1. How can i check the BIGIP compression is definitely working? Is there a command i can run from the CLI?

     

  2. Do i need "Keep Accept Encoding" ticket?

     

  3. I have wire-sharked the conversations and can see some servers have Content-Type: set for the above. How can i check the compression is being hit for the above include list?

     

  4. How would a HTTPS VIP and compression work? Would the data still be compressed even when running HTTPs/SSL profile?

     

Any help or advice on checking would much appreciated.

 

application delivery
deployment
LTM
management

8 Replies

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  • What_Lies_Bene1's avatar
    What_Lies_Bene1
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Apr 10, 2014

    Hey Nick, answers as follows;

     

    1) Using tmsh: show ltm profile http-compression 'name'

     

    2) No, this will result in compression occurring twice if the servers also support it, once at the server then again at the F5.

     

    3) It's not definitive but you can view some statistics in the GUI here: Statistics menu path: Statistics > Module Statistics > Local Traffic > Profiles Summary > HTTP Compression. The tmsh command I mentioned in 1) also shows this.

     

    4) As long as you are terminating SSL/TLS on the F5, it'll work just the same. If you are not, you can't compress the traffic.

     

  • NickN01_135377's avatar
    NickN01_135377
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Apr 10, 2014

    Thanks for the reply, its much appreciated.

     

    I am unfortumatly using BIGIP LTM version 9.4.3.

     

    I dont think they included compression stats in on this version.

     

    Any ideas?

     

  • NickN01_135377's avatar
    NickN01_135377
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Apr 10, 2014

    Appologies,

     

    THe compression stats are hidden a little on V9...

     

    Stats-> Local traffic -> Profile Summary -> HTTP -> View.....

     

    Got there...i think :)

     

  • What_Lies_Bene1's avatar
    What_Lies_Bene1
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Apr 10, 2014

    Sorry, I missed that. I'm pretty sure they did but the menu path is probably slightly different. There's definitely a graph in there somewhere at least (note it shows the size of the content compressed prior to the compression taking place).

     

    For the command line 'bigpipe http stats' should do the trick in v9.4. Prior to that version it was 'bigpipe compress'.