Install Mod_Pagespeed to Speed Up Apache and Nginx Performance Upto 10x

This is our on going series on Apache optimization and performance tuning, here we are introducing a new Google‘s product called mod_pagespeed module for Apache or Nginx that makes the web site load much faster than ever.

Install Mod_Pagespeed for Apache and Nginx
Install Mod_Pagespeed for Apache and Nginx

I have personally tested this module on our Live (tecmint.com) server and results are amazing, now the site loads much faster than before. I recommend you all to install it and see the results.

Don’t Miss: 5 Tips to Boost the Performance of Your Apache Web Server

In this article we will show you how to install and configure Google‘s mod_pagespeed module for Apache and Nginx web servers in RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu systems using official binary packages, so that your system will get regular updates automatically and stays up to date.

What Is Mod_PageSpeed

mod_pagespeed is an open source module for Apache and Nginx web server that automatically optimize Web Pages to improve better performance while serving web pages using HTTP Server.

It has several filters that automatically optimize files like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JPEG, PNG and other resources.

mod_pagespeed is developed on PageSpeed Optimization Libraries, deployed over 100K+ websites, and provided by most popular CDN and Hosting providers such as GoDaddy, EdgeCast, DreamHost and few to name.

It offers more than 40+ optimization filters, which includes:

  1. Image optimization, compression, and resizing
  2. CSS & JavaScript concatenation, minification, and inlining
  3. Cache extension, domain sharding and rewriting
  4. Deferred loading of JS and image resources
  5. and many others…

Currently mod_pagespeed module supported Linux platforms are RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu for 32 bit and 64 bit distributions.

Install mod_pagespeed for Apache and Nginx on RHEL/CentOS/Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu

Installing Mod_Pagespeed Module in Linux

As I discussed above that we are using Google‘s official binary packages to install it for future updates, so let’s go ahead and install it on your systems based on your OS architecture.

On RHEL/CentOS and Fedora

----------- On 32-bit Systems -----------------
# wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/dl/linux/direct/mod-pagespeed-stable_current_i386.rpm
# yum install at   [# if you don't already have 'at' installed]
# rpm -Uvh mod-pagespeed-stable_current_i386.rpm

----------- On 64-bit Systems -----------------
# wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/dl/linux/direct/mod-pagespeed-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
# yum install at   [# if you don't already have 'at' installed]
# rpm -Uvh mod-pagespeed-stable_current_x86_64.rpm

On Debian and Ubuntu

----------- On 32-bit Systems -----------------
$ wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/dl/linux/direct/mod-pagespeed-stable_current_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i mod-pagespeed-stable_current_i386.deb
$ sudo apt-get -f install

----------- On 64-bit Systems -----------------
$ wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/dl/linux/direct/mod-pagespeed-stable_current_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i mod-pagespeed-stable_current_amd64.deb
$ sudo apt-get -f install

Installing mod_pagespeed from binary packages will add a Google’s official repository to your system, so that you can update the mod_pagespeed automatically using package manager called yum or apt.

What Mode_Pagespeed is Installed

Let’s see what packages mod_pagespeed installed on the system:

  1. It will install two modules, mod_pagespeed.so for Apache 2.2 and mod_pagespeed_ap24.so for Apache 2.4.
  2. It will install two main configuration files: pagespeed.conf and pagespeed_libraries.conf (for Debian pagespeed.load). If you change one of these configuration files, you will no longer receive future updates automatically.
  3. A standalone JavaScript minifier pagespeed_js_minify used to minify JS and create metadata for library canonicalization.

About Mod_Pagespeed Configuration and Directories

The module enables following configuration files and directories itself automatically during installation.

