# 403 (Forbidden) with Apache on Mongrel Cluster **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 3, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/403-forbidden-with-apache-on-mongrel-cluster/196476 "2007-10-03T15:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/knb)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/403-forbidden-with-apache-on-mongrel-cluster/196476/1 "2007-10-03T15:38:24Z")
Hi, I’ve configured a rails application on my VPS to run on two mongrels. When I run curl on localhost, the starting page comes up fine. That is, mongrel is serving the app perfectly. The problem arises when trying to access the app on my ip through apache. I get a 403 error. Just to test things out, I’ve set generous permissions on the entire rails directory structure still to no avail. I’ve also set up a non-rails virtual host, and everything works fine there. So I doubt that it’s a vhost problem. What could be the problem here? Any insights would be awesome; to me, it’s been a real gordian knot. Thanks, Kyle ---
**Author:** ![knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/knb)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/403-forbidden-with-apache-on-mongrel-cluster/196476/2 "2007-10-03T15:55:22Z")
knb wrote: > I’ve also set up a non-rails virtual host, and everything works fine > there. So I doubt that it’s a vhost problem. > > What could be the problem here? Any insights would be awesome; to me, > it’s been a real gordian knot. Hard to say without seeing your Apache config and Mongrel config/command line. – Michael W. ---
**Author:** ![knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/knb)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/403-forbidden-with-apache-on-mongrel-cluster/196476/3 "2007-10-03T17:05:46Z")
On 3 Oct 2007, at 15:09, knb wrote: > Thanks, Michael. > > Here’s the relevant config info. Well either your mail client has munged your config or it’s rather malformed. You’re not closing the VirtualHost ‘tags’, sections are duplicated, you’ve nested the balancer declarations inside the Virtual host stuff etc… In particular you declare your cluster as mongrel\_cluster, but in your rewrite rule you’ve put your\_app\_cluster Fred ---
**Author:** ![knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7ab992/32.png) [@knb](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/knb)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/403-forbidden-with-apache-on-mongrel-cluster/196476/4 "2007-10-03T16:10:06Z")
Thanks, Michael. Here’s the relevant config info. \ ServerName [lessonkit.com](http://lessonkit.com) DocumentRoot /home/kyle/public\_html/lessonkit.com/current/public \ Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all RewriteEngine On \ BalancerMember [http://127.0.0.1:5000](http://127.0.0.1:5000) BalancerMember [http://127.0.0.1:5001](http://127.0.0.1:5001) \ ServerName [lessonkit.com](http://lessonkit.com) DocumentRoot /home/kyle/public\_html/lessonkit.com/current/public \ Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all RewriteEngine On \ BalancerMember [http://127.0.0.1:5000](http://127.0.0.1:5000) BalancerMember [http://127.0.0.1:5001](http://127.0.0.1:5001) RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT\_ROOT}/maintenance.html -f RewriteCond %{SCRIPT\_FILENAME} !maintenance.html RewriteRule ^.\*$ /maintenance.html [L] RewriteRule ^/$ /index.html [QSA] # Rewrite to check for Rails cached pages with .html extentions RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA] # All dynamic requests get sent to the cluster RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT\_ROOT}/%{REQUEST\_FILENAME} !-f RewriteRule ^/(.\*)$ balancer://your\_app\_cluster%{REQUEST\_URI} [P,QSA,L] # Deflate for clients that support it. AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html # Error and access logs. ErrorLog logs/your\_app\_error\_log CustomLog logs/your\_access\_log combined Here’s my mongrel config: cwd: /home/kyle/public\_html/lessonkit.com/current log\_file: /home/kyle/public\_html/lessonkit.com/current/log/mongrel.log port: “5000” environment: production address: 127.0.0.1 pid\_file: /home/kyle/public\_html/lessonkit.com/current/tmp/pids/ mongrel.pid servers: 2