Do I Need Reverse Proxy?

Tod Thomas <tthomas@xxxxxxxxx> · Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:42:55 -0400

I'm running apache v2.2.0, built from scratch, on an FC6 box.  I have a 

Tomcat based portal server running from port 8080 on the same box.  The 

portal itself, upon initial request, redirects the client a couple of 

times before it finally rests at a default home page.  I'd like to 

accomplish a couple of things.

First, any request that arrives to the apache server 

http://myserver/portal I'd like forwarded to http://localhost:8080 

without the user ever noticing the are leaving http://myserver/portal. 

This sounded like a job for reverse proxy.

I can get it working just fine if I use this construct:

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
  ProxyRequests Off
  ProxyPreserveHost On
  ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/
  ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/
</IfModule>

However I don't want to proxy every request to http://myserver, just 

requests to http://myserver/portal. When I try this:

<IfModule mod_proxy.c>
  ProxyRequests      Off
  ProxyPreserveHost  On
  ProxyPass         /portal/ http://localhost:8080/
  ProxyPassReverse  /portal/ http://localhost:8080/
</IfModule>

It fails.  I have a feeling it has to do with the multiple redirects the 

portal does prior to presenting its initial home page, but I'm not sure 

since it works fine pointing to /.

Another thing I would like to try and accomplish is to replace 

http://localhost:8080 with a virtual domain.  So instead the proxy 

example above would 'redirect' to http://virtualdomain:8080.  This would 

still be invisible to the user as they would see the traffic directed to 

http://myserver/portal.  The virtualdomain's name would be resolved 

locally using an entry in /etc/hosts.

I'd really like to get the first one working.  The second is more 

esoteric but also valuable.

Can anyone offer any advice?  Please let me know if there is anything 

that needs clarification.

Thanks - Tod

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