  1. /etc/cron.daily/mod-pagespeed : mod_pagespeed cron script for checking and installing latest updates.
  2. /etc/httpd/conf.d/pagespeed.conf : The main configuration file for Apache in RPM based distributions.
  3. /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/pagespeed.conf : The main configuration file for Apache2 in DEB based distributions.
  4. pagespeed_libraries.conf : The default set of libraries for Apache, loads at Apache startup.
  5. /usr/lib{lib64}/httpd/modules/mod_pagespeed.so : mod_pagespeed module for Apache.
  6. /var/cache/mod_pagespeed : File caching directory for web sites.

Important: In Nginx the configuration files of mod_pagespeed typically found under /usr/local/nginx/conf/ directory.

Configuring Mod_Pagespeed Module

In Apache, mod_pagespeed automatically Turn On when installed, while in Nginx you need to place following lines to your nginx.conf file and in every server block where PageSpeed is enabled:

pagespeed on;

# Needs to exist and be writable by nginx.  Use tmpfs for best performance.
pagespeed FileCachePath /var/ngx_pagespeed_cache;

# Ensure requests for pagespeed optimized resources go to the pagespeed handler
# and no extraneous headers get set.
location ~ "\.pagespeed\.([a-z]\.)?[a-z]{2}\.[^.]{10}\.[^.]+" {
  add_header "" "";
}
location ~ "^/pagespeed_static/" { }
location ~ "^/ngx_pagespeed_beacon$" { }

Finally, don’t forget to restart your Apache or Nginx server to start mod_pagespeed working properly.

Step 4: Verifying Mod_Pagespeed Module

To verify mod_pagespeed module, we will use curl command to test in on domain or IP as shown:

# curl -D- http://192.168.0.15/ | less
Apache
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2016 07:37:57 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.6 (CentOS) PHP/5.4.16
...
X-Mod-Pagespeed: 1.9.32.13-0
---
Nginx
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 04 Mar 2016 07:37:57 GMT
Server: nginx/1.4.0
...
X-Page-Speed: 1.5.27.1-2845
...

If you don’t see an X-Mod-Pagespeed header, that means mod_pagespeed isn’t actually installed.

Step 5: Turning the Module On and Off

If you don’t want to use mod_pagespeed completely, you can Turn Off by inserting the following line to pagespeed.conf file at the top.

ModPagespeed off

Similarly, to Turn On module, insert the following line to pagespeed.conf file at the top.

ModPagespeed on

As I said above after installing mod_pagespeed our website loads 40%-50% faster. We would really like to know about your website speed after installing it on your systems via comments.

For more details about configuration, you can check out the official mod_pagespeed page at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/module/.

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Ravi Saive
I am an experienced GNU/Linux expert and a full-stack software developer with over a decade in the field of Linux and Open Source technologies

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75 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Hi, I have an issue. I am running CentOS Web Panel on CentOS 8 with Apache 2.4.46 installed but whenever I try to install this apache module, I always get this error:

    error: Failed dependencies:
            httpd >= 2.2 is needed by mod-pagespeed-stable-1.13.35.2-0.x86_64
    

    I’m pretty sure I have Apache running if not my WordPress website will not work :D

    Here’s my Apache version:

    Server version: Apache/2.4.46 (Unix)

    Any ideas?

    Reply
  2. Ngx_Pagespeed and Mod_PageSpeed both are same or different? can i configure both module in one nginx webserver? what is the differences between Ngx_Pagespeed and Mod_PageSpeed? can any one explain me?

    Reply
  3. Hi Ravi, Good article but I have complied apache2.4 and installed at production. In above doc, you only mentioned installation for rpm. How can Mod_Pagespeed be integrated with complied apache? Can you help to understand?

    Reply
  4. Nginx doesn’t load modules dynamically, they must be compiled in. I can’t believe you have tested this method on nginx.

    Reply
  5. I am trying to install pagespeed on the server for my domain. Apparently, after speaking with the tech people at Telus WebHosting (Apache server), I can install it in the .htaccess file in the “public” folder.

    I have downloaded the .deb file for pagespeed, but I have NO IDEA how to actually get it installed in the .htaccess file. Can someone tell me, step by step, how I go about getting it installed on the server.

    Thank you.

