Setting Reverse Proxy With Apache2 on Ubuntu (Debian)

Apache HTTP server is probably the most used open source free web server and does not require any introduction. Also setting up reverse proxy using Apache is also not new. In fact this blog entry does not talk about anything new. Over here I'm just jotting down easy to follow steps to setup a reverse proxy using Apache 2.2 on Ubuntu or any Debian flavor.

Main reason for writing this is, I've basically used Apache2 on windows and configuration is bit different then how it's on Debian. In windows typically you will find all configuration under httpd.conf file where you can load any particular module using LoadModule. This is not how Apache2 works exactly with Debian. With a typical install, you will find httpd.conf totally empty. Also loading modules dynamically does not work by having LoadModule declaration.

Without going much into details of these differences, I'll just write down how to setup reverse proxy...

1. Load required modules - proxy, proxy_http, proxy_connect
   
   sudo a2enmode proxy_connect
   sudo a2enmode proxy_http
   Above will automatically enable proxy module.
   
   
2. Configure Site - Change your directory to the site for which you want to setup reverser proxy. For simplicity, I'll refer to the default site located at /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. You need to have root privilege to modify the site configuration. Below is the typical content for the default site i.e. 000-default
   

   <virtualhost *:80>
       ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
   
       DocumentRoot /var/www
       <directory />
           Options FollowSymLinks
           AllowOverride None
       </Directory>
       <directory /var/www/>
           Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
           AllowOverride None
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   
       ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
       <directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
           AllowOverride None
           Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Directory>
   
       ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
   
       # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
       # alert, emerg.
       LogLevel warn
   
       CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
   
       Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
       <directory "/usr/share/doc/">
           Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
           AllowOverride None
           Order deny,allow
           Deny from all
           Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
       </Directory>
   
   </VirtualHost>

   
   To setup a reverse proxy for URL http://localhost:8080/myapp/ please add following lines at the end of the VirtualHost tag as displayed above...
   
   ProxyPass /myapp/ http://localhost:8080/myapp/
   ProxyPassReverse /myapp/ http://localhost:8080/myapp/
   
   
   
3. Enable access - To allow access for all requests to this proxy, edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/proxy.conf. By default access to all is denied. To enable the access, put line Allow from all. Typical proxy.conf after this change will look something like...
   

   <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
       #turning ProxyRequests on and allowing proxying from all may allow
           #spammers to use your proxy to send email.
   
           ProxyRequests Off
   
           <Proxy *>
                   AddDefaultCharset off
                   Order deny,allow
                   Deny from all
                   Allow from all
           </Proxy>
   
           # Enable/disable the handling of HTTP/1.1 "Via:" headers.
           # ("Full" adds the server version; "Block" removes all outgoing Via: headers)
           # Set to one of: Off | On | Full | Block
   
           ProxyVia On
   </IfModule>

   
   Note the line ProxyRequests Off. This is important in order to enable reverse proxy
   
   
4. Restart Apache2 - To get all of above configuration changes in effect, have a clean restart. Recommended way is...
   
   sudo apache2ctl graceful
   
   
   
5. Done !!! Happy reverse proxying

Cheers !!!
- Jay