3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Apache HTTP Server Version 2.2

Apache Module mod_proxy
Description:
Status:
Module Identifier:
Source File:

HTTP/1.1 proxy/gateway server

Extension
proxy_module
mod_proxy.c

Summary
Warning
Do not enable proxying with ProxyRequestsuntil you have secured your server ( #access) . Open
proxy servers are dangerous both to your network and to the Internet at large.
This module implements a proxy/gateway for Apache. It implements proxying capability for AJP13(Apache JServe
Protocol version 1.3), FTP, CONNECT(for SSL), HTTP/0.9, HTTP/1.0, and HTTP/1.1. The module can be
configured to connect to other proxy modules for these and other protocols.
Apache's proxy features are divided into several modules in addition to mod_proxy: mod_proxy_http,
mod_proxy_ftp, mod_proxy_ajp, mod_proxy_balancer, and mod_proxy_connect. Thus, if you
want to use one or more of the particular proxy functions, load mod_proxyand the appropriate module(s) into the
server (either statically at compile-time or dynamically via the LoadModuledirective).
In addition, extended features are provided by other modules. Caching is provided by mod_cacheand related
modules. The ability to contact remote servers using the SSL/TLS protocol is provided by the SSLProxy*directives
of mod_ssl. These additional modules will need to be loaded and configured to take advantage of these features.

Directives
AllowCONNECT
BalancerMember
NoProxy
<Proxy>
ProxyBadHeader
ProxyBlock
ProxyDomain
ProxyErrorOverride
ProxyFtpDirCharset
ProxyIOBufferSize
<ProxyMatch>
ProxyMaxForwards
ProxyPass
ProxyPassInterpolateEnv
ProxyPassMatch
ProxyPassReverse
ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain
ProxyPassReverseCookiePath
ProxyPreserveHost
ProxyReceiveBufferSize
ProxyRemote
ProxyRemoteMatch
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

1/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

ProxyRequests
ProxySet
ProxyStatus
ProxyTimeout
ProxyVia

Topics
Forward Proxies and Reverse Proxies/Gateways
Basic Examples
Workers
Controlling access to your proxy
Slow Startup
Intranet Proxy
Protocol Adjustments
Request Bodies
Reverse Proxy Request Headers

See also
mod_cache
mod_proxy_http
mod_proxy_ftp
mod_proxy_connect
mod_proxy_balancer
mod_ssl
Comments

Forward Proxies and Reverse Proxies/Gateways

Apache can be configured in both a forward and reverse proxy (also known as gateway) mode.
An ordinary forward proxy is an intermediate server that sits between the client and the origin server. In order to
get content from the origin server, the client sends a request to the proxy naming the origin server as the target and
the proxy then requests the content from the origin server and returns it to the client. The client must be specially
configured to use the forward proxy to access other sites.
A typical usage of a forward proxy is to provide Internet access to internal clients that are otherwise restricted by a
firewall. The forward proxy can also use caching (as provided by mod_cache) to reduce network usage.
The forward proxy is activated using the ProxyRequestsdirective. Because forward proxies allow clients to
access arbitrary sites through your server and to hide their true origin, it is essential that you secure your server
( #access) so that only authorized clients can access the proxy before activating a forward proxy.
A reverse proxy (or gateway), by contrast, appears to the client just like an ordinary web server. No special
configuration on the client is necessary. The client makes ordinary requests for content in the name-space of the
reverse proxy. The reverse proxy then decides where to send those requests, and returns the content as if it was itself
the origin.
A typical usage of a reverse proxy is to provide Internet users access to a server that is behind a firewall. Reverse
proxies can also be used to balance load among several back-end servers, or to provide caching for a slower back-end
server. In addition, reverse proxies can be used simply to bring several servers into the same URL space.
A reverse proxy is activated using the ProxyPassdirective or the [P]flag to the RewriteRuledirective. It is
not necessary to turn ProxyRequestson in order to configure a reverse proxy.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

2/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Basic Examples
The examples below are only a very basic idea to help you get started. Please read the documentation on the
individual directives.
In addition, if you wish to have caching enabled, consult the documentation from mod_cache.
Reverse Proxy
ProxyPass /foo http://foo.example.com/bar
ProxyPassReverse /foo http://foo.example.com/bar

Forward Proxy
ProxyRequests On
ProxyVia On
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from internal.example.com
</Proxy>

Workers
The proxy manages the configuration of origin servers and their communication parameters in objects called workers.
There are two built-in workers, the default forward proxy worker and the default reverse proxy worker. Additional
workers can be configured explicitly.
The two default workers have a fixed configuration and will be used if no other worker matches the request. They do
not use HTTP Keep-Alive or connection pooling. The TCP connections to the origin server will instead be opened and
closed for each request.
Explicitly configured workers are identified by their URL. They are usually created and configured using
ProxyPassor ProxyPassMatchwhen used for a reverse proxy:
ProxyPass /example http://backend.example.com connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30

This will create a worker associated with the origin server URL http://backend.example.comand using the
given timeout values. When used in a forward proxy, workers are usually defined via the ProxySetdirective:
ProxySet http://backend.example.com connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30

or alternatively using Proxyand ProxySet:

<Proxy http://backend.example.com>
ProxySet connectiontimeout=5 timeout=30
</Proxy>

Using explicitly configured workers in the forward mode is not very common, because forward proxies usually
communicate with many different origin servers. Creating explicit workers for some of the origin servers can still be
useful, if they are used very often. Explicitly configured workers have no concept of forward or reverse proxying by
themselves. They encapsulate a common concept of communication with origin servers. A worker created by
ProxyPassfor use in a reverse proxy will be also used for forward proxy requests whenever the URL to the origin
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

3/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

server matches the worker URL and vice versa.