    Reply
      • Thank you Ravi.

        Now, my question is this, when I go to my .htaccess file on the remote server, and type in $ sudo dpkg -i mod-pagespeed-stable_current_amd64.deb, is that all I have to do?? Or, is there something else that is needed in order for pagespeed to be installed and work on the server?

        Do I actually have to have the 6.9MB .deb file on the server as well??

        Your comments are much appreciated.

        Thanks
        Doug

        Reply
          • Thanks again Ravi.

            What I am trying to get at is this: HOW do I install pagespeed on the remote server?? My websites are located on Telus. Do I simply paste the information below into my (public directory) .htaccess file?

            $ wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/dl/linux/direct/mod-pagespeed-stable_current_amd64.deb
            $ sudo dpkg -i mod-pagespeed-stable_current_amd64.deb
            $ sudo apt-get -f install
            

            Will this install pagespeed on the Linux server?? I have tried to copy and paste the above information into my .htaccess file, but when I try to open my website in a browser I get a 500 error. Without that information, my websites open up fine.

            What I really need is some ‘detailed’ information on how to get pagespeed installed correctly on the LInux server.
            Thank you for you assistance.

          • @Doug,

            Firstly, .htaccess is a configuration file for managing rewrite rules, this file not used to install software on Linux. To install mod_pagespeed you must have a SSH access to a remote server and execute these commands in the terminal.

  6. Error : httpd >= 2.2 is needed by mod-pagespeed-stable-1.11.33.4-0.x86_64

    Why would I install Apache when my website is running on Nginx???

    Reply
  7. @Ravi I am a little confused, why people start talking about this old server plugin again. It’s optimizing a little bit. See we optimized all those pagespeed rules set by Google in our self developed cms. We couldn’t optimize to 100/100 without using a lot of node.js solutions, image compression services, hosting of analytics, maps and youtube js files.

    Do people think it requires just mod_pagespeed to solve all issues? they must be dreaming LOL

    Reply
    • @Andre,

      This plugin is not at all old and in fact Google suggesting this tool to check and optimize sites according suggestions given by this tool.. This tool is just an example, there are other well known plugins like WP-Cache, WP-Super-Cache, WP-Rocket, etc.. you can use any of them to optimize sites..

      Reply
    • @Andre,

      What do you mean by unoptimized pagespeed score? could you explain me more? what you exactly looking for? without mod_pagespeed module, site loading will take time as the content (html,css,js.png,jpg etc.) not optimized and will take time to load, but with mod_pagespeed installed, you can call your all content in an optimized form thus increase in speed..

      Reply
  8. Hi Ravi,
    I am facing some issue mod pagespeed. I have installed nginx via rpm and version is
    Name : nginx
    Arch : x86_64
    Version : 1.0.15

    can i install in my server …?

    Reply
    • @Inderpal,

      There isn’t any problem with nginx version, you can install mod_pagespeed on any nginx or apache version..

      Reply
  9. When installing packages I almost always use yum install (package name) in this way I get all dependencies also included into the install

    Reply
  10. Hello Ravi!

    Thanks for this but ran into an issue. I get the following error:

    # rpm -Uvh mod-pagespeed-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
    warning: mod-pagespeed-stable_current_x86_64.rpm: Header V4 DSA/SHA1 Signature, key ID 7fac5991: NOKEY
    error: Failed dependencies:
    httpd >= 2.2 is needed by mod-pagespeed-stable-1.9.32.13-0.x86_64

    Centos 6.7
    # httpd -v
    Server version: Apache/2.4.18
    # nginx -v
    nginx version: nginx/1.8.0

    Reply
    • @Scott,

      Have you installed 'at' package? if yes, then it could be other reason like how did you installed Apache? and mod_pagespeed is asking for httpd >= 2.2, but seems not installed on the system. Could you run the following command and check what it gives output?

