Using rewrite to forward the request

["Mohit Anchlia" <mohitanchlia@xxxxxxxxx>]

We have a web server that redirects traffic to app server using mod_jk load balancer.

 

Now I need to do the following:

 

1. If request comes from URL /AB and content of URL /AB has content in certain format then forward it to mod_jk otherwise forward it to some other URL (external system in our case).

2. Make sure that when apache forwards the requests to external URL, session from client is still active.

 

My obvious questions are:

1. Can I do the above using rewrite rules?

2. Can I use perl in rewrite rules to parse through the content and somehow tell apache to re-direct the request? What's the best way to do that? In terms of performance, efficiency etc.

3. If rewrite forwards the request then does it still maintains the session from client -> WebServer -> External system?

 

I need your advise.