Enable or disable the Google PageSpeed module in Nginx like a pro with our help.

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Server Management Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team recently helped out a customer with enabling and disabling the Google PageSpeed module in Nginx.

How to enable or disable the Google PageSpeed module in Nginx

PageSpeed modules are server modules that work on optimizing sites automatically. It consists of filters that enhance the performance of JavaScript, CC, HTML as well as PNG and JPEG images.

If you are looking for a way to disable or enable it, Bobcares has your back. However, a word of caution if SELinux is in enforcing mode. Our Support Team recommends not enabling PageSpeed in Nginx in this scenario due to a CentOS Kernel Bug.

How to enable Google PageSpeed module in Nginx

1. First, we have to connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
2. Then, we will enable the Google PageSpeed module for Nginx via the following command:

   # plesk sbin nginx_modules_ctl -e pagespeed
3. Next, we have to create a directory where we will store the Nginx cache. We also have to adjust permissions and ownership as seen below:

   # mkdir /var/cache/nginx_example_com/
   # chown nginx:nginx /var/cache/nginx_example_com/
   # chmod 700 /var/cache/nginx_example_com/
4. After that, we have to log in to Plesk and navigate to Domains > example.com > Apache and Nginx settings.
5. Then, we will add the lines seen below to the Additional Nginx directives and click OK to save the changes:

   pagespeed on;
   pagespeed FileCachePath "/var/cache/nginx_example_com/";
   pagespeed RewriteLevel OptimizeForBandwidth;
   location ~ "\.pagespeed\.([a-z]\.)?[a-z]{2}\.[^.]{10}\.[^.]+" {
   add_header "" "";
   }
   location ~ "^/pagespeed_static/" { }
   location ~ "^/ngx_pagespeed_beacon$" { }

   Remember to replace FileCachePath with the path from Step 3.
6. Finally, we will verify the module is enabled by running the following command on the server directly:

   # curl -Is https://example.com | grep X-Page-Speed
   X-Page-Speed: 1.13.35.2-0

How to disable Google PageSpeed module in Nginx

1. First, we have to connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
2. Next, we will find the domains which have set PageSpeed to enable with the following command:

   # grep -l pagespeed /var/www/vhosts/system/*/conf/vhost_nginx.conf | cut -d '/' -f6
3. Then, we will log in to Plesk, and for each domain from the previous step navigate to Domains > example.com > Apache and Nginx settings.
4. After that. We have to remove the lines below from the Additional Nginx directives and click OK to save the changes:

   pagespeed on;
   pagespeed FileCachePath "/var/cache/nginx_example_com/";
   pagespeed RewriteLevel OptimizeForBandwidth;
   location ~ "\.pagespeed\.([a-z]\.)?[a-z]{2}\.[^.]{10}\.[^.]+" {
   add_header "" "";
   }
   location ~ "^/pagespeed_static/" { }
   location ~ "^/ngx_pagespeed_beacon$" { }
5. Then, we will disable the Google PageSpeed module for Nginx over SSH:

   # plesk sbin nginx_modules_ctl -d pagespeed
6. We can also opt to remove the cached files for each domain with this command:

   # rm -rf /var/cache/nginx_example_com/

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Conclusion

To sum up, the skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated how to enable or disable the Google PageSpeed module in Nginx.