Forum Discussion
NimbostratusAccepting Compressed Requests! NOT RESPONSES.
Hi All,
Perhaps we can do this with an iRule or some other solution?
Really just need to know if the above is even possible. I apologise if this is the wrong category as I am unsure of where to place it.
Any other information you require from me, please ask.
Kind Regards,
Ben Thomas
6 Replies
ArieAltostratus
Are you referring to HTTP?
Which part of the request are you wanting to compress? If I'm not mistaken you can't compress the headers. In addition, even if you do compress the content the server may not accept that.
RFC 2616 deals with HTTP compression, but unfortunately there's not a lot of clarity on request compression.Here's a write-up on request compression from IBM (WebSphere): http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/wci/v6r0m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.websphere.cast_iron.doc%2Fcompression_decompression_with_the_http_post_request_activity.html
Swordfish_11740Hi There,
I am referring to a HTTP request. I want to know if the F5 can accept incoming requests that are compressed, then decompress them for the servers and then the F5 will recompress to go back to the client?
What_Lies_Bene1Cirrostratus
That is exactly how HTTP compression works on the F5 although typically requests are not compressed in my experience.
Depending on your version you would configure this in either a custom HTTP or HTTP Compression profile and assign it to your Virtual Server. If SSL is involved you would need to be terminating the SSL on the F5.
Menu path: Local Traffic > Profiles > Services > HTTP or HTTP Compression
- Swordfish_11740
I know how compression works on the F5. I know typically requests are not compressed but what if they were... would the F5 understand them>?
Some of our clients send us compressed requests, can the F5 handle this?
Thank you for your help.
- What_Lies_Bene1A client would only send a compressed request if it had received the relevant HTTP Accept-Encoding header from the F5 indicating support for compression. I don't think I've ever seen this header sent but I've never really looked. You can easily test this by connecting to any VS with compression enabled and seeing if you receive this header. I suspect you won't but I'd be happy to be proved wrong.
- What_Lies_Bene1I've just been browsing the iRules wiki and it would seem request compression is supported in v11, as indicated by the COMPRESS:: enable 'request' subcommand: https://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/iRules.COMPRESS__enable.ashx. No real detail on how it works but I'm sure it could be tested quite easily.
