mod_proxy and mod_vhost_alias are two very important extensions/modules for Apache web-server. When it comes to hosting multiple websites on same Web-Server using Apache or requirement to run Apache and IIS together then mod_proxy and mod_vhost_alias are key to succeed.

Here is summary of definition for both modules from Apache docs.

mod_proxy:

This module implements a proxy/gateway for Apache. It implements proxying capability for 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 and mod_proxy_connect. Thus, if you want to use one or more of the particular proxy functions, load mod_proxy and the appropriate module(s) into the server (either statically at compile-time or dynamically via the LoadModule directive).

In addition, extended features are provided by other modules. Caching is provided by mod_cache and 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.

mode_vhost_alias:

This module creates dynamically configured virtual hosts, by allowing the IP address and/or the Host: header of the HTTP request to be used as part of the pathname to determine what files to serve. This allows for easy use of a huge number of virtual hosts with similar configurations.

How to host multiple domains/sub-domains on a web-server using Apache Virtual-Hosting (mod_vhost_alias)?


This is another common requirement where we need to host multiple domains or sub-domains on a single web-server, to do if you are using Apache 2.x then just un-comment following line from httpd.conf file if it is commented.

LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

With Apache 2.x directory structure for go to /apache/conf/extra/httpd-vhost.conf and paste following line of code:

 
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot D:/www/digitss.com
    ServerName digitss.com
    ServerAlias www.digitss.com
    ServerAlias digitss.net
    ErrorLog logs/digitss.com-error.log
    CustomLog logs/digitss.com-access.log common
 
 
    <Directory "D:/www/digitss.com">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
 
        #
        # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
        # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
        #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
        #
        AllowOverride None
 
        #
        # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
        #
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
 
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>
 

We can specify another web-root for specific virtual-host as well and it can have complete different configuration too. We can also specify as much ServerAlias as we want, all of which will point to a single server.

How to pass request from Apache to ISS or any other web-server running on another port of same/other server?

This could be a common requirement when we need to have one main domain running with Apache Server serving LAMP web-app and we want some IIS application to host on same server but we don't want user to access them by typing in www.domain.com:88 or something similar we just want it to be accessible via regular port 80. Yes, we would need mod_vhost_alias and mod_proxy both of them active to make it work. Un-comment following lines from Apache's httpd.conf file:

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

Here is the simple set of line, placing them in /apache/conf/extra/httpd-vhost.conf file should do the magic for you:

 
<VirtualHost *:80>
     ProxyPreserveHost On
     ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:88/
     ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:88/
     ServerName apps.digitss.com
     ErrorLog logs/apps.digitss.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/apps.digitss.com-access.log common
</VirtualHost>
 
#or 
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
     ProxyPreserveHost On
     ProxyPass / http://anotherdomain.com:8008/
     ProxyPassReverse / http://anotherdomain.com:8008/
     ServerName apps.digitss.com
     ErrorLog logs/apps.digitss.com-error.log
     CustomLog logs/apps.digitss.com-access.log common
</VirtualHost>
 

For above example, apps.digitss.com will point to either local or remote proxy server running on other port and will be transparent to users.

References:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_proxy.html

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_vhost_alias.html

Please comment and let me know if mod_proxy or mod_vhost_alias has done some other magic for you.!

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