The URL identifying a direct worker is the URL of its origin server including any path components given:
ProxyPass /examples http://backend.example.com/examples
ProxyPass /docs http://backend.example.com/docs

This example defines two different workers, each using a separate connection pool and configuration.
Worker Sharing
Worker sharing happens if the worker URLs overlap, which occurs when the URL of some worker is a
leading substring of the URL of another worker defined later in the configuration file. In the following example
ProxyPass /apps http://backend.example.com/ timeout=60
ProxyPass /examples http://backend.example.com/examples timeout=10

the second worker isn't actually created. Instead the first worker is used. The benefit is, that there is only one
connection pool, so connections are more often reused. Note that all configuration attributes given explicitly for
the later worker and some configuration defaults will overwrite the configuration given for the first worker.
This will be logged as a warning. In the above example the resulting timeout value for the URL /appswill be
10instead of 60!
If you want to avoid worker sharing, sort your worker definitions by URL length, starting with the longest
worker URLs. If you want to maximize worker sharing use the reverse sort order. See also the related
warning about ordering ProxyPassdirectives.
Explicitly configured workers come in two flavors: direct workers and (load) balancer workers. They support many
important configuration attributes which are described below in the ProxyPassdirective. The same attributes can
also be set using ProxySet.
The set of options available for a direct worker depends on the protocol, which is specified in the origin server URL.
Available protocols include ajp, ftp, httpand scgi.
Balancer workers are virtual workers that use direct workers known as their members to actually handle the requests.
Each balancer can have multiple members. When it handles a request, it chooses a member based on the configured
load balancing algorithm.
A balancer worker is created if its worker URL uses balanceras the protocol scheme. The balancer URL
uniquely identifies the balancer worker. Members are added to a balancer using BalancerMember.

Controlling access to your proxy

You can control who can access your proxy via the <Proxy>control block as in the following example:
<Proxy *>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.0
</Proxy>

For more information on access control directives, see mod_authz_host.

Strictly limiting access is essential if you are using a forward proxy (using the ProxyRequestsdirective).
Otherwise, your server can be used by any client to access arbitrary hosts while hiding his or her true identity. This is
dangerous both for your network and for the Internet at large. When using a reverse proxy (using the ProxyPass
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

4/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

directive with ProxyRequests Off), access control is less critical because clients can only contact the hosts that
you have specifically configured.

Slow Startup
If you're using the ProxyBlockdirective, hostnames' IP addresses are looked up and cached during startup for
later match test. This may take a few seconds (or more) depending on the speed with which the hostname lookups
occur.

Intranet Proxy
An Apache proxy server situated in an intranet needs to forward external requests through the company's firewall (for
this, configure the ProxyRemotedirective to forward the respective scheme to the firewall proxy). However, when
it has to access resources within the intranet, it can bypass the firewall when accessing hosts. The NoProxy
directive is useful for specifying which hosts belong to the intranet and should be accessed directly.
Users within an intranet tend to omit the local domain name from their WWW requests, thus requesting
"http://somehost/" instead of http://somehost.example.com/. Some commercial proxy servers let them get
away with this and simply serve the request, implying a configured local domain. When the ProxyDomaindirective
is used and the server is configured for proxy service ( #proxyrequests) , Apache can return a redirect response and
send the client to the correct, fully qualified, server address. This is the preferred method since the user's bookmark
files will then contain fully qualified hosts.

Protocol Adjustments
For circumstances where mod_proxyis sending requests to an origin server that doesn't properly implement
keepalives or HTTP/1.1, there are two environment variables ( ../env.html) that can force the request to use
HTTP/1.0 with no keepalive. These are set via the SetEnvdirective.
These are the force-proxy-request-1.0and proxy-nokeepalivenotes.
<Location /buggyappserver/>
ProxyPass http://buggyappserver:7001/foo/
SetEnv force-proxy-request-1.0 1
SetEnv proxy-nokeepalive 1
</Location>

Request Bodies
Some request methods such as POST include a request body. The HTTP protocol requires that requests which
include a body either use chunked transfer encoding or send a Content-Lengthrequest header. When passing
these requests on to the origin server, mod_proxy_httpwill always attempt to send the Content-Length. But
if the body is large and the original request used chunked encoding, then chunked encoding may also be used in the
upstream request. You can control this selection using environment variables ( ../env.html) . Setting proxysendclensures maximum compatibility with upstream servers by always sending the Content-Length, while
setting proxy-sendchunkedminimizes resource usage by using chunked encoding.

Reverse Proxy Request Headers

When acting in a reverse-proxy mode (using the ProxyPassdirective, for example), mod_proxy_httpadds
several request headers in order to pass information to the origin server. These headers are:
X-Forwarded-For
The IP address of the client.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

5/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

X-Forwarded-Host
The original host requested by the client in the HostHTTP request header.
X-Forwarded-Server
The hostname of the proxy server.
Be careful when using these headers on the origin server, since they will contain more than one (comma-separated)
value if the original request already contained one of these headers. For example, you can use %{X-ForwardedFor}iin the log format string of the origin server to log the original clients IP address, but you may get more than
one address if the request passes through several proxies.
See also the ProxyPreserveHostand ProxyViadirectives, which control other request headers.

AllowCONNECT Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Ports that are allowed to CONNECTthrough the proxy

AllowCONNECT port [port] ...
AllowCONNECT 443 563
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The AllowCONNECTdirective specifies a list of port numbers to which the proxy CONNECTmethod may connect.
Today's browsers use this method when a httpsconnection is requested and proxy tunneling over HTTP is in
effect.
By default, only the default https port (443) and the default snews port (563) are enabled. Use the
AllowCONNECTdirective to override this default and allow connections to the listed ports only.
Note that you'll need to have mod_proxy_connectpresent in the server in order to get the support for the
CONNECTat all.

BalancerMember Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Add a member to a load balancing group

BalancerMember [balancerurl] url [key=value [key=value ...]]
directory
Extension
mod_proxy
BalancerMember is only available in Apache 2.2 and later.

This directive adds a member to a load balancing group. It could be used within a <Proxy balancer://...>
container directive, and can take any of the key value pairs available to ProxyPassdirectives.
The balancerurl is only needed when not in <Proxy balancer://...>container directive. It corresponds to
the url of a balancer defined in ProxyPassdirective.

