how can I use mod_proxy?

Question

I created a wsgi webapp in my webfaction account. This gave me apache with preconfigured httpd.conf. Now I want to repurpose this apache instance as a reverse proxy temporarily to a webapp running on a separate webfaction host. I can get what I want using the ProxyPass directive from mod_proxy, but that module doesn't seem to be available in this build. Is it available somewhere or do I need to build apache from scratch?

Answer 1

0

I can answer this myself. There are additional precompiled modules in /usr/lib/httpd/modules. These modules might not have been compiled with this httpd binary, but they seem to work. So this does the trick:

cp /usr/lib/httpd/modules/mod_proxy* ~/webapps/APP/apache2/modules/

then add the following to ~/webapps/APP/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
ProxyPass / http://web*.webfaction.com:*/  # replace * with appropriate values
ProxyPreserveHost On                       # if appropriate

==== Update ======

This seems like the right approach, but it doesn't work between webfaction servers. It appears that webfaction blocks direct connections to httpd running on high ports except on localhost. :-(

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answered 04 Jun '12, 16:13

agriffis
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accept rate: 0%

edited 04 Jun '12, 16:25

If you need direct access to your app's ports, then you'll need to open a support ticket so that we can open your ports on your server's secondary shared IP.

That said, I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here. Our front-end Nginx server already does the job of proxying requests for your domain from port 80 to whatever port your app is listening on, so this seems like a redundant step that will only slow down requests to your sites.

(04 Jun '12, 16:38) seanf

Hi Sean. I've been working on a graceful transition of our production site from a 32-bit server (web181) to a 64-bit server (web344). I had hoped to use mod_proxy to bridge while DNS propagates the static IP update. But since ports are blocked, I've worked out a plan that has production running on both servers in read-only mode during the 10-minute DNS TTL interval, then we can enable writes on the new host and disable the old host shortly after.

Thanks for the tip about opening a support ticket to open ports. I'll keep that in mind -- it could come in handy.

(04 Jun '12, 17:53) agriffis

Answer 2

0

If you need an Apache module that we don't provide, then you'll need to build your own Apache from source (along with whatever modules you need) and run that as a custom application.

Note that even if you find pre-compiled Apache modules laying around on the server somewhere, there's absolutely no guarantee that they'll work with the Apache supplied with your back-end apps.

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answered 04 Jun '12, 16:39

seanf
12.2k●4●18●36
accept rate: 37%

how can I use mod_proxy?

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