How to setup a IBM HTTP Reverse proxy infront of couple other IBM HTTP Servers that have been configured to a WebSphere cluster

Question

I have couple of IBM HTTP Servers v8.5, IHS1 and IHS2 configured to two managed nodes on a WebSphere cluster that is running DefaultApplication.

I had setup SSL(on default port 443) on these two IHS1 and IHS2 servers and configured plug-in xml to access the applications like snoop. So now, I can access snoop application via the URLs

https://ihs1/snoop and https://ihs2/snoop

I now want to setup another IBM HTTP server on a another machine, that would have a single URL, say https://loadbalancer , sitting in front of the above two machines, to act as a loadbalancer and distribute the client's requests to the above two URLs. All my application clients must only be able to access the snoop app via https://loadbalancer/snoop

I have started in this direction, through a reverse proxy configuration on this loadbalancer, but no luck.

In httpd.conf, I have uncommented the three lines

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

and the VirtualHost block looks as below:


Listen 0.0.0.0:443
<VirtualHost loadbalancer:443>
SSLEnable
SSLProtocolDisable SSLv2 
SSLClientAuth 0 
ProxyPass / https://ihs1/
ProxyPass / https://ihs2/ 
ProxyPreserveHost on 
SSLProxyEngine on
</VirtualHost> 
KeyFile C:/IBM/HTTPServer/ihsserverkey.kdb 
SSLDisable

Any definitive httpd.conf configuration suggestions on the loadbalancer? or is this path completely different?

if you want to balance you need mod_proxy_balancer or however that's called in IHS. — Daniel Ferradal, Nov 27 '17 at 12:48

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 03 '17 at 12:32

This is not really an IBM topology. IHS 7.0 through 8.5.5 contains mod_proxy_balancer (in the WebSphereCE/ subdirectory) that would allow you to load-balance two backends this way with mod_proxy, but it would not be supported by IBM.

If both tiers are really necessary, use something in the very front that is either an IP sprayer (layer 3/4) or a standalone HTTP proxy server.

It is also possible to rig a plugin-cfg.xml statically to use IHS+WAS Plugin at the front tier, but it's not so straightforward.

How to setup a IBM HTTP Reverse proxy infront of couple other IBM HTTP Servers that have been configured to a WebSphere cluster

1 Answers1