      # rpm -qa | grep httpd 
      

      yum install at

      Reply
  11. Thank you, Ravi for sharing this info..
    Just curious to know what if I’ve latest version of Apache e.g 2.4.18 does this module still supports ?? OS – RHEL 6.0

    Reply
    • @Satish,

      Thanks for finding my article useful, yes it’s do supports Apache 2.2 and Apache 2.4 as stated in the article..

      Reply
  12. @Ravi,

    Thanks for this valuable post. But seems mod_pagespeed module need to be add nginx while build from source, No dynamic module available for nginx like Apache.
    Is your post nginx ?

    Reply
    • @Venkat,

      Thanks for finding this post valuable, yes you need to add mod_pagespeed module to nginx configuration manually as stated in the article, this article supports both Apache and Nginx, but while installing mod_pagespeed the module auto loaded into Apache, whereas in nginx you need to add manually..

      Reply
  13. thanks for learning
    but i got this error:

    # rpm -ivh mod-pagespeed-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
    error: Failed dependencies:
    httpd >= 2.2 is needed by mod-pagespeed-stable-1.9.32.4-7251.x86_64

    my apache version is:
    # httpd -v
    Server version: Apache/2.2.31 (Unix)

    Reply
  14. Hi,

    I have installed mod_pagespeed on ubuntu. But could not configure admin console. Please provide me the steps to configure to pagespeed admin console.

    Regards,
    Krishnaprasad PB

    Reply
  15. i have done all the things you said but when i go to localhost.com/phpinfo.php it is showing a 404 error not found.Instead i used full php configuration in zpanel but i didn’t found X-Mod-Pagespeed what to do?

    Reply
    • The difference is the article at tecmint is little older and haven’t we updated yet…and the link you followed at Google has latest instructions..

      Reply
  16. I have installed it – and it installed without errors using yum.

    Running this:
    httpd -t -D DUMP_MODULES | grep pagespeed

    Outputs:
    pagespeed_module (shared)

    But pagespeed doesn’t show up in phpinfo();

    I am running Apache 2.4 and PHP 5.5. What could be the problem?

    Reply
  17. We cannot install – because dependency error (I have read somewhere because httpd is in a custom location) – but how can we fix this?

    (I also see this exact question was one of the first in 2012 – but without an answer)

    yum –enablerepo=mod-pagespeed install mod-pagespeed
    Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror
    Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
    * base: http://ftp.nluug.nl
    * epel: http://ftp.nluug.nl
    * extras: http://ftp.nluug.nl
    * updates: http://ftp.nluug.nl
    Setting up Install Process
    Resolving Dependencies
    –> Running transaction check
    —> Package mod-pagespeed-beta.x86_64 0:1.8.31.4-4009 will be installed
    –> Processing Dependency: httpd >= 2.2 for package: mod-pagespeed-beta-1.8.31.4-4009.x86_64
    –> Finished Dependency Resolution
    Error: Package: mod-pagespeed-beta-1.8.31.4-4009.x86_64 (mod-pagespeed)
    Requires: httpd >= 2.2
    You could try using –skip-broken to work around the problem
    You could try running: rpm -Va –nofiles –nodigest

    Reply
    • Sorry for troble, but the fact is, article is little outdated and we haven’t updated yet. After seeing the error, I suggest you to upgrade your httpd version to latest and then give a try. I hope it will work for you this way.. or else wait for the updated article, we are in the process to publish updated one soon..

      Reply
  18. I have installed mod page speed Customized module from the bellow reference link on whm centos 5 ,32 bit with Apache 2.2.67.

    http://forums.cpanel.net/f402/install-mod_pagespeed-cpanel-using-easyapache-302431.html

    But now page speed module giving a warning ” ModPagespeed Generated File Prefix is deprecated please remove configuration”

    so i want to remove that configuration of custom module.

    if any body have any idea how to remove it let me know.

    i was try bellow command but it is not working for me

    sudo yum remove mod-pagespeed-stable

    when i open file using command nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/pagespeed.conf to add the mad page speed filters its show this error

    [ Error writing /etc/httpd/conf.d/pagespeed.conf: No such file or directory ]

    so that i want remove this custom page speed module.

    last out put through command on putty

    httpd -t -D DUMP_MODULES | grep pagespeed
    [Thu Aug 21 04:04:51 2014] [warn] ModPagespeedGeneratedFilePrefix is deprecated. Please remove it from your configuration.
    Syntax OK
    pagespeed_module (shared)

    Reply
  19. Hello Sir,

    This installed mod-pagespeed-beta-1.8.31.2-3973.x86_64 ,but in your repo its written stable ,no way to install Stable?

