How to Enable HTTP/2 for Apache in CWP with mod_http2 module

In this tutorial We’ll install Apache 2.4 and enable HTTP/2 Support in CWP. HTTP/2 will make our applications faster, simpler, and more robust — a rare combination — by allowing us to undo many of the HTTP/1.1 workarounds previously done within our applications and address these concerns within the transport layer itself. Even better, it also opens up a number of entirely new opportunities to optimize our applications and improve performance!

How to Enable HTTP/2 on CWP7 NGINX

The primary goals for HTTP/2 are to reduce latency by enabling full request and response multiplexing, minimize protocol overhead via efficient compression of HTTP header fields, and add support for request prioritization and server push. To implement these requirements, there is a large supporting cast of other protocol enhancements, such as new flow control, error handling, and upgrade mechanisms, but these are the most important features that every web developer should understand and leverage in their applications.

This tutorial is now old to enable http/2 and TLS1.3 go to New tutorial :

How to Enable TLS 1.3 in Apache on CWP- Control Web Panel Centos 7 Centos 8 EL7 El8

It is recommended to upgrade to CWP7/Centos 7 since cwp6/centos 6 is getting old.

Ensure you already have SSL certs/LE certs installed for your domains HTTP2 will only work with HTTPS

Please note it will not work on openvz 6

let’s get started

Ensure you’ve root access and ssh access in order to install/upgrade this packages :-

Upgrading OS to latest version :

yum clean all
yum -y update

Upgrading Autoconf :

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf autoconf-*
wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-latest.tar.gz
tar zxvf autoconf-latest.tar.gz
cd autoconf-*/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make && make install

Installing openssl :

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf  openssl*
wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.1.1l.tar.gz
tar zxvf openssl-1.1.1l.tar.gz
cd openssl-1.1.1l
./config --prefix=/usr/local/opensslso --openssldir=/usr/local/opensslso zlib shared
make && make install

*Building openssl will take some time

Installing Nghttp2 :

nghttp2 is an implementation of HTTP/2

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf nghttp2-*
yum install libtool -y
wget https://github.com/nghttp2/nghttp2/releases/download/v1.42.0/nghttp2-1.42.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf nghttp2-1.42.0.tar.gz
cd nghttp2-*/
./configure --prefix=/usr
make && make install

Install APR:

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf apr*
wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-1.6.5.tar.gz
wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/apr/apr-util-1.6.1.tar.gz
tar -xf apr-1.6.5.tar.gz
tar -xf apr-util-1.6.1.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/apr-1.6.5
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apr1
make
make install
cd /usr/local/src/apr-util-1.6.1
./configure --with-apr=/usr/local/apr1 --prefix=/usr/local/apr-util1
make
make install

Rebuilding Apache with http2 support from CWP GUI :

First backup the httpd.conf

cp /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf.bak

Goto Apache Settings >> Apache Re-Build >> Select Next :

Next delete/replace all with this flags/lines under “Additional configuration” :

./configure 
--enable-so 
--prefix=/usr/local/apache 
--enable-unique-id 
--enable-ssl=/usr/local/opensslso 
--enable-rewrite  
--enable-deflate 
--enable-suexec 
--with-suexec-docroot="/home" 
--with-suexec-caller="nobody" 
--with-suexec-logfile="/usr/local/apache/logs/suexec_log" 
--enable-asis 
--enable-filter 
--with-pcre 
--with-apr=/usr/local/apr1/bin/apr-1-config 
--with-apr-util=/usr/local/apr-util1/bin/apu-1-config 
--enable-headers 
--enable-expires 
--enable-proxy 
--enable-rewrite 
--enable-userdir 
--enable-http2

then Click on Start Compiler in background.

After you builded Apache we need to enable HTTP/2 withing Apache config :

nano /usr/local/apache/conf.d/http2.conf

then add this line and save it :

LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so
LogLevel http2:info
Protocols h2 h2c http/1.1

OR

You can also use this command to create and add the lines automatically :

cat > /usr/local/apache/conf.d/http2.conf << EOF
LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so
LogLevel http2:info
Protocols h2 h2c http/1.1
EOF

Restart Apache :

service httpd restart

you can check http/2 is enabled or not via this site:

https://tools.keycdn.com/http2-test

If something goes wrong restore the Apache httpd.conf backup :

rm -rf /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
cp /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf.bak /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
service httpd restart