Installing mod_pagespeed for performance increase on RHEL/Centos for Apache

mod_pagespeed is an Open Source module published by Google which automatically configures various different optimisations within your configuration to enable faster site performance. Given the benefits and ease at which it can be installed, it should be high on the priority list to configure.

How to

Before starting this process, you will need to determine the system architecture you are using before being able to install the correct repo (32 or 64 bit). If you do not already know you can use the outcome of the following command to inform.

# uname -a

Once you have confirmed the system architecture, create a new repo to download and update the module from.

# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mod-pagespeed.repo

Dependant on the architecture add one of the following to the contents of the file.

32-bit:

[mod-pagespeed] 
 name=mod-pagespeed 
 baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/mod-pagespeed/rpm/stable/i386 
 enabled=1 
 gpgcheck=0

64-bit:

[mod-pagespeed] 
 name=mod-pagespeed 
 baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/mod-pagespeed/rpm/stable/x86_64 
 enabled=1 
 gpgcheck=0

You can now install the mod_pagespeed module using yum:

# yum install mod-pagespeed

Restart Apache to force the new configuration to be included.

# service httpd restart Stopping httpd: [ OK ] Starting httpd: [ OK ]

By default there is no further configuration required. You can check that page speed is performing by examining the response page headers of your site via your browser’s developer toolbar.

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