    Reply
  20. Yum installed mod_pagespeed correctly in the first two locations:

    – /etc/cron.daily/mod-pagespeed
    – /etc/httpd/conf.d/pagespeed.conf

    But if failed to do so in the other three locations:

    – /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_pagespeed.so
    – /var/www/mod_pagespeed/cache
    – /var/www/mod_pagespeed/files

    Also my info.php doesn’t display mod_pagespeed under HTTP Response Headers.
    It just shows: X-Powered-By PHP/5.5.4

    I did restart Apache after installing the module.

    TIA

    Reply
  21. Sir ,

    i am able to found mod_pagespeed in phpinfo page, But while I am unable to find its configuration file (pagespeed.conf) for ON and off .

    Reply
  22. I have installed this module but you have forget to say that we need to restart the apache server to see it work.
    For my bad luck this don’t work with my Linode Vps, with apache, php with suphp and Kloxo .
    It break down all my sites.

    Reply
    • Please read carefully, I have mentioned in the article about Apache restart. Sorry, to heard, but i don’t think it will break down any sites, if it’s not working for you, simple remove it. or you can post output of phpinfo here. let me check…

      Reply
      • Sorry it was very late and i was tired and you say that we have to restart ;)

        The Http Header section don’t show up in my phpinfo, neither the apache section.

        I have uninstall the module page speed and install it again, but the result is the same, all my online stores break down.

        I edit the pagespeed.conf and turn module to off and everything work fine, but if turn on again my sites break down with erros.

        In Google Chrome:
        THIS PAGE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ERRORS:
        error on line 103 at column 9: Opening and ending tag mismatch: img line 0 and div
        BELOW IS A RENDERING OF THE PAGE UP TO THE FIRST ERROR.

        In Firefox
        XML Parsing Error: mismatched tag. Expected: .
        Location: http://houseofireland.exadra37.com/en/
        Line Number 99, Column 5:
        —-^

        Opera
        Works like a charm

        How can it be possible ???

        Reply
  23. I installed Varnish (port 80) and Apache (port 8080) with PageSpeed.

    However when my sites render, it renders: websitename.com:8080/js/jsentity.js etc

    I have my own custom code written (WordPress like situation) and each time it sees “websitename.com:8080” it assumes its a different website and refuses to load the dynamic code.

    How can I get pagespeed to just go with port 80 all the time since varnish is listening on port 80 and apache doing the gruntwork in the background?

    Reply
  24. already install no problem
    check at httpd -M pagespeed_module loaded
    but…
    i can’t see HTTP Header Information
    how i can see this Information ?

    Reply
  25. I wasted whole day following Google mod_pagespeed site. It was giving error after error. But within few minutes following your steps now I have enabled mod-pagespeed.

    Thank you very much.

    Reply
    • I agree with Omkar, i use Red Hat and on googles page didn’t even tell me i could run pagespeed. Your page was fast and easy a little out dated since I just installed pagespeed 1.6.29.4-3289. But it worked and was easy to set up.

      Reply
  26. hi,
    I use Apache 2.4.3 and get the error:
    httpd >= 2.2 is needed by mod-pagespeed-beta-1.0.22.7-2003.x86_64
    How to solve it?
    many thanks

    Reply
    • Dear Bien Quang,

      Can you please post me the whole output of the command. so we could rectify it and give you proper steps to install it.

      Reply

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