NoProxy Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:

Hosts, domains, or networks that will be connected to directly

NoProxy host [host] ...
server config, virtual host
Extension

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

6/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

mod_proxy

Module:

This directive is only useful for Apache proxy servers within intranets. The NoProxydirective specifies a list of
subnets, IP addresses, hosts and/or domains, separated by spaces. A request to a host which matches one or more of
these is always served directly, without forwarding to the configured ProxyRemoteproxy server(s).
Example
ProxyRemote * http://firewall.example.com:81
NoProxy .example.com 192.168.112.0/21

The host arguments to the NoProxydirective are one of the following type list:
Domain
A Domain is a partially qualified DNS domain name, preceded by a period. It represents a list of hosts which
logically belong to the same DNS domain or zone (i.e., the suffixes of the hostnames are all ending in Domain).
Examples
.com .apache.org.

To distinguish Domains from Hostnames (both syntactically and semantically; a DNS domain can have a DNS
A record, too!), Domains are always written with a leading period.
Note
Domain name comparisons are done without regard to the case, and Domains are always assumed to
be anchored in the root of the DNS tree, therefore two domains .ExAmple.comand
.example.com.(note the trailing period) are considered equal. Since a domain comparison does not
involve a DNS lookup, it is much more efficient than subnet comparison.
SubNet
A SubNet is a partially qualified internet address in numeric (dotted quad) form, optionally followed by a slash
and the netmask, specified as the number of significant bits in the SubNet. It is used to represent a subnet of
hosts which can be reached over a common network interface. In the absence of the explicit net mask it is
assumed that omitted (or zero valued) trailing digits specify the mask. (In this case, the netmask can only be
multiples of 8 bits wide.) Examples:
192.168or 192.168.0.0
the subnet 192.168.0.0 with an implied netmask of 16 valid bits (sometimes used in the netmask form
255.255.0.0)
192.168.112.0/21
the subnet 192.168.112.0/21with a netmask of 21 valid bits (also used in the form
255.255.248.0)
As a degenerate case, a SubNet with 32 valid bits is the equivalent to an IPAddr, while a SubNet with zero
valid bits (e.g., 0.0.0.0/0) is the same as the constant _Default_, matching any IP address.
IPAddr
A IPAddr represents a fully qualified internet address in numeric (dotted quad) form. Usually, this address
represents a host, but there need not necessarily be a DNS domain name connected with the address.
Example
192.168.123.7
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

7/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Note
An IPAddr does not need to be resolved by the DNS system, so it can result in more effective apache
performance.
Hostname
A Hostname is a fully qualified DNS domain name which can be resolved to one or more IPAddrs via the
DNS domain name service. It represents a logical host (in contrast to Domains, see above) and must be
resolvable to at least one IPAddr (or often to a list of hosts with different IPAddrs).
Examples
prep.ai.example.com
www.apache.org

Note
In many situations, it is more effective to specify an IPAddr in place of a Hostname since a DNS
lookup can be avoided. Name resolution in Apache can take a remarkable deal of time when the
connection to the name server uses a slow PPP link.
Hostname comparisons are done without regard to the case, and Hostnames are always assumed to be
anchored in the root of the DNS tree, therefore two hosts WWW.ExAmple.comand
www.example.com.(note the trailing period) are considered equal.

See also
DNS Issues

<Proxy> Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Container for directives applied to proxied resources

<Proxy wildcard-url> ...</Proxy>
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

Directives placed in <Proxy>sections apply only to matching proxied content. Shell-style wildcards are allowed.
For example, the following will allow only hosts in yournetwork.example.comto access content via your
proxy server:
<Proxy *>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from yournetwork.example.com
</Proxy>

The following example will process all files in the foodirectory of example.comthrough the INCLUDESfilter
when they are sent through the proxy server:
<Proxy http://example.com/foo/*>
SetOutputFilter INCLUDES
</Proxy>

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

8/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Differences from the Location configuration section

A backend URL matches the configuration section if it begins with the the wildcard-url string, even if the last
path segment in the directive only matches a prefix of the backend URL. For example, <Proxy
http://example.com/foo> matches all of http://example.com/foo, http://example.com/foo/bar, and
http://example.com/foobar. The matching of the final URL differs from the behavior of the <Location>
section, which for purposes of this note treats the final path component as if it ended in a slash.
For more control over the matching, see <ProxyMatch>.

See also
<ProxyMatch>

ProxyBadHeader Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Determines how to handle bad header lines in a response

ProxyBadHeader IsError|Ignore|StartBody
ProxyBadHeader IsError
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in Apache 2.0.44 and later

The ProxyBadHeaderdirective determines the behaviour of mod_proxyif it receives syntactically invalid

response header lines (i.e. containing no colon) from the origin server. The following arguments are possible:
IsError
Abort the request and end up with a 502 (Bad Gateway) response. This is the default behaviour.
Ignore
Treat bad header lines as if they weren't sent.
StartBody
When receiving the first bad header line, finish reading the headers and treat the remainder as body. This helps
to work around buggy backend servers which forget to insert an empty line between the headers and the body.

ProxyBlock Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Words, hosts, or domains that are banned from being proxied

ProxyBlock *|word|host|domain [word|host|domain] ...
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The ProxyBlockdirective specifies a list of words, hosts and/or domains, separated by spaces. HTTP, HTTPS,
and FTP document requests to sites whose names contain matched words, hosts or domains are blocked by the proxy
server. The proxy module will also attempt to determine IP addresses of list items which may be hostnames during
startup, and cache them for match test as well. That may slow down the startup time of the server.
Example
ProxyBlock joes-garage.com some-host.co.uk rocky.wotsamattau.edu

rocky.wotsamattau.eduwould also be matched if referenced by IP address.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

9/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Note that wotsamattauwould also be sufficient to match wotsamattau.edu.

Note also that
ProxyBlock *

blocks connections to all sites.

ProxyDomain Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Default domain name for proxied requests

ProxyDomain Domain
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

This directive is only useful for Apache proxy servers within intranets. The ProxyDomaindirective specifies the
default domain which the apache proxy server will belong to. If a request to a host without a domain name is
encountered, a redirection response to the same host with the configured Domain appended will be generated.
Example
ProxyRemote * http://firewall.example.com:81
NoProxy .example.com 192.168.112.0/21
ProxyDomain .example.com

ProxyErrorOverride Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Override error pages for proxied content

ProxyErrorOverride On|Off
ProxyErrorOverride Off
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in version 2.0 and later

This directive is useful for reverse-proxy setups, where you want to have a common look and feel on the error pages
seen by the end user. This also allows for included files (via mod_include's SSI) to get the error code and act
accordingly (default behavior would display the error page of the proxied server, turning this on shows the SSI Error
message).
This directive does not affect the processing of informational (1xx), normal success (2xx), or redirect (3xx) responses.

ProxyFtpDirCharset Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Define the character set for proxied FTP listings

ProxyFtpDirCharset character set
ProxyFtpDirCharset ISO-8859-1
server config, virtual host, directory
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in Apache 2.2.7 and later

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

10/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

The ProxyFtpDirCharsetdirective defines the character set to be set for FTP directory listings in HTML
generated by mod_proxy_ftp.

ProxyIOBufferSize Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Determine size of internal data throughput buffer

ProxyIOBufferSize bytes
ProxyIOBufferSize 8192
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The ProxyIOBufferSizedirective adjusts the size of the internal buffer, which is used as a scratchpad for the
data between input and output. The size must be at least 8192.
When the mod_proxy_ajpmodule is used, this value is aligned to a 1024 byte boundary, and values larger than
65536 are set to 65536 in accordance with the AJP protocol.
In almost every case there's no reason to change that value.

<ProxyMatch> Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Container for directives applied to regular-expression-matched proxied resources

<ProxyMatch regex> ...</ProxyMatch>
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The <ProxyMatch>directive is identical to the <Proxy>directive, except it matches URLs using regular
expressions ( ../glossary.html#regex) .

See also
<Proxy>

ProxyMaxForwards Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Maximium number of proxies that a request can be forwarded through

ProxyMaxForwards number
ProxyMaxForwards -1
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in Apache 2.0 and later; default behaviour changed in 2.2.7

The ProxyMaxForwardsdirective specifies the maximum number of proxies through which a request may pass, if
there's no Max-Forwardsheader supplied with the request. This may be set to prevent infinite proxy loops, or a
DoS attack.
Example
ProxyMaxForwards 15
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

11/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Note that setting ProxyMaxForwardsis a violation of the HTTP/1.1 protocol (RFC2616), which forbids a Proxy
setting Max-Forwardsif the Client didn't set it. Earlier Apache versions would always set it. A negative
ProxyMaxForwardsvalue, including the default -1, gives you protocol-compliant behaviour, but may leave you
open to loops.

ProxyPass Directive
Description: Maps remote servers into the local server URL-space
ProxyPass [path] !|url [key=value [key=value ...]] [nocanon]
Syntax:
[interpolate]
server config, virtual host, directory
Context:
Extension
Status:
mod_proxy
Module:
This directive allows remote servers to be mapped into the space of the local server; the local server does not act as a
proxy in the conventional sense, but appears to be a mirror of the remote server. The local server is often called a
reverse proxy or gateway. The path is the name of a local virtual path; url is a partial URL for the remote server
and cannot include a query string.
The ProxyRequestsdirective should usually be set off when using ProxyPass.
Suppose the local server has address http://example.com/; then
ProxyPass /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/

will cause a local request for http://example.com/mirror/foo/barto be internally converted into a

proxy request to http://backend.example.com/bar.
If the first argument ends with a trailing /, the second argument should also end with a trailing / and vice versa.
Otherwise the resulting requests to the backend may miss some needed slashes and do not deliver the
expected results.
The !directive is useful in situations where you don't want to reverse-proxy a subdirectory, e.g.
ProxyPass /mirror/foo/i !
ProxyPass /mirror/foo http://backend.example.com

will proxy all requests to /mirror/footo backend.example.comexcept requests made to

/mirror/foo/i.
Ordering ProxyPass Directives
The configured ProxyPassand ProxyPassMatchrules are checked in the order of configuration. The
first rule that matches wins. So usually you should sort conflicting ProxyPassrules starting with the longest
URLs first. Otherwise later rules for longer URLS will be hidden by any earlier rule which uses a leading
substring of the URL. Note that there is some relation with worker sharing.
For the same reasons exclusions must come before the general ProxyPassdirectives.
In Apache HTTP Server 2.1 and later, mod_proxy supports pooled connections to a backend server. Connections
created on demand can be retained in a pool for future use. Limits on the pool size and other settings can be coded on
the ProxyPassdirective using key=valueparameters, described in the table below.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

12/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

By default, mod_proxy will allow and retain the maximum number of connections that could be used simultaneously by
that web server child process. Use the maxparameter to reduce the number from the default. Use the ttl
parameter to set an optional time to live; connections which have been unused for at least ttlseconds will be closed.
ttlcan be used to avoid using a connection which is subject to closing because of the backend server's keep-alive
timeout.
The pool of connections is maintained per web server child process, and maxand other settings are not coordinated
among all child processes, except when only one child process is allowed by configuration or MPM design.
Example
ProxyPass /example http://backend.example.com max=20 ttl=120 retry=300

Parameter
min

Default
0

max

1...n

smax

max

acquire

connectiontimeout timeout
disablereuse

Off

flushpackets

off

flushwait

10

keepalive

Off

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

Description
Minimum number of connection pool entries, unrelated to the actual number of
connections. This only needs to be modified from the default for special
circumstances where heap memory associated with the backend connections
should be preallocated or retained.
Maximum number of connections that will be allowed to the backend server.
The default for this limit is the number of threads per process in the active
MPM. In the Prefork MPM, this is always 1, while with other MPMs it is
controlled by the ThreadsPerChilddirective.
Retained connection pool entries above this limit are freed during certain
operations if they have been unused for longer than the time to live, controlled
by the ttlparameter. If the connection pool entry has an associated
connection, it will be closed. This only needs to be modified from the default
for special circumstances where connection pool entries and any associated
connections which have exceeded the time to live need to be freed or closed
more aggressively.
If set this will be the maximum time to wait for a free connection in the
connection pool, in milliseconds. If there are no free connections in the pool the
Apache will return SERVER_BUSYstatus to the client.
Connect timeout in seconds. The number of seconds Apache waits for the
creation of a connection to the backend to complete. By adding a postfix of ms
the timeout can be also set in milliseconds.
This parameter should be used when you want to force mod_proxy to
immediately close a connection to the backend after being used, and thus,
disable its persistent connection and pool for that backend. This helps in
various situations where a firewall between Apache and the backend server
(regardless of protocol) tends to silently drop connections or when backends
themselves may be under round- robin DNS. To disable connection pooling
reuse, set this property value to On.
Determines whether the proxy module will auto-flush the output brigade after
each "chunk" of data. 'off' means that it will flush only when needed, 'on'
means after each chunk is sent and 'auto' means poll/wait for a period of time
and flush if no input has been received for 'flushwait' milliseconds. Currently
this is in effect only for AJP.
The time to wait for additional input, in milliseconds, before flushing the output
brigade if 'flushpackets' is 'auto'.
This parameter should be used when you have a firewall between your
Apache and the backend server, who tend to drop inactive connections. This
flag will tell the Operating System to send KEEP_ALIVEmessages on
inactive connections and thus prevent the firewall to drop the connection. To
enable keepalive set this property value to On.
13/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

The frequency of initial and subsequent TCP keepalive probes depends on

global OS settings, and may be as high as 2 hours. To be useful, the frequency
configured in the OS must be smaller than the threshold used by the firewall.
lbset

ping

loadfactor

redirect

retry

60

route
status

timeout
ttl

Sets the load balancer cluster set that the worker is a member of. The load
balancer will try all members of a lower numbered lbset before trying higher
numbered ones.
Ping property tells webserver to send a CPINGrequest on ajp13 connection
before forwarding a request. The parameter is the delay in seconds to wait for
the CPONGreply. This features has been added to avoid problem with hung
and busy Tomcat's and require ajp13 ping/pong support which has been
implemented on Tomcat 3.3.2+, 4.1.28+ and 5.0.13+. This will increase the
network traffic during the normal operation which could be an issue, but it will
lower the traffic in case some of the cluster nodes are down or busy.
Currently this has an effect only for AJP. By adding a postfix of ms the delay
can be also set in milliseconds.
Worker load factor. Used with BalancerMember. It is a number between 1
and 100 and defines the normalized weighted load applied to the worker.
Redirection Route of the worker. This value is usually set dynamically to
enable safe removal of the node from the cluster. If set all requests without
session id will be redirected to the BalancerMember that has route parameter
equal as this value.

Connection pool worker retry timeout in seconds. If the connection pool

worker to the backend server is in the error state, Apache will not forward any
requests to that server until the timeout expires. This enables to shut down the
backend server for maintenance, and bring it back online later. A value of 0
means always retry workers in an error state with no timeout.
Route of the worker when used inside load balancer. The route is a value
appended to session id.
Single letter value defining the initial status of this worker: 'D' is disabled, 'S' is
stopped, 'I' is ignore-errors, 'H' is hot-standby and 'E' is in an error state.
Status can be set (which is the default) by prepending with '+' or cleared by
prepending with '-'. Thus, a setting of 'S-E' sets this worker to Stopped and
clears the in-error flag.
ProxyTimeoutConnection timeout in seconds. The number of seconds Apache waits for data
sent by / to the backend.
Time to live for inactive connections and associated connection pool entries, in
seconds. Once reaching this limit, a connection will not be used again; it will be
closed at some later time.

If the ProxyPassdirective scheme starts with the balancer://(eg: balancer://cluster/, any path
information is ignored) then a virtual worker that does not really communicate with the backend server will be created.
Instead it is responsible for the management of several "real" workers. In that case the special set of parameters can
be add to this virtual worker. See mod_proxy_balancerfor more information about how the balancer works.
Parameter
lbmethod

Default
byrequests

maxattempts

One less
than the
number of
workers, or

Description
Balancer load-balance method. Select the load-balancing scheduler method to use.
Either byrequests, to perform weighted request counting, bytraffic, to
perform weighted traffic byte count balancing, or bybusyness(Apache HTTP
Server 2.2.10 and later), to perform pending request balancing. Default is
byrequests.
Maximum number of failover attempts before giving up.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

14/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

nofailover

1 with a
single
worker.
Off

stickysession

scolonpathdelim Off
timeout

failonstatus

failontimeout

Off

forcerecovery On

If set to Onthe session will break if the worker is in error state or disabled. Set this
value to On if backend servers do not support session replication.
Balancer sticky session name. The value is usually set to something like
JSESSIONIDor PHPSESSIONID, and it depends on the backend application
server that support sessions. If the backend application server uses different name for
cookies and url encoded id (like servlet containers) use | to to separate them. The first
part is for the cookie the second for the path.
If set to Onthe semi-colon character ';' will be used as an additional sticky session
path deliminator/separator. This is mainly used to emulate mod_jk's behavior when
dealing with paths such as JSESSIONID=6736bcf34;foo=aabfa
Balancer timeout in seconds. If set this will be the maximum time to wait for a free
worker. Default is not to wait.
A single or comma-separated list of HTTP status codes. If set this will force the
worker into error state when the backend returns any status code in the list. Worker
recovery behaves the same as other worker errors. Available with Apache HTTP
Server 2.2.17 and later.
If set, an IO read timeout after a request is sent to the backend will force the worker
into error state. Worker recovery behaves the same as other worker errors. Available
with Apache HTTP Server 2.2.25 and later.
Force the immediate recovery of all workers without considering the retry parameter
of the workers if all workers of a balancer are in error state. There might be cases
where an already overloaded backend can get into deeper trouble if the recovery of all
workers is enforced without considering the retry parameter of each worker. In this
case set to Off. Available with Apache HTTP Server 2.2.23 and later.

A sample balancer setup

ProxyPass /special-area http://special.example.com smax=5 max=10
ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/ stickysession=JSESSIONID|jsessionid
nofailover=On
<Proxy balancer://mycluster>
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.4:8009
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.5:8009 loadfactor=20
# Less powerful server, don't send as many requests there,
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.6:8009 loadfactor=5
</Proxy>

Setting up a hot-standby, that will only be used if no other members are available
ProxyPass / balancer://hotcluster/
<Proxy balancer://hotcluster>
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.4:8009 loadfactor=1
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.5:8009 loadfactor=2
# The below is the hot standby
BalancerMember ajp://1.2.3.6:8009 status=+H
ProxySet lbmethod=bytraffic
</Proxy>

Normally, mod_proxy will canonicalise ProxyPassed URLs. But this may be incompatible with some backends,
particularly those that make use of PATH_INFO. The optional nocanon keyword suppresses this, and passes the
URL path "raw" to the backend. Note that may affect the security of your backend, as it removes the normal limited
protection against URL-based attacks provided by the proxy.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

15/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

When used inside a <Location>section, the first argument is omitted and the local directory is obtained from the
<Location>. The same will occur inside a <LocationMatch>section, however ProxyPass does not interpret
the regexp as such, so it is necessary to use ProxyPassMatchin this situation instead.
This directive is not supported in <Directory>or <Files>sections.
If you require a more flexible reverse-proxy configuration, see the RewriteRuledirective with the [P]flag.
The optional interpolate keyword (available in httpd 2.2.9 and later), in combination with
ProxyPassInterpolateEnvcauses the ProxyPass to interpolate environment variables, using the syntax
${VARNAME}. Note that many of the standard CGI-derived environment variables will not exist when this
interpolation happens, so you may still have to resort to mod_rewritefor complex rules. Also note that
interpolation is not supported within the scheme portion of a URL. Dynamic determination of the scheme can be
accomplished with mod_rewriteas in the following example.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =off
RewriteRule . - [E=protocol:http]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on
RewriteRule . - [E=protocol:https]
RewriteRule ^/mirror/foo/(.*) %{ENV:protocol}://backend.example.com/$1 [P]
ProxyPassReverse /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/
ProxyPassReverse /mirror/foo/ https://backend.example.com/

ProxyPassInterpolateEnv Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Enable Environment Variable interpolation in Reverse Proxy configurations

ProxyPassInterpolateEnv On|Off
ProxyPassInterpolateEnv Off
server config, virtual host, directory
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in httpd 2.2.9 and later

This directive, together with the interpolate argument to ProxyPass, ProxyPassReverse,

ProxyPassReverseCookieDomainand ProxyPassReverseCookiePathenables reverse proxies to be
dynamically configured using environment variables, which may be set by another module such as mod_rewrite. It
affects the ProxyPass, ProxyPassReverse, ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain, and
ProxyPassReverseCookiePathdirectives, and causes them to substitute the value of an environment variable
varnamefor the string ${varname}in configuration directives (if the interpolate option is set).
Keep this turned off (for server performance) unless you need it!

ProxyPassMatch Directive
Description:
Syntax:

Maps remote servers into the local server URL-space using regular expressions
ProxyPassMatch [regex] !|url [key=value [key=value ...]]

Context:
Status:

server config, virtual host, directory

Extension

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

16/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

mod_proxy
Module:
Compatibility: available in Apache 2.2.5 and later
This directive is equivalent to ProxyPass, but makes use of regular expressions, instead of simple prefix matching.
The supplied regular expression is matched against the url, and if it matches, the server will substitute any
parenthesized matches into the given string and use it as a new url.
Suppose the local server has address http://example.com/; then
ProxyPassMatch ^(/.*\.gif)$ http://backend.example.com$1

will cause a local request for http://example.com/foo/bar.gifto be internally converted into a proxy
request to http://backend.example.com/foo/bar.gif.
Note
The URL argument must be parsable as a URL before regexp substitutions (as well as after). This limits the
matches you can use. For instance, if we had used
ProxyPassMatch ^(/.*\.gif)$ http://backend.example.com:8000$1

in our previous example, it would fail with a syntax error at server startup. This is a bug (PR 46665 in the ASF
bugzilla), and the workaround is to reformulate the match:
ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.gif)$ http://backend.example.com:8000/$1

The !directive is useful in situations where you don't want to reverse-proxy a subdirectory.
When used inside a <LocationMatch>section, the first argument is omitted and the regexp is obtained from the
<LocationMatch>.
If you require a more flexible reverse-proxy configuration, see the RewriteRuledirective with the [P]flag.
Security Warning
Take care when constructing the target URL of the rule, considering the security impact from allowing the
client influence over the set of URLs to which your server will act as a proxy. Ensure that the scheme and
hostname part of the URL is either fixed, or does not allow the client undue influence.

ProxyPassReverse Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:

Adjusts the URL in HTTP response headers sent from a reverse proxied server
ProxyPassReverse [path] url [interpolate]
server config, virtual host, directory
Extension

Module:

mod_proxy

This directive lets Apache adjust the URL in the Location, Content-Locationand URIheaders on HTTP
redirect responses. This is essential when Apache is used as a reverse proxy (or gateway) to avoid by-passing the
reverse proxy because of HTTP redirects on the backend servers which stay behind the reverse proxy.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

17/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Only the HTTP response headers specifically mentioned above will be rewritten. Apache will not rewrite other
response headers, nor will it rewrite URL references inside HTML pages. This means that if the proxied content
contains absolute URL references, they will by-pass the proxy. A third-party module that will look inside the HTML
and rewrite URL references is Nick Kew's mod_proxy_html ( http://apache.webthing.com/mod_proxy_html/) .
path is the name of a local virtual path. url is a partial URL for the remote server - the same way they are used for
the ProxyPassdirective.
For example, suppose the local server has address http://example.com/; then
ProxyPass /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/
ProxyPassReverse /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/
ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain backend.example.com public.example.com
ProxyPassReverseCookiePath / /mirror/foo/

will not only cause a local request for the http://example.com/mirror/foo/barto be internally converted
into a proxy request to http://backend.example.com/bar(the functionality ProxyPassprovides here).
It also takes care of redirects the server backend.example.comsends: when
http://backend.example.com/baris redirected by him to http://backend.example.com/quux
Apache adjusts this to http://example.com/mirror/foo/quuxbefore forwarding the HTTP redirect
response to the client. Note that the hostname used for constructing the URL is chosen in respect to the setting of the
UseCanonicalNamedirective.
Note that this ProxyPassReversedirective can also be used in conjunction with the proxy pass-through feature
(RewriteRule ... [P]) from mod_rewritebecause it doesn't depend on a corresponding ProxyPass
directive.
The optional interpolate keyword (available in httpd 2.2.9 and later), used together with
ProxyPassInterpolateEnv, enables interpolation of environment variables specified using the format
${VARNAME}. Note that interpolation is not supported within the scheme portion of a URL.
When used inside a <Location>section, the first argument is omitted and the local directory is obtained from the
<Location>. The same occurs inside a <LocationMatch>section, but will probably not work as intended, as
ProxyPassReverse will interpret the regexp literally as a path; if needed in this situation, specify the
ProxyPassReverse outside the section, or in a separate <Location>section.
This directive is not supported in <Directory>or <Files>sections.

ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain Directive
Description: Adjusts the Domain string in Set-Cookie headers from a reverse- proxied server
ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain internal-domain public-domain
Syntax:
[interpolate]
server config, virtual host, directory
Context:
Extension
Status:
mod_proxy
Module:
Usage is basically similar to ProxyPassReverse, but instead of rewriting headers that are a URL, this rewrites
the domainstring in Set-Cookieheaders.

ProxyPassReverseCookiePath Directive
Description: Adjusts the Path string in Set-Cookie headers from a reverse- proxied server
ProxyPassReverseCookiePath internal-path public-path [interpolate]
Syntax:
server config, virtual host, directory
Context:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

18/25

3/30/2014

Status:
Module:

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Extension
mod_proxy

Useful in conjunction with ProxyPassReversein situations where backend URL paths are mapped to public
paths on the reverse proxy. This directive rewrites the pathstring in Set-Cookieheaders. If the beginning of the
cookie path matches internal-path, the cookie path will be replaced with public-path.
In the example given with ProxyPassReverse, the directive:
ProxyPassReverseCookiePath / /mirror/foo/

will rewrite a cookie with backend path /(or /exampleor, in fact, anything) to /mirror/foo/.

ProxyPreserveHost Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Use incoming Host HTTP request header for proxy request

ProxyPreserveHost On|Off
ProxyPreserveHost Off
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in Apache 2.0.31 and later.

When enabled, this option will pass the Host: line from the incoming request to the proxied host, instead of the
hostname specified in the ProxyPassline.
This option should normally be turned Off. It is mostly useful in special configurations like proxied mass name-based
virtual hosting, where the original Host header needs to be evaluated by the backend server.

ProxyReceiveBufferSize Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Network buffer size for proxied HTTP and FTP connections

ProxyReceiveBufferSize bytes
ProxyReceiveBufferSize 0
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The ProxyReceiveBufferSizedirective specifies an explicit (TCP/IP) network buffer size for proxied HTTP
and FTP connections, for increased throughput. It has to be greater than 512or set to 0to indicate that the system's
default buffer size should be used.
Example
ProxyReceiveBufferSize 2048

ProxyRemote Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:

Remote proxy used to handle certain requests

ProxyRemote match remote-server
server config, virtual host
Extension

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

19/25

3/30/2014

Module:

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

mod_proxy

This defines remote proxies to this proxy. match is either the name of a URL-scheme that the remote server supports,
or a partial URL for which the remote server should be used, or *to indicate the server should be contacted for all
requests. remote-server is a partial URL for the remote server. Syntax:
remote-server = scheme://hostname[:port]

scheme is effectively the protocol that should be used to communicate with the remote server; only httpand https
are supported by this module. When using https, the requests are forwarded through the remote proxy using the
HTTP CONNECT method.
Example
ProxyRemote http://goodguys.example.com/ http://mirrorguys.example.com:8000
ProxyRemote * http://cleverproxy.localdomain
ProxyRemote ftp http://ftpproxy.mydomain:8080

In the last example, the proxy will forward FTP requests, encapsulated as yet another HTTP proxy request, to another
proxy which can handle them.
This option also supports reverse proxy configuration - a backend webserver can be embedded within a virtualhost
URL space even if that server is hidden by another forward proxy.

ProxyRemoteMatch Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Remote proxy used to handle requests matched by regular expressions

ProxyRemoteMatch regex remote-server
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

The ProxyRemoteMatchis identical to the ProxyRemotedirective, except the first argument is a regular
expression ( ../glossary.html#regex) match against the requested URL.

ProxyRequests Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Enables forward (standard) proxy requests

ProxyRequests On|Off
ProxyRequests Off
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

This allows or prevents Apache from functioning as a forward proxy server. (Setting ProxyRequests to Offdoes not
disable use of the ProxyPassdirective.)
In a typical reverse proxy or gateway configuration, this option should be set to Off.
In order to get the functionality of proxying HTTP or FTP sites, you need also mod_proxy_httpor
mod_proxy_ftp(or both) present in the server.
In order to get the functionality of (forward) proxying HTTPS sites, you need mod_proxy_connectenabled in
the server.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

20/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Warning
Do not enable proxying with ProxyRequestsuntil you have secured your server ( #access) . Open
proxy servers are dangerous both to your network and to the Internet at large.

See also
Forward and Reverse Proxies/Gateways

ProxySet Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Set various Proxy balancer or member parameters

ProxySet url key=value [key=value ...]
directory
Extension
mod_proxy
ProxySet is only available in Apache 2.2 and later.

This directive is used as an alternate method of setting any of the parameters available to Proxy balancers and
workers normally done via the ProxyPassdirective. If used within a <Proxy balancer url|worker
url>container directive, the url argument is not required. As a side effect the respective balancer or worker gets
created. This can be useful when doing reverse proxying via a RewriteRuleinstead of a ProxyPassdirective.
<Proxy balancer://hotcluster>
BalancerMember http://www2.example.com:8080 loadfactor=1
BalancerMember http://www3.example.com:8080 loadfactor=2
ProxySet lbmethod=bytraffic
</Proxy>
<Proxy http://backend>
ProxySet keepalive=On
</Proxy>
ProxySet balancer://foo lbmethod=bytraffic timeout=15
ProxySet ajp://backend:7001 timeout=15

Warning
Keep in mind that the same parameter key can have a different meaning depending whether it is applied to a
balancer or a worker as shown by the two examples above regarding timeout.

ProxyStatus Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Show Proxy LoadBalancer status in mod_status

ProxyStatus Off|On|Full
ProxyStatus Off
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

21/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

Compatibility: Available in version 2.2 and later

This directive determines whether or not proxy loadbalancer status data is displayed via the mod_statusserverstatus page.
Note
Full is synonymous with On

ProxyTimeout Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:
Compatibility:

Network timeout for proxied requests

ProxyTimeout seconds
Value of Timeout
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy
Available in Apache 2.0.31 and later

This directive allows a user to specify a timeout on proxy requests. This is useful when you have a slow/buggy
appserver which hangs, and you would rather just return a timeout and fail gracefully instead of waiting however long
it takes the server to return.

ProxyVia Directive
Description:
Syntax:
Default:
Context:
Status:
Module:

Information provided in the ViaHTTP response header for proxied requests

ProxyVia On|Off|Full|Block
ProxyVia Off
server config, virtual host
Extension
mod_proxy

This directive controls the use of the Via:HTTP header by the proxy. Its intended use is to control the flow of proxy
requests along a chain of proxy servers. See RFC 2616 ( http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt) (HTTP/1.1), section
14.45 for an explanation of Via:header lines.
If set to Off, which is the default, no special processing is performed. If a request or reply contains a Via:
header, it is passed through unchanged.
If set to On, each request and reply will get a Via:header line added for the current host.
If set to Full, each generated Via:header line will additionally have the Apache server version shown as a
Via:comment field.
If set to Block, every proxy request will have all its Via:header lines removed. No new Via:header will
be generated.

Comments
Notice:
This is not a Q&A section. Comments placed here should be pointed towards suggestions on improving the
documentation or server, and may be removed again by our moderators if they are either implemented or
considered invalid/off-topic. Questions on how to manage the Apache HTTP Server should be directed at
either our IRC channel, #httpd, on Freenode, or sent to our mailing lists.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

22/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

RSS Log in / register

Waheed 2 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

Hi there, would it be possible to know what are all the requestheaders being sent to the
proxied host. or just to turn off all mod_proxy request_headers?

Hoelli 13 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

The following Part is simply not working - no working way of excluding subdirectories:
The ! directive is useful in situations where you don't want to reverse-proxy a subdirectory, e.g.
ProxyPass /mirror/foo/i !
ProxyPass /mirror/foo http://backend.example.com

cweekly 33 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

FYI, if you're using mod_rewrite RewriteRule...[P] approach (which is more powerful/flexible

than ProxyPass, thanks to RewriteCond), you may run into trouble if you're not using
vhosts. FWIW I was only able to get mod_proxy to work in a vhost context, e.g.
# in a virthost, works fine, but outside it, fails:
RewriteRule foo balancer://bar [P]

methorn 111 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

The ProxyPass syntax looks wrong, as there are more closing brackets than opening ones.
I believe the pipe should be an opening bracket. The documentation for 2.4 has the same
bug.
covener 80 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

Thanks, 2.4 seems done already, fixed 2.2 just now ( /- pub delay)

jd 149 days ago

Rating: 0 (register an account in order to rate comments)

If using mod_remoteip on your content server becuase you have a trusted upsteam proxy.
And you are maintaining a access list on the content server; How do you use proxy/limit/get
post/deny to use the client proxy ip? This is not a problem in the logs using "%a" instead of "%h" but
using proxy, how do you make it use the forwarded client ip?
I know this a bit odd on a content server, but becuase of archetecurial considerations the proxy is not
available to modify easily.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

23/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

#access list
<Proxy *>
<Limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
deny from 123.456.789.123/32
...
allow from all
</Limit>
</Proxy>

dune73 614 days ago

Rating: +3 (register an account in order to rate comments)

I have encountered an unexpected behaviour with ProxyErrorOverride On. It is either an

undocumented feature or a bug. Would be nice if the documentation could be extended.
Here we go.
Proxy Setup on apache 2.2.22, minimal setup includes a netcat backend returning non-protocol-compliant
status code 449 (we know who you are M$)
Our backend response:
$> cat /tmp/response
HTTP/1.1 449 Provision
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:19:19 GMT
Server: Apache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Expires: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:24:53 GMT
Cache-Control: max-age=1800
Content-Length: 7
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Vary: Accept-Encoding
hello

netcat backend:
$> rm /tmp/stop; while [ ! -f /tmp/stop ]; do cat /tmp/response | netcat -l -p 8081; done

Apache configuration:
$> cat httpd.conf
ServerRoot
User
Group
Listen

/apache
www-data
www-data
127.0.0.1:80

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

24/25

3/30/2014

mod_proxy - Apache HTTP Server

LoadModule

proxy_module

LoadModule

proxy_http_module

ErrorDocument
ProxyPass
ProxyErrorOverride

modules/mod_proxy.so
modules/mod_proxy_http.so

500 /500.html
/test http://localhost:8081/test
On

And here is the behaviour:

$> curl -v http://localhost/test
HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error
...

So the Reverse Proxy overrides the backend status code 449 with 500. This is not documented. Note that
this only works when both, ProxyErrorOverride On and ErrorDocument 500, are set.

Copyright 2014 The Apache Software Foundation.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html

25/25