Brotli

Overview

Brotli is a general‑purpose, lossless data compression algorithm that uses a variant of the LZ77 algorithm, Huffman coding, and second‑order context modeling. Its compression ratio is comparable to the best currently available general‑purpose compression methods. Its speed is similar to DEFLATE but with denser compression.

The ngx_brotli module enables Brotli compression in F5 NGINX Plus and consists of two modules:

ngx_brotli filter module – for compressing responses on-the-fly
ngx_brotli static module - for serving pre-compressed files

Prerequisites

Check the Technical Specifications page to verify that the module is supported by your operating system.

If required, install the epel-release dependency

for Amazon Linux 2 LTS:

        sudo amazon-linux-extras install epel -y

sudo amazon-linux-extras install epel -y

for CentOS, Oracle Linux, and RHEL:

        sudo yum install epel-release -y

sudo yum install epel-release -y

Installation

Install the Brotli module package nginx-plus-module-brotli.

for Amazon Linux 2 LTS, CentOS, Oracle Linux, and RHEL:

        yum install nginx-plus-module-brotli

yum install nginx-plus-module-brotli

for Amazon Linux 2023, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux:

        dnf install nginx-plus-module-brotli

dnf install nginx-plus-module-brotli

for Debian and Ubuntu:

        apt-get install nginx-plus-module-brotli

apt-get install nginx-plus-module-brotli

for SLES 15:

        zypper install nginx-plus-module-brotli

zypper install nginx-plus-module-brotli

for FreeBSD:

        pkg install nginx-plus-module-brotli

pkg install nginx-plus-module-brotli

Configuration

After installation you will need to enable and configure Brotli modules in NGINX Plus configuration file nginx.conf.

Enable dynamic loading of Brotli modules with the load_module directives specified in the top-level (“main”) context:

        load_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_filter_module.so;  for compressing responses on-the-flyload_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_static_module.so;  for serving pre-compressed fileshttp {    ...}

load_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_filter_module.so; # for compressing responses on-the-fly
load_module modules/ngx_http_brotli_static_module.so; # for serving pre-compressed files

http {
    #...
}

Enable Brotli compression and perform additional configuration as required by the ngx_brotli module. Brotli compression can be configured on the http, server or location levels:

        http {    server {        brotli on;        ...    }}

http {

    server {
        brotli on;
        #...
    }
}

Test the configuration and reload NGINX Plus to enable the module:

        nginx -t && nginx -s reload

nginx -t && nginx -s reload

More Info

Last modified August 22, 2024