Mapping mod_jk to application with different name from alias

Question

We have an internet app called X which is being replaced by a new app called Y.

We use Tomcat instances fronted by Apache to serve X and Y, with communications through mod_jk. There is one Tomcat hosting X and another hosting Y.

X and Y have been installed on our production servers - X is being used by our clients, while Y is going through final testing:

JkMount /x loadbalancer-x
JkMount /x/* loadbalancer-x
JkMount /y loadbalancer-y
JkMount /y/* loadbalancer-y

(let's ignore the security-through-obscurity aspect of this!)

When the time comes for Y to go into production, is there a way to map the old URL to the new application, so that www.mysite.com/x would point to the new application instead of the old one.

Answer 1

It would work if there was an application called x deployed on loadbalancer-y. That's the problem - the new app as a different name, but the bosses want the URL to stay the same. I'm trying to find a way to tell JKMount to request application Y when the URL X us requested.

This is the reason why the Context element exist.

1. Pointing /x URL prefix to the new worker loadbalancer-y:

   JkMount /x loadbalancer-y
   

2. Assuming that the new app's name is newname, create a Context in your <Host> element, something like this:

   <Host name="your.domain.name"  appBase="webapps"
               unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true"
               xmlValidation="false" xmlNamespaceAware="false">
       <Context path="/x" docBase="newname"/>
   </Host>
   

Answer 2

Just pointing JkMount /x loadbalancer-y wouldn't work?

Answer 3

Rather than globally JkMount'ing it, why not create a /x directory entry in httpd and just JkMount loadbalancer-y, then point loadbalancer-y at the actual application rather than the tomcat root.