Apache HTTPD with SPDY 3.1

Question

SPDY 3.1 has been release a while ago. Google has donated the mod_spdy project to apache (https://code.google.com/p/mod-spdy/). Is it possible to use SPDY 3.1 with Apache Httpd?

Answer 1

The issue is that Chrome 40.x dropped support for SPDY/3 and only supports SPDY/3.1, but the mod_spdy module for Apache only supports SPDY/3, so basically no SPDY for Chrome users if you use Apache as a web server.

mod_spdy is currently in a bad state where either Google nor Apache is maintaining it after Google donated it to the Asf. Google recently made the statement that they will drop the SPDY support from Chrome in early 2016, but what they forgot to say that they started dropping older versions of SPDY already (including SPDY/3) (I like these partially true statements by the way), so basically if you are on Apache then for your Chrome users you can't provide SPDY short of implementing SPDY/3.1 yourself.

So, how was that for "do no evil"? :-)

See details: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mod-spdy-discuss/FPEj0zG5I0Y and https://code.google.com/p/mod-spdy/issues/detail?id=100&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Priority%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars

One option you might consider is switching to Nginx and using the SPDY/3.1 implementation over there.

Answer 2

Google's mod_spdy works on Apache 2.2 but the 2.4 port had some issues, there is a thread on it already.

I found a description how someone succeeded to compile it, but I haven't tested it yet.

Answer 3

As I can't comment, due to the lack of reputation, I'll have to answer, although it could be as "off topic" as alexus' answer was.

I found the description, hoppy mentioned some days ago and successfully got it working. Quite straight forward, if someone is interested in trying it. Although I have to mention, that this sadly only adds SPDY/3 Support to my domain and not the SPDY/3.1 in question.

Chrome 36 and Firefox 31.4 ESR are connecting to this test domain successfully through SPDY/3. (Using SPDY indicator AddOns for Firefox and Chrome.) Qualys SSL Labs confirms, the server has got SDPY/3 and SPDY/2 support.

Connecting to google.com with those Browser versions, the SPDY indicators are telling me that SPDY/3.1 is in usage.

But in Chrome 40 & 41 and Firefox 36+ the SPDY Indicator stays grey, while connecting to my testing domain. Connecting google.com both Browsers say, the connection is already using HTTP/2. So not only Chrome but also Firefox already droped SPDY 3.0 Support.

I think this is kinda unfortunate. Sysadmins, trying to support the best possible experience and and protocol-Support are kinda run over, the invested work was for nothing.

To finally answer the question of this thread: No. To me it seems like, you wont get an somehow "official" SPDY/3.1 Support for apache2 yet. As you can read at github, they dont speak it yet. And as this "yet" is already about half an year old, I would guess, its not coming. So like alexus mentioned, one should stick to HTTP/2. Keep an eye on this github page where hopefully apache2 will pop up quite soon.

And finally the "but"-part. ;) You could undo the change, I linked to, and recompile the mod_spdy, so it offers SPDY/3.1. With my testing machine it somehow seems to work, but I get some issues with Firefox saying the OCSP-Server needs to try later, which were gone 5 minutes later. But I really don't know if the browsers are somehow falling back to SPDY/3 but showing the negotiated SPDY/3.1 or something. I don't trust this setup right now and need to do some further testing. So to answer the question of the thread again: Yes, maybe! :) If you stick to the description hoppy gave and change some code lines and compile it again. It seems somehow to work, but i really wouldn't recommend it right now.

Answer 4

Sorry, if it's bit off-topic, but I wouldn't even bother, as Google is abandoning SPDY and moving towards HTTP/2:

Chromium Blog: Hello HTTP/2, Goodbye SPDY

Answer 5

Actually I was testing SPDY3.1 without removing the 3.1 header specifications, from the source before compiling.

Everything was working fine, except POST, and file uploads with PHP-FPM. Also, even though there were no details about it in the error log, there was a 30% drop in traffic. Of course it can be a coincidence, but the post and problems are definitely real.

It was tested in a server with about 200 000 pageviews/day.