30-04-2021

Apache Http To Https Proxy



  1. Apache Proxypass Https
  2. Http To Https Redirect
  3. Apache Http To Https Reverse Proxy
  4. Apache Http To Https Proxy Download

Tutorial

Introduction

You'll need modssl, modproxy and optionally modrewrite. Depending on your distribution and Apache version you may have to check if modproxyconnect and modproxyhttp are loaded as well. The directives for enabling SSL proxy support are in modssl. Aug 08, 2017 Whereas HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, where the ‘S‘ at the end stands for ‘Secure‘. Using HTTPS, all data between your browser and the web server are encrypted thus secure. This tutorial will show you how to redirect HTTP to HTTPS on Apache HTTP server in Linux.

Apache is a tried and tested HTTP server which comes with access to a very wide range of powerful extensions. Although it might not seem like the go-to choice in terms of running a reverse-proxy, system administrators who already depend on Apache for the available rich feature-set can also use it as a gateway to their application servers. In most cases, this will translate to removing an additional layer from their server set up or the need to use yet another tool just to redirect connections.

In this DigitalOcean article, we are going to see set up Apache on Ubuntu 13 and use it as a reverse-proxy to welcome incoming connections and redirect them to application server(s) running on the same network. For this purpose, we are going to use and work with the mod_proxy extension and several other related Apache modules.

Glossary

1. Apache

2. Apache Working As A Reverse-Proxy Using mod_proxy

3. Installing Apache And mod_proxy

  1. Updating The Operating-System
  2. Getting The Essential Build Tools
  3. Getting The Modules And Dependencies

4. Configuring Apache To Proxy Connections

  1. Activating The Modules
  2. Modifying The Default Configuration
  3. Enabling Load-Balancing
  4. Enabling SSL Support
  5. Restarting Apache

Apache

Apache HTTP server does not require an introduction, since it is probably the most famous and popular web-server that exists. It is possible to run Apache very easily on many different platforms and set ups. The application comes with a lot of third party modules to handle different kind of tasks (mod_rewrite for rule-based URL rewriting) and one of them, albeit nowadays relatively neglected, is mod_proxy: The Apache Module to implement a proxy (or gateway) for servers running on the back-end.

Tip: According to some articles, Apache’s name comes from server’s “patchy” nature - i.e. it being a collection of application patches (or modules).

Note: To learn more about Apache, you can check out the Wikipedia entry on the subject - Apache HTTP Server.

Apache Working As A Reverse-Proxy Using mod_proxy

mod_proxy is the Apache module for redirecting connections (i.e. a gateway, passing them through). It is enabled for use just like any other module and configuration is pretty basic (or standard), in line with others. mod_proxy is not just a single module but a collection of them, with each bringing a new set of functionality.

Some of these modules are:

  • mod_proxy: The main proxy module for Apache that manages connections and redirects them.

  • mod_proxy_http: This module implements the proxy features for HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

  • mod_proxy_ftp: This module does the same but for FTP protocol.

  • mod_proxy_connect: This one is used for SSL tunnelling.

  • mod_proxy_ajp: Used for working with the AJP protocol.

  • mod_proxy_wstunnel: Used for working with web-sockets (i.e. WS and WSS).

  • mod_proxy_balancer: Used for clustering and load-balancing.

  • mod_cache: Used for caching.

  • mod_headers: Used for managing HTTP headers.

  • mod_deflate: Used for compression.

Note: To learn more about Apache and mod_proxy, you can check out the official Apache documentation on the subject here.

Installing Apache And mod_proxy

Note: Instructions given here are kept brief, since chances are you already have Apache installed or know how to use it. Nonetheless, by following the steps below you can get a new Ubuntu VPS running Apache in a matter of minutes.

Updating The Operating-System

We will begin with preparing our virtual server. We are going to first upgrade the default available components to make sure that we have everything up-to-date.

Update the software sources list and upgrade the dated applications:

Getting The Essential Build Tools

Apache Http To Https Proxy

Let’s continue with getting the essential package for application building - the build-essential. This package contains tools necessary to install certain things from source.

Run the following command to install build-essential package:

Getting The Modules And Dependencies

Next, we are going to get the module and dependencies.

Run the following command to install them:

Configuring Apache To Proxy Connections

Activating The Modules

Before configuring Apache, we are going to enable the necessary modules that we will be using in this tutorial, or which might come in handy in the future.

First, let’s verify that all modules are correctly installed and ready to be activated.

Run the following command to get a list of available Apache modules:

Once you are prompted with the choice of modules you desire, you can pass the below line listing the module names:

The list of modules:

Or alternatively, you can run the following commands to enable the modules one by one:

Note: Some modules are likely to be enabled by default. Trying to enable them twice will just ensure that they are active.

Modifying The Default Configuration

In this step, we are going to see how to modify the default configuration file 000-default.conf inside /etc/apache2/sites-enabled to set up “proxying” functionality.

Run the following command to edit the default Apache virtual host using the nano text editor:

Here, we will be defining a proxy virtual host using mod_virtualhost and mod_proxy together.

Copy-and-paste the below block of configuration, amending it to suit your needs:

Press CTRL+X and confirm with Y to save and exit.

Note: To learn more about virtual host configurations, you can check out the detailed Apache manual on the subject by clicking here.

Enabling Load-Balancing

If you have multiple back-end servers, a good way to distribute the connection when proxying them is to use Apache’s load balancing features.

Start editing the virtual-host settings like the previous step, but this time using the below configuration example:

Enabling SSL Reverse-Proxy Support

If you are dealing with SSL connections and certificates, you will also need to enable a secondary virtual host with below settings.

Repeat the steps from the previous steps but using these configuration options:

Apache Proxypass Https

Restarting Apache

Once you are happy with your configuration, you will need to restart the cloud server for the changes to go into effect.

Execute the following command to restart Apache:

And that’s it!

You can now visit your VPS and Apache shall reverse-proxy connections to your back-end application servers.

A reverse proxy accepts connections and then routes them to an appropriate backend. For example, if we have a Ruby application running on port 3000, we can configure a reverse proxy to accept connections on HTTP or HTTPS, which can then transparently proxy requests to the ruby backend.

  • Backend routing logic/transparent routing
  • Network ACLs
  • Logging
  • URL rewriting
  • Virtualhost configuration
  • Easy SSL configuration

In this tutorial, we will learn how to configure a reverse proxy with HTTPS in Apache on CentOS Linux. We will not cover obtaining SSL certificates in this particular tutorial, but you can follow this tutorial on obtaining free SSL certificates on CentOS Linux with Let’s Encrypt.

We’ll use example application running on 127.0.0.1:3000 as the backend service that we want to reverse proxy requests to.

1. Firstly, ensure that Apache is installed

2. Define Apache reverse proxy configuration

For this config, we’ll use example virtualhost myapp.centosblog.com

Http To Https Redirect

3. Enable and start the Apache service

Apache Http To Https Reverse Proxy

Your Apache reverse proxy should now be running! You can now access your application via https://myapp.centosblog.com/

Apache Http To Https Proxy Download

This config demonstrates the simplest form of using Apache as a reverse proxy – a single backend service. The Apache reverse proxy module is quite powerful, and supports configuring multiple backends, clusters and load balancing algorithms. You can find out more about Apache’s reverse proxy configuration module from Apache’s Reverse Proxy Guide.