Apache proxying subdomain root requests

Question

Description

• Internal Tomcat server that has webapps listening on 8080:
  
  "http://internal:8080/foo-webservice/"
  "http://internal:8080/foo-website/"
  

• External facing Apache server is proxying requests for a subdomain:
  
  "http://foo.domain.com/"

• Any requests of the root of the subdomain would be proxied to the foo-website webapp on Tomcat.

• Any other requests would be proxied to the appropriate path / webapp

Use Case A

• Request:
  "http://foo.domain.com/index.html"
  

• Proxied to:
  "http://internal:8080/foo-website/index.html"
  

Use Case B

• Request:
  "http://foo.domain.com/webservice/listener.html?param1=foo&param2=bar"
  

• Proxied to:
  "http://internal:8080/foo-webservice/listener.html?param1=foo&param2=bar"
  

VirtualHost definition

• Current virtual host definition which satisfies Use Case B:

  <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName foo.domain.com
  
      ProxyRequests Off
  
      <Proxy *>
          Order deny,allow
          Allow from all
      </Proxy>
  
      ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/foo_error.log
      LogLevel warn
      CustomLog /var/log/apache2/foo_access.log combined
  
      # RewriteRules
      # ?
  
      # ProxyPass
      ProxyPreserveHost On
      ProxyPass        / http://internal:8080/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://internal:8080/
  </VirtualHost>
  

Attempt 1

    # RewriteRules
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://internal:8080/foo-website/$1 [P]

• Use Case A is satisfied
• Use Case B fails

Attempt 2

    # RewriteRules
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^/$ http://internal:8080/foo-website/$1 [P]

• Use Case B is satisfied
• Use Case A is not completely satisfied
• The index.html in foo-website is loaded, but none of the files in the js, img or css folders.

Answer 1

ProxyPass rules match in order

 ProxyPass        /webservice/ http://internal:8080/foo-webservice/
 ProxyPassReverse /webservice/ http://internal:8080/foo-webservice/

 ProxyPass        /website/ http://internal:8080/foo-website/
 ProxyPassReverse /website/ http://internal:8080/foo-website/

 ProxyPass        / http://internal:8080/foo-website/
 ProxyPassReverse / http://internal:8080/foo-website/

No rewrite rule. Isn't that good enough ?

Answer 2

• I think the issue with Attempt 2 (none of the files in the js, img or css folders being mapped) was a sign that my approach was wrong.

• My solution now is to redirect any requests to the root, to the foo-website webapp.

          <VirtualHost *:80>
                  ServerName foo.domain.com
  
                  ProxyRequests Off
  
                  <Proxy *>
                          Order deny,allow
                          Allow from all
                  </Proxy>
  
                  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/foo_error.log
                  LogLevel warn
                  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/foo_access.log combined
  
                  # RewriteRules
                  RewriteEngine On
                  RewriteRule   ^/$  /foo-website/  [R]
  
                  # ProxyPass
                  ProxyPreserveHost On
                  ProxyPass        / http://internal:8080/
                  ProxyPassReverse / http://internal:8080/
          </VirtualHost>
  

• This was not what I originally wanted, but I think this is the resolution.

Answer 3

I think that you need to use the first attempt but include the QSA (query string append) flag in the square brackets at the end of each RewriteRule directive.