Enabling h2 (Http/2) protocol for Apache and Nginx

• Note: h2 only works with HTTPS enabled. For a website that is not on https, letsencript can be used.

• Its would be a good practice to install apache from the following repo, as this repo contains the latest version of apache or nginx which has support for h2.

For apache

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2

$ sudo apt-key update

$ sudo apt-get update

For nginx

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/nginx

$ sudo apt-key update

$ sudo apt-get update

To enable https use the following links.

• For Ubuntu 14.04 and nginx

• For Ubuntu 16.04 and nginx

• For Ubuntu 14.04 and Apache

• For Ubuntu 16.04 and Apache

Apache

Updating apache2

• Apache 2.4.27, HTTP/2 not supported in prefork

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2

$ sudo apt-key update

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

$ sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install apache2 -y

• here you will be prompted two times like :

*** apache2.conf (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?

• press Y both the times and proceed.

$ sudo a2enmod http2

• Update the host file in

$ nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default-le-ssl.conf

<VirtualHost *:443> 
[For HTTPS Support]
Protocols h2 http/1.1

[For HTTP Support]
Protocols h2c http/1.1

$ sudo service apache2 restart

Updating PHP

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

$ sudo apt-get install -y language-pack-en-base

$ sudo LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install php7.2

$ sudo apachectl stop

$ sudo apt-get install php7.2-fpm

$ sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif

$ sudo a2enconf php7.2-fpm

$ sudo a2dismod php7.2

$ sudo a2dismod mpm_prefork

$ sudo a2enmod mpm_event

$ sudo apachectl start

Troubleshooting

• If you have some problem with

$ sudo a2dismod php7.3

• just try this:

$ sudo a2dismod php7.0

$ sudo a2dismod php7.1

$ sudo service apache2 restart

Updating MYSQL

$ sudo apt-get install php-mysqlnd

• from output of the above command choose explicit version of mysql to be installed.

sudo service apache2 restart

To check for error go to

$ sudo nano /var/log/apache2/error.log

• And see what are the errors.

Nginx

Updating Nginx

• (skip these steps if you have already updated nginx)

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/nginx

$ sudo apt-key update

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install nginx

$ sudo nginx -v 

• Should give output something like this

nginx version: nginx/1.10.0 (Ubuntu)

Changing the Listening Port and Enabling HTTP/2

• Open the configuration file

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

• Add http2 as indicated

  listen 443 ssl http2 default_server; listen [::]:443 ssl http2 default_server;

• Save and close the file, then run

$ sudo nginx -t

• This should display the following

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

• Restart nginx service

sudo service nginx restart

References:

• https://serverfault.com/questions/867454/http2-enabled-but-not-supported
• https://askubuntu.com/questions/979323/http-2-not-working-in-ubuntu-16-04-with-apache2-how-can-i-debug-this
• https://www.2daygeek.com/how-to-enable-http2-0-support-on-apache-web-server/2/#
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37103927/why-does-apache2-module-http2-not-exist-on-ubuntu-16-04
• https://serverfault.com/questions/515417/error-start-apache-php-value
• https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-nginx-with-http-2-support-on-ubuntu-16-04