0

I am trying to serve the requests to my Site through Proxy machine using Load balancer. When i try to access the Site by hitting http://PROXYSERVER.com, the HomePage comes up fine retaining the address bar URL with http://PROXYSERVER.com.

Now, when i try to access internal links for example, http://PROXYSERVER.com/services/ then the address bar URLchanges to the APPSERVER URL http://APPSERVER01.com/services/


NOTE: The Page comes up fine but the address bar URL is getting changed.

Expected behaviour is when user requests http://PROXYSERVER.com/services/ then the address bar should retain the proxy URL while serving the request


Here is my code for load balancing,

  ProxyRequests off ServerName PROXYSERVER.com # WebHead1 BalancerMember http://APPSERVER01:80/ route=node1 # WebHead2 BalancerMember http://APPSERVER02:80/ route=node2 Order Deny,Allow Deny from none Allow from all ProxySet lbmethod=byrequests #ProxySet lbmethod=bybusyness ProxySet stickysession=BALANCEID SetHandler balancer-manager Order deny,allow Allow from all # Point of Balance ProxyPass /balancer-manager ! ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Improve this question
5
  • 1
    That might be because you're missing the corresponding ProxyPassReverse directive (most likely), if that's the case I'll write up a pretty answer with that. Alternatively because your actual content contains absolute links that contain the app server hostname. That's more difficult, and requires a different strategy Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 7:14
  • @HBruijn. Actual contents are build using PROXYSERVER Hostname. For instance, href for service is build as PROXYSERVER.com/services . But when i click on that href the address bar URL changes to APPSERVERxx.com/services. Point to be noted, even now the elements are build using the PROXYSERVER Hostname. Only issue i am facing is address bar URL changes to APPSERVER URL on accessing internal links except 'Home'. Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 7:32
  • That's because the missing ProxyPassReverse directive. When you go to a directory but omit the trailing / the app server sends an http redirect to the URL with trailing slash. The reverse proxy should rewrite that header to the URL base of the proxy server. Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 7:38
  • @HBruijn . Do you mean the PROXYSERVER.com/services missing trailing slash. I am not used to editing options here. Its actually with trailing slash PROXYSERVER.com/services/. Did you meant adding code as ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/? Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 7:42
  • @HBruijn. With "ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/ " added to my conf file, its going into redirect loop. Hope that's what you meant. Thanks for the suggestions. Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 8:37

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

The configuration you posted and the symptoms you describe point to a missing ProxyPassReverse directive.

Without it any URL's in the Location, Content-Location and URI headers on HTTP redirect responses send by either one of you application servers won't be modified. That exposes the real name/URL of the application server and the visitor will be directed to that URL rather instead of that of the proxy-server.

You would see such headers for instance when you go to a directory http://example.com/dirname and omit the trailing slash /.
In that case the active application server will send a HTTP 301 "moved permanently" header and append the trailing slash.

A trace with curl -v proxyserver.com/services will show something along the lines of:

> GET /services HTTP/1.1 > Host: proxyserver.com > User-Agent: curl/7.43.0 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently < Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2016 09:27:31 GMT < Server: Apache/2.2.15 (CentOS) < Location: https://appserver01:/services/ < Content-Length: 328 < Connection: close < Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 <

You resolve that by adding the correct ProxyPassReverse directive which tells Apache to rewrite such headers with that of the proxy URI

 # Point of Balance ProxyPass /balancer-manager ! ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/ ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/

Depending on the version of Apache you're running you might experience behaviour similar to this older bug and could try explicit ProxyPassReverse directives for each member of the balancer pool:

 ProxyPass /balancer-manager ! ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/ ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/ # Ensure that headers sent by application servers get corrected: ProxyPassReverse / http://APPSERVER01:80/ ProxyPassReverse / http://APPSERVER02:80/
Improve this answer
3
  • Thanks for the in-depth explanation. I did try adding "ProxyPassReverse / balancer://mycluster/". But on accessing <PROXYSERVER.com/services/>; i am getting error as ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 10:56
  • Do you logs show anything, on both the proxy host and the application servers and does curl -v PROXYSERVER.com/services/ show where you get redirected to? Commented Jan 6, 2016 at 11:02
  • I believe someconfiguration from the Application Server side is causing the issue. I will check and let you know. Thanks for the help Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 10:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.