Nginx – Reverse proxy without URL Rewriting

apache-2.2iismod-proxynginxreverse-proxy

I have been asked to setup a reverse proxy but one of the requirements is that no URL Rewriting be performed.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this since to me it seems that without rewriting the urls in the pages and the headers returned by proxy subsequent links could never work.

So my question is, is it possible to setup a working proxy solution without using URL Rewriting? I was told something about path mapping, but didn't quite get it.

Best Answer

This is what ProxyPass is all about - mod_proxy on Apache is what you need to use for that. Describing how to use mod_proxy is being the scope here as it would be a book, but the documentation in apache site is more than enough to get you going and set up anything.

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

Related Solutions

Reverse Proxy (mod_rewrite) and Rails (absolute paths)

You can try using ProxyPass and ProxyPassReverse.

ProxyPass /app_one http://www.remote_host_runing_app_one.com
ProxyPassReverse /app_one http://www.remote_host_running_app_one.com

Though you are better off running your ruby apps under their named directories and reverse proxying directly back instead of doing a rewrite to change the uri.

You can look at unicorn, passenger or thin to run the ruby apps under to give more flexibility with how they are run.

NGINX Reverse Proxy – URL Rewrite

Any redirect to localhost doesn't make sense from a remote system (e.g. client's Web browser). So the rewrite flags permanent (301) or redirect (302) are not usable in your case.

Please try following setup using a transparent rewrite rule:

location  /foo {
  rewrite /foo/(.*) /$1  break;
  proxy_pass         http://localhost:3200;
  proxy_redirect     off;
  proxy_set_header   Host $host;
}

Use curl -i to test your rewrites. A very subtle change to the rule can cause nginx to perform a redirect.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Reverse Proxy (mod_rewrite) and Rails (absolute paths)

NGINX Reverse Proxy – URL Rewrite

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