ReverseProxy not working on OSX El Capitan

Question

I am attempting to access my plex web ui through a cleaner url. Currently, you can access it at http://marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org:32400/web/index.html. I want it to be at http://marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org/plex

Heres what I have,

marvin:~ Marvin$ httpd -v Server version:

 Apache/2.4.16 (Unix)
Server built:   Aug 22 2015 16:51:57
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:47
Server loaded:  APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Compiled using: APR 1.4.8, APR-UTIL 1.5.2
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     prefork
  threaded:     no
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/usr"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/bin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/private/var/run/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

In

/private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Listen 80

    # Listen for virtual host requests on all IP addresses
    <VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org
        ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/marvin-error_log"
        CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/marvin-access_log" common
        ServerAdmin admin@futurehax.org
        ProxyRequests Off

        <Proxy http://marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org/plex>

          Order deny,allow
          Allow from all

          ProxyPreserveHost off
          ProxyPass http://localhost:32400
          ProxyPassReverse http://localhost:32400

        </Proxy>
    </VirtualHost>

/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Uncommented

Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

and

LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/apache2/mod_vhost_alias.so

My expectation with this current setup is to be able to reach http://marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org/plex/web, instead I get a 404.

I am a mobile software engineer, but this is one of my first adventures into networking and its beating me down pretty hard.

Answer 1

A couple of things that you need to look at here:

1. Make sure that you are using the right config file. When I installed apache 2.4 on my El Capitan machine the main configs actually point to a different directory /usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/httpd.conf:

   $ httpd -V
   Server version: Apache/2.4.17 (Unix)
   Server built:   Nov 13 2015 19:31:42
   Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:51
   Server loaded:  APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
   Compiled using: APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
   Architecture:   64-bit
   Server MPM:     prefork
     threaded:     no
       forked:     yes (variable process count)
   Server compiled with....
    -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
    -D APR_HAS_MMAP
    -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
    -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
    -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
    -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
    -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
    -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
    -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
    -D HTTPD_ROOT="/usr/local/Cellar/httpd24/2.4.17"
    -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/local/Cellar/httpd24/2.4.17/bin/suexec"
    -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/usr/local/var/run/apache2/httpd.pid"
    -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
    -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
    -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/mime.types"
    -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/usr/local/etc/apache2/2.4/httpd.conf"
   

2. For reverse proxy you can simply use something like this:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html
     ProxyPreserveHost On
     ProxyPass /plex http://127.0.0.1:32400
     ProxyPassReverse /plex http://127.0.0.1:32400
   
   </VirtualHost>
   

Answer 2

So, you are actually trying to access Plex Media Server with a custom URL. As you can see, it is not just a website, but a media server. Anyway, here is a simplified configuration snippet that should work, from here:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org
<Proxy *>
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
</Proxy>

ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:32400/
ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:32400/

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/web
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Plex-Device} ^$
RewriteRule ^/$ /web/$1 [R,L]

Please make sure that all the necessary apache modules are installed and check your apache error log to troubleshoot.

There seems to be a better solution offered by Plex. All You need to do is to register here: https://plex.tv/users/sign_in. And you can configure at your domain registrants to point marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org to https://app.plex.tv/web/app.

Update: From further investigation it appears to me your vhost entry is ignored by apache. Also when you try to access http://marvin.boldlygoingnowhere.org, it lands on the apache document root. What you can do is try with an alternative servername like plex.yourdomain.com or set up your vhost in user directory and see what happens. The beginning part of the article here can help you out: http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/get-apache-mysql-php-and-phpmyadmin-working-on-osx-10-11-el-capitan/