Use Apache for compression offloading

[Rainer Sabelka <sabelka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I try to use apache (version 2.2.8 on Ubuntu 8.04) for compression offloading.
What I want to do:
- use mod_proxy to forward all requests to the application server
- use mod_deflate to compress the output
- remove the "Accept-Encondig:" header from the client's request before 
sending it to the application server to avoid that the compression is done 
there.

My frist approach didn't work:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.com
    <Proxy *>
         Order deny,allow
         Allow from all
    </Proxy>
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPass / http://realserver:80/
    ProxyPreserveHost on
    RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</VirtualHost>

The problem with this approach: when I use "RequestHeader unset Accept-
Encoding" then the application server gives me uncompressed output (good) but 
also mod_deflate won't comress the output (bad).

So, this is my second approch, which actually works, but I think is a bit an 
over-kill:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.com
    <Proxy *>
         Order deny,allow
         Allow from all
    </Proxy>
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:8000/
    ProxyPreserveHost on
    RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
    SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost localhost:8000>
    ServerName www.example.com
    <Proxy *>
         Order deny,allow
         Allow from all
    </Proxy>
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPass / http://realserver:80/
    ProxyPreserveHost on
    RequestHeader unset Accept-Encoding
</VirtualHost>

Here I have 2 instances of apache in proxy-mode connected in series. The first 
one forwards the request to the second one and does the compression of the 
output. The second instance just removes the Accept-Encoding header before it 
forwards the request to the application server.

But I think there must be a an easier solution. Has any body an idea how to 
get this working with only a single instance of apache?

Thanks,
-Rainer

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