Apache mod_rewrite as proxy not working

Question

I'm trying to use apache as a proxy server to redirect some requests to a service running on a different port. I'm attempting to follow the instructions here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/rewrite/proxy.html

I've done exactly this to install (and nothing else):

sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http

Then edited /etc/apache2/httpd.conf to be:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:9200/$1 [P]
ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:9200/

Then finally, restarted apache2 ( sudo service apache2 restart ). Eventually, I'll add some real conditions to that rule, but I'm just trying to test it for now.

But it's not working. curl -XGET localhost:80/foo fails with a 404 response, curl -XGET loaclhost:9200/foo succeeds. Nothing useful in the error log or access log.

Answer 1

I would recommend setting your Apache reverse proxy commands to be something like this; note the ProxyPass setting as well as ProxyRequests and ProxyPreserveHost settings:

 <IfModule mod_proxy.c>

  # Proxy specific settings
  ProxyRequests Off
  ProxyPreserveHost On

  <Proxy *>
    AddDefaultCharset off
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
  </Proxy>

  ProxyPass / http://localhost:9200/ 
  ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:9200/ 

</IfModule>

I would also recommend you check the headers of the response output in curl by using the -I option like this:

curl -I localhost:80/foo

It should show you the exact response from the server so you can fully understand what might be failing and what might be working.