mod_proxy_balance: route redirect not working

[<Juergen.Link@xxxxxxxxx>]

We use mod_proxy to distribute requests to four tomcat instances.

Our configuration (vhost.conf) is as follows:

 

<VirtualHost aa.bb.cc:3000>
   ProxyPass /balancer-manager !
   ProxyPass / balancer://mybalancer/ stickysession=JSESSIONID

 

   <Proxy balancer://mybalancer>
        BalancerMember ajp://xx.yy.zz:11009/ldsportal route=tomcat1 loadfactor=50
        BalancerMember ajp://xx.yy.zz:12009/ldsportal route=tomcat2 loadfactor=50
        BalancerMember ajp://xx.yy.zz:13009/ldsportal route=tomcat3 loadfactor=50
        BalancerMember ajp://xx.yy.zz:13009/ldsportal route=tomcat4 loadfactor=50
   </Proxy>

 

   <Location /balancer-manager>
        SetHandler balancer-manager
   </Location>
</VirtualHost>

Things work fine this way, but occasionally, we have to shut down a single instance for maintenance.

We use the balancer manager to reconfigure the respective worker (say: tomcat1) to redirect to another worker:

- select the instance tomcat1 from the web GUI http://aa.bb.cc:3000/balancer-manager

- enter e.g. tomcat2 in the "Route Redirect" form field.

- on submit, the respective worker is marked with "RouteRedir=tomcat2" in the worker list.

 

Our problem is, requests without a session id still get routed to worker tomcat1 (as well as to the other 3 instances).

 

We use [Server Version: Apache/2.2.3 (Linux/SUSE)] in our production env, but I also tried [Server Version: Apache/2.2.11 (Win32)]

The result is the same in both setups.

 

Am I missing something essential?

 

Cheers

